title: Metropolitan Lager Bier Brewery
text: # Metropolitan Lager Bier Brewery
  
  Metropolitan Lager Bier Brewery and Washington City Garden, opened by Ernst Loeffler in 1860, was a popular Washington, D.C. gathering place for Union Soldiers during the Civil War.
  
  ## Founder
  
  Ernst Loeffler, a German immigrant to the United States, established Metropolitan Lager Bier Brewery and Washington City Garden in 1860. Loeffler brewed German-style lager that he both sold to local bars and served to patrons of Washington City Garden, a beer garden adjacent to the brewery. Thousands of Union patronized Loeffler's Washington City Garden during the Civil War.
  
  Washington City Garden was an early example of a German-style beer garden in Washington, D.C.
  
  