Frederick Pabst

Frederick Pabst (March 28, 1836 - 1904) was an American brewer, born at Nicholausreith, in Saxony, Germany. In 1848 he emigrated with his parents to Chicago. There he became, first a hotel waiter, then a cabin-boy on a Lake Michigan steamer, and eventually captain of one of these vessels. In this last capacity he met a German, Philip Best, the owner of a small but prosperous brewery founded in 1844 at Milwaukee, and married his daughter.

In 1862 Pabst was taken into partnership in his father-in-law's brewery, and began to study the details of the business. After obtaining a thorough mastery of the art of brewing, Pabst turned his attention to extending the market for the beer, and before long had raised the output of the Best brewery to 100,000 barrels a year. The brewery was eventually converted into a public company, and its capital repeatedly increased in order to cope with the continually increasing trade.

On March 18, 1889 the company name was changed to Pabst. Its renowned "Blue Ribbon" label was introduced in the 1890s. The name resulted from the brewery's practice of tieing a blue ribbon around the neck of its premium brew.

The Captain Frederick Pabst Mansion is a well-known Milwaukee tourist attraction.

Reference

• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopaedia Britannica. Please update as needed.