the original brewery was founded in 1844 as the empire brewery, later best and company, by brewer jacob best. the brewery was run by jacob sr. and his sons phillip, charles, jacob jr., and lorenz. phillip took control of the company in 1860. they started the brewery on chestnut street hill in milwaukee with a capacity of . later, in 1863, frederick pabst, a steamship captain and son-in-law of phillip best, bought 50% of phillip best, and assumed the role of vice president. in 1866, best's other daughter, lisette, married emil schandein, to whom best sold the remaining half of the business. this move made frederick pabst president, and emil schandein vice-president. lisette schandein took over as vice-president of the company through 1894 after her husband's death.