Re: Rainier better than Busch?

Just about, only a handful survive (and we used to think in the 70's that only a handful was left...). Yuengling, for instance, is now the fifth largest brewer in the US- sure, they've grow a lot but it's mostly due to everyone else going under. The real sad fact is that Pabst has NO breweries and Miller (and, in some cases, a few regionals) brew all their beers.

Certainly as beer brands went from closed brewery to brewery, in many cases "lesser" brands got dropped along the way. Rheingold brewed and marketed Knickerbocker (supposedly their biggest market was actually New England) in the 60's and 70's and most of the Rheingold brands were sold to Schmidt's of Phila. (altho' Ortlieb picked up a few, as well, like McSorley's). I seem to remember Schmidt's making Knickerbocker for awhile but don't think I've seen it once it went to Heileman and then Stroh. On occasion, some of these brands get sold to other local breweries (Rheingold is back in the hands of an indie who has Matts and a brooklyn micro brew it, for example) but some just get lost.

Well, Brooklyn was the big brewing borough (better water), tho' Ruppert's brewery was on Manhattan island, IIRC. Don't recall ANY Bronx brewers...

Rheingold I've been told had a brewery in the Bronz on Fulton Ave in the E150's (I'm thinking like between 153 St and 157...took up a few blocks). Maybe Boston Road? Third Ave? Somewhere in that vicinity. Been years since I've passed it (9+) and at the time had been abandond for many years prior.

Yeah, Rheingold in it's heyday had a number of breweries (even 2 in California, having bought Acme, which they renamed California Brewing Co. in SF but continued to brew Acme beer and ale).

In 1947, they bought the Eichler Brewing Co. at 3582 Third Ave. in the Bronx and ran that brewery until 1961.

Their main brewery was the one in Brooklyn on Forrest St (off Bushwick), which brewed from 1855 to 1976, so they will always be thought as a "Brooklyn Brewery" (even tho' their Orange, NJ brewery- bought from Trommers in 1950 survived a few years after the closing of Brooklyn).

Many brewery history books make separate note of Brooklyn breweries (which once had 43 brewers) but usually just lump the others together as "New York City" breweries.