The interior of Columbia Breweries is shown after the completion of a program of expansion begun in 1948. During the processing of beer, barley malt and hops are first boiled in copper brew kettles and then the wort is strained and cooled. It is then fermented with yeasts. After fermentation, most of the yeast is removed and the beer would be decanted into storage tanks where it would be aged up to several months. Shown here is one of the finishing filters through which every drop of the brewery's products passed. Specially devised filter pads were changed at regular intervals. Ordered by Columbia Breweries. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-6)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries included an additional 39,000 square foot unit to warehouse case goods and a new shipping and receiving depot in their expansion program begun in 1948. The facilities provided for thousands of cartons of Alt Heidelberg to be stored on pallets and moved by forklifts until needed to fill orders throughout the Pacific Northwest. The shipping depot extended for practically two blocks along Jefferson Street. Packaged beer was conveyed from the bottle shop to the shipping depot through an elevated bridge which crossed the railroad yards. Ordered by Columbia Breweries. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-7)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries had come a long way from the early steam plant powered by wood as seen in this newly refurbished control room. There are plenty of tubes, pipes, tanks, guages and dials to provide more stringent levels of control than ever before. The pumps seen in the middle of the room were manufactured by the Wittemann Company in Buffalo, New York. A large "W" can be seen as added to the tops of two of the tanks towards the left. Ordered by Columbia Breweries.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Control rooms--Tacoma;

A sparkling glass of Alt Heidelberg has been set within a frame with the beer's logo of the Student Prince. Heidelberg was Columbia Breweries' lager-style beer. A studio set-up for Columbia Breweries ordered by Marshall Riconosciuto, advertising manager.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Beer--Tacoma; Advertising--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries had two enormous brewing kettles each with a capacity of 330 barrels each and of nearly 2,000 barrels in 24 hours. An average of six brews were made each day. Water was obtained from two artesian wells located on the brewery's property and approximately 50 tons of grain were used each day. Ordered by Columbia Breweries.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Kettles;

Preliminary filtering operations at Columbia Breweries. Columbia's two fine beverages were pumped through this filtration process as their first step in assuring clarity. The beer would pass through one more battery of filters before bottling. Glass inserts can be seen in the left forefront to show the progress of filtering the beer and ale from the secondary fermentation tanks. Ordered by Columbia Breweries. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-6)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries was proud of their new storage cellars where thousands of barrels of Alt Heidelberg Beer and Columbia Ale were constantly in the process of being perfected. Floor upon floor, cellar after cellar, there were rows of giant tanks holding up to 800 barrels each. Ordered by Columbia Breweries. (TNT, 1/7/1952)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Assembly-line methods were also provided in the shipping areas of the recently expanded plant at Columbia Breweries. Cartons filled with cans of Alt Heidelberg travel along moving belts to be sealed and prepared for shipment. Ordered by Columbia Breweries.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Sophisticated pumps and filters have been added during the remodeling and rebuilding of the plant at Columbia Breweries begun in 1948. A workman stands by the controls. Ordered by Columbia Breweries.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Not all operations had been automated at the newly expanded Columbia Breweries plant on May 31, 1951. Empty Alt Heidelberg bottles were being pulled from cartons in the left foreground to add them to the automated processes. Lines of cartons moved along conveyor belts from one level to another looking like freeway entrance ramps while workmen made sure nothing caused the line to be stopped. Every working day in 1952, 20,000 cases, or nearly 500,000 bottles, entered through one entrance to the bottling department and left by another. Ordered by Columbia Breweries. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-8)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Assembly-line methods--Tacoma--1950-1960; Bottles;

An interior view of Columbia Breweries, Inc., showing the brewing equipment. The new brew house provided for two gleaming copper kettles in a tile setting. Here batches, or brews, of hundreds of barrels each were brought to a vigorous boil several times a day under the eye of the brewmaster, Anders W. Erikson, and his assistants. (TNT, 1/7/1952)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries, Inc., bottling department, showing up-to-date, automatic bottling equipment. Four fillers could fill an average of 265 bottles per minute each. A line of cans winds from near the ceiling to the filling machine on the left. Two men can be seen behind the two filling machines on the right that are filling stubby glass bottles. (TNT, 1/7/1952)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Assembly-line methods--Tacoma--1950-1960; Bottles;

A tall glass of Columbia Pale Ale stands next to a bottle with their attractive label for the ale. A drawing of the Statue of Liberty, barley and the words "True Top Fermentation" decorate the label. Columbia Breweries followed the traditional brewing method for ale using a top-fermenting yeast that was faster acting and fermented at a higher temperature than lager.

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Beer--Tacoma;

A group of 23 salemen from Columbia Breweries for Washington, Oregon, California and Alaska pose in front of the company facilities in Tacoma during a recent sales meeting. Robert S. Jamieson, seated fourth from the left, was sales manager of the company. Names are listed in the newspaper. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-10)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Sales personnel--Tacoma; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

A large group of drivers was given a tour of the Columbia Breweries on July 28, 1951. Over thirty drivers from Everett participated in the tour of the plant which had undergone massive expansion and modernization. They are posed on the sidewalk before the main entrance to the plant. Columbia Breweries manufactured Alt Heidelberg and Columbia Ale, two very popular beverages.

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Business enterprises--Tacoma; Industrial facilities--Tacoma; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Group portraits--1950-1960;

Chemist lab at Columbia Breweries. Two employees of Columbia Breweries shown at work in the chemist's laboratory in an October, 1951, photograph. According to a large ad placed in the News Tribune on November 13th, the four staff chemists carefully monitored every step in the brewing process from the selection of choice ingredients to the total sterilization of final kegs. All brews were scientifically checked and technically controlled in the company's modern and well-equipped laboratory. Columbia Breweries were well known for their production of Columbia Ale and Heidelberg beer. (TNT, 11-13-51, p. 11)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Chemistry--Tacoma; Laboratories--Tacoma--1950-1960;

In 1948 Columbia Breweries appointed four new officers and announced that they would be going through an extensive expansion program. The expansion project will include a 20,000 square feet two story building which will house a new bottle shop, and a can beer line. View of man working with metal tank attached to numerous controls, perhaps the control board or fermenting tank area of the plant.

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Laborers--Tacoma; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960;

Kegging operations at Columbia Breweries. A Columbia Breweries employee, mallet in hand, stands behind a large black manifold which is part of the kegging process in this October, 1951, photograph. Tanks such as the above would serve as buffers between the flow of beer from filters and to the kegs. Columbia Breweries was well known for their Heidelberg brand of beer and Columbia Ale. (Additional information provided by a reader)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Industrial facilities--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Columbia Breweries began operation in Tacoma in 1900. By 1951 Alt Heidelberg beer and Columbia Ale, produced by Columbia Breweries, were being sold in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Northern California and were two of the fastest selling brews on the market. Chief Chemist Edward Ehmke, head of the breweries technical staff, helped maintain quality as the company expanded production to meet increased demand. By 1954 they were producing 750,000 barrels of beer a year. The Columbia plant was sold to Carling Brewing Co. in 1959. It closed in 1979. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-4)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Chemistry--Tacoma; Scientists--Tacoma; Laboratories--Tacoma; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Ehmke, Edward; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

Room full of large rectangular tanks- fermenting room.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

Two large silos with man standing on lower left side looking up the grain storage. Columbia Breweries stored the world's finest grains in these 3-story-high silos. The grain was siphoned from rail cars to the silos and from silo to hoppers pneumatically. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-5)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Silos--Tacoma;

The interior of the Fermenting Cellar at Columbia Breweries shows rows of open tanks. The air in this cellar was sterilized and refrigerated and the room was not open to tours but could only be viewed through glass from a specially-provided gallery. The exterior of the vats and the floor are covered with tile for ease of cleaning. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-6)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Several people checking bottles in the bottle shop.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1940-1950;

The bottle shop at Columbia Breweries included an inspection section. Five employees are seated by lighted screens where each individual bottle was inspected as it passed through scientifically-lighted and image-magnifying inspection stations on their way to the labeling machine and to a packing machine for cartoning. (TNT, 10/13/1951, p.24)

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1940-1950; Bottles;

Columbia Breweries employees. A large group of Columbia Breweries drivers were photographed near their delivery trucks on October 26, 1951. The drivers are dressed in dark uniforms with white shirts and ties. Three trucks have Alt Heidelberg beer logos on them. L-R, Andy Anderson, James Carbone, Wandrow Johnson, Kenneth Call, Jack Manley, Arthur Sohn, Leslie Bussard, Ted Harris, Thomas Wallace, George Bratton, Jack Harris and Joseph Gaidos. Andy Anderson, left, was the sales supervisor in charge. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-8)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

Group portrait of Columbia Breweries' accounting and office staff in 1951. Columbia Breweries was a well established business by the early 1950's; their Tacoma staff alone would have totaled over 350 workers. Names are listed in the newspaper. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-9)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Group portraits--1950-1960; Clothing & dress--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

Columbia Brewing Company. Delivery trucks with drivers in foreground.

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Trucks--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

Columbia Brewing Company, interior of dining room, as pictured on October 29, 1951. Long utilitarian tables, folding metal chairs and checkered linoleum floor. Two vases of flowers help to brighten the room.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Dining rooms--Tacoma--1950-1960;

Group portrait 32 Columbia Breweries employees from the brewhouse, cellars and wash house posed for their photograph on October 30, 1951. Columbia Breweries had undergone massive expansion in the late 1940's; it would enable them to increase production of their Columbia Ale and Alt Heidelberg brands. Names are listed in the newspaper. (TNT, 1/8/1952, p.B-9)

Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Group portraits--1950-1960; Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--People;

Columbia Brewery building. View of brewery over industrial complex and telephone poles. Automobiles parked on railroad service tracks. Photograph taken in November of 1951.

Columbia Breweries, Inc. (Tacoma)--1950-1960; Brewing industry--Tacoma--1950-1960;