Yoerg Brewing Company

Saint Paul has a rich and storied brewing history, and it all started with the opening of Minnesota’s first brewery in 1848; The Anthony Yoerg Brewing Company. Minnesota, and in particular Saint Paul, had one of the largest German populations in the country back then, and these immigrants brought with them the great art of brewing. The German technology was much more advanced than the British influences that were prevalent at the time, and Minnesota had all the required ingredients to brew great beer; terrific water sources and lots of farmland to grow barley and hops. 

Anthony Yoerg was born into a brewing family on October 5th, 1816 in the Bavarian village of Gundelfingen. At 19 years of age, he immigrated to the United States and first settled in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Soon after he relocated to Galena Illinois and finally moved to a new Minnesota settlement on the Mississippi River called Saint Paul. For a very short time Anthony ran a butcher shop in a German neighborhood on the West Side but he quickly decided to change careers and opened a small brewery in the German ‘Uppertown’ neighborhood not far from today’s seven corners.