Pic(k) of the Week: Sam Adams fenced-in

In 1986, Cincinnati brewer Schoenling purchased the brands of fellow, larger, city brewer Hudepohl. It closed the plant the following year and moved all operations to its Schoenling plant. The consolidation wasn't enough to save the renamed Hudepohl-Schoenling. Competition from national breweries and aging facilities would prove to be intractable problems.

In 1997, the Boston Beer Company —owner of the Samuel Adams beers and malt-based beverages such as Mike's Hard Lemonade Twisted Tea— purchased the Schoenling brewery.

Boston Beer had never produced much of its own beers since its beginnings in 1984/5.  Spending most of its income on marketing, it relied upon others —such as Pittsburgh Brewing Company and, later, Miller— to produce its beers. The 1997 purchase signaled a change. Today, the former Schoenling brewery produces over a third of Boston Beer's beers and other malt beverages.

Now, in 2010, Boston Beer —selling around 2 million barrels of beer and malt beverages per year— is the largest wholly American-owned brewery extant. Anheuser-Busch, Miller, and Coors are foreign-owned. Stroh's, Pabst, etc. no longer exist; their beers are brand names only, brewed by others.

In the photograph, the high iron fence at the Sam Adams plant in Cincinnati seems unwelcoming. As of last check, indeed no organized public tours of the brewery were allowed.

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• Schoenling was the brewer of Little Kings Cream Ale, a fond 'poundable' memory to beer drinkers of a 'certain age' in the mid-west and mid-Atlantic. I haven't seen any Little Kings Cream Ale in the Washington D.C. area since the dissolution of the Snyder Group/Frederick Brewing Company. Reviews on BeerAdvocate and a story at Wikipedia confirm that it is still being brewed, but under contract, and not in Cincinnati.
• Pic(k) of the Week: one in a weekly series of personal photos, often posted on Saturdays.