Duquesne Brewing of Pittsburgh

The 1800s brought booming industrial growth to Western Pennsylvania. With industry came jobs. With jobs came immigrants. And with hardworking immigrants came the need for beer. Ethnic neighborhoods were developing all around Pittsburgh with unique tastes and customs shaping the local economy. This was none more apparent than in the breweries of Pittsburgh’s South Side neighborhood. In the last half of the 19th century, there were over nine breweries operating in the South Side. And an up and coming brewing company was about to change the Pittsburgh brewing landscape forever. In early 1899, a handful of Pittsburgh’s major brewers merged with many smaller Western Pennsylvania breweries to form a “Brewery Trust” called the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The Trust quickly became the largest brewing company in Pennsylvania and the third largest nationwide. At the same time, a group of six South Side businessmen from various backgrounds recognized that Western Pennsylvania needed a larger, more modern brewing company. They believed that multiple brewing facilities under a single ownership would be the way to compete with Pittsburgh Brewing Company. So in this spirit, the Duquesne Brewing Company was incorporated in April 1899, led by company president Henry Miller, a former furniture salesman.