The Swan Brewery Company (1869-1881)
and predecessor
Cincinnati Brewery Co. (1858-1868)
and spin-off
Wilmot Brewing Co. (1876-1879)

San Francisco's Swan Brewery Co. was established in early 1869 when Decker & Wilmot purchased the contents of the bankrupt Cincinnati Brewery at a January 1869 Sheriff's Sale, along with a lease to occupy the Valencia St. location.

CINCINNATI BREWERY

The Cincinnati Brewery was established in 1858 by Adam Meyer as a Lager Beer (steam beer) brewery at 153 Third St. near Howard. It wasn't a large brewery; it produced only 800 barrels of beer in 1860. In 1862, Meyer moved his brewery 1.5 miles West to 527 Valencia St. in the Mission Dolores district. By 1864, Meyer had erected an addition to the brewery at 529 Valencia for a saloon, ballroom & boarding house. When the brewery was sold to Bennet & Co. in 1868, it wasn't included in the sale and became the Cincinnati House. Bennett & Co. folded by year's end and was forced to sell the assets in early 1869.

SWAN BREWERY

By March of 1871, Charles Wilmot had worked with two different partners and, with the third, Frederick Elliott, they sold the stock and fixtures at Valencia St. and moved their operation two blocks West to the SE corner of Dolores & 15th Streets.

Charles Wilmot was the partner with a brewing background, responsible for producing Swan's Pale Ale, XXX Ale, Porter, and Brown Stout.

The Swan bottles came in various shades of green, from chartrues to forest green, and shades of "root beer", but all were embossed the same; XXX Ale.

After the Swan Brewery received the First Premium award at the 1871 Mechanics Fair, the San Francisco Chronicle reported: "Mr. Wilmot's Pale and XXX Ale were judged to be equal to any ever imported....Mr. Wilmot is a practical brewer, having had 20 years' experience in England in the very breweries where they manufacture our much relished ales. He himself says that he has never made better ale in the old county than he is now brewing."

The brewery's ales were sold in kegs, and bottled in pints and quarts, but only the XXX Ale was bottled in an embossed pint. The black-glass, three-part mold, quart bottle shown here had been unearthed (by Richard Clelland), so only a partial label remained. However, it still revealed that the Swan Brewery "exclusively bottled" ale for Meyer's Cincinnati House. This contract no doubt began when Wilmot went online in early 1869 and ended with Meyer's death in mid-1873.

The Swan Brewery Co. declared in November of 1874 that it had entered into a co-partnership with John S. Bugbee, joining partners Elliott & Wilmot. Nine months later, in August 1875, the company incorporated, with four more individuals joining the firm. It was now capitalized at $100,000. With seven directors, Wilmot now found himself in a minority position in the company he had established. Perhaps he was voted down on an issue he felt strongly about; nevertheless, nine months later, he'd had enough and left the company. It wasn't bad enough to have lost their brewmaster, but the Swan Brewery then gained a competitor that could outmatch its products. It's not clear how much Wilmot may have affected Swan's bottom line, but by 1880, it was struggling. In October 1881, creditors instituted a petition of insolvency on Swan, and it was closed.

WILMOT BREWING COMPANY

The Wilmot Brewing Co. was incorporated in July 1876, with Charles Wilmot¹ in a majority position. He then began producing the same ale line-up that he had made for the Swan Brewery. Prior to establishing Swan, he'd taken a brewmaster position with a start-up ale brewery² and opened a number of breweries³ in the north-central part of the state.
In a 31 May 1860 newspaper item, The Daily Alta reported: "In a recent conversation with Mr. Charles Willmot, of the Burton Ale Brewery, at North Beach, we were pleased to have the evidence of one like him who is a bona fide English brewer."

Unlike Swan's bottles, the style of ale was not embossed on the front. They were also taller, with a shallower shoulder, and were only in shades of aqua.

With Steam beer a San Francisco favorite, and more real lager becoming available, Wilmot closed his ale brewery in 1879. He then signed on with the S.F. Stock Brewery in a managerial position and stayed with them for over ten years.

Footnotes

 ¹ The correct spelling of Charles' surname is Willmott. However, he chose Wilmot for his professional activities due to the common misspellings of his name: Willmot, Wilmott, and Wilmot.

² Henry Wheeler's Burton Ale Brewery (est. 1859) was located at the SE corner of Lombard and Taylor Streets. In early 1861 it was purchased by Martin Mangels & Co. and called the Washington Brewery. Then in 1877, Claus Wreden became the new owner of the Washington Brewery. This is why the Wreden Brewing Co. claimed it was established in 1859.

³ In the early 1860s Willmott was aware of the riches still being found in Gold Country, and left SF. While he found some success in a mining claim ("Fairplay Gold & Silver") in Calaveras County, he found more success providing the gold-hued product that miners also prized - beer. He went on to establish the San Andres Brewery in Calaveras County, the Race Track Brewery in San Joaquin County, and the Eagle Brewery in Tuolumne County.

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