Cincinnati Breweries / Remaining Brewery Structures

The Brewery District contains most of Cincinnati's remaining breweries and related structures, including icehouses, bottling buildings, offices, and stables. After the first brewery north of Liberty Street was founded in 1829, German immigrants drove the growth of the brewing industry, and by 1891 Cincinnati breweries produced more than four barrels of beer per resident each year, nearly twice the amount of any other city in the nation. The brick breweries were usually built in the Romanesque Revival style, and larger complexes often spread across multiple city blocks. To make the lager beer that had become common by 1860, brewers typically dug very deep basements or cut tunnels into hillsides for the lagering process. At the peak of production, 18 of the 36 breweries in greater Cincinnati operated in Over-the-Rhine and the West End. Prohibition in 1919 permanently closed most of the breweries.

Cincinnati, Ohio · United States