Pearl Brewing Company
The site owned and operated by the Pearl Brewing Company was originally known as both the J. B. Behloradsky Brewery (1881–1883) and the City Brewery. Privately held and poorly run for two years, the City Brewery was purchased by an investment group in 1883. The investment group was composed of local businessmen and several moguls already involved in brewing at San Antonio's other major brewery, the Lone Star Brewing Company. Together they formed the San Antonio Brewing Company (1883–1888), and began to raise capital to fully restart and improve operations at the brewery. In 1886, after three years, the company had secured the necessary capital and began full-time operations at the brewery again. The name San Antonio Brewing Association was used as a parent to the brewing company, since it also managed some of the founding members' other business interests. Functionally, the business structure worked, but it caused confusion with city officials, customers, and business partners; therefore, in the end, the investment group dissolved the San Antonio Brewing Company and used the San Antonio Brewing Association (1888–1918) name for all operations and business transactions. Thus, in seven years, the same brewery had three different names. In addition, the name City Brewery was frequently used. The first logos used for the San Antonio Brewing Company/Association even featured the name City Brewery in the logo. City Brewery was carried over from the Behloradsky days and was used until the beginning of Prohibition in 1918.
Pearl Brewing Company
Today, the Pabst Brewing Company is a marketing company; Pabst no longer owns or operates any of their former breweries. Pabst contracts out the brewing of all of their beers to other brewers. By far, Pabst's largest agreement is with Miller Brewing Company, which produces Pabst's major brands, as well as Pearl and Lone Star. Although Pabst's more popular beers such as Colt 45, Stroh's, and Pabst Blue Ribbon are produced at virtually every Miller facility, Pearl is only brewed at the Ft. Worth location.
Pearl, Pearl Light, and Country Club are still available to this day, but only in small volumes and in select markets such as Texas and Oklahoma. Today's distribution is greatly reduced from the 47-state coverage Pearl's beers once enjoyed. In addition, the variety in which Pearl's beers were available has also decreased. Although previously produced and sold in every form, such as bottles, cans, and kegs, the current iteration of Pearl is only available in 12-packs of 12-oz. cans. Likewise Country Club has been reduced to only 40-oz. bottles. Many who have tasted Pearl before and after the Pabst merger claim the formula has changed; customers say today's Pearl tastes like a weaker version of Budweiser. Officially, though, Pabst claims the formula used for today's Pearl is the same that was originally bought by the San Antonio Brewing Association back in 1886.