Pittsburgh Brewing Company

Iron City Brewing Company

Pittsburgh Brewing Company headquarters in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh
Location	3340 Liberty Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Coordinates	40°27′43″N 79°57′55″W / 40.461822°N 79.965277°W / 40.461822; -79.965277Coordinates: 40°27′43″N 79°57′55″W / 40.461822°N 79.965277°W / 40.461822; -79.965277
Opened	1861
Annual production volume	1.2 million U.S. barrels (2004)
Active beers
Name Type American Macro lager American Light Light lager American N.A. Low alcohol beer Augustiner Dark Munich dunkel lager Augustiner Lager Vienna lager Drummond Bros. Macro lager Eagle Malt Malt liquor Falls City Macro lager Gerst Munich dunkel lager I.C. Golden Lager Premium lager I.C. Light Light lager Iron City Beer Macro lager J.J. Wainwright's Evil Eye Honey Brown Brown ale J.J. Wainwright's First Brewing Light Lager Beer Light lager J.J. Wainwrights Select Lager Macro lager Light Brigade Light lager Night Flight Malt liquor Old German Lager Olde Frothingslosh Pale ale Penn's Best Light Light lager Penn's Best N.A. Low alcohol beer Prime Time Macro lager Sterling Macro lager Totally Dirt Cheap Beer Macro lager Totally Dirt Cheap Light Beer Light lager Wiedemann Macro lager Pittsburgh Historic Designation Type Structure Designated April 16, 2010 Pittsburgh Landmark — PHLF Designated 1979

The Iron City Brewing Company (also known as the Pittsburgh Brewing Company) is a beer company that until August 2009 had been located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. On June 11, 2009, it was reported that the brewery was "moving" to Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That move was recently completed and Iron City is now produced in the Latrobe Brewery that was once used to produce Rolling Rock.

In 1861, a young German immigrant, Edward Frauenheim, started the Iron City Brewery, one of the first American breweries to produce a lager, in the bustling river port known at the time as the "Smoky City." This founder of Frauenheim, Miller & Company started brewing Iron City Beer, now the flagship of the Iron City Brewing Company (PBC), in a city thriving on heavy industry and commerce.

By 1866, the brewery had begun to grow. The business outgrew its original facilities on 17th Street and moved into a four-story brick building that the company built at Liberty Avenue and 34th Street, then worth an estimated $250,000. Just three years later, Iron City Brewery erected an additional three-story building at the site.

The two buildings, carrying an average stock of about 10,000 barrels, used state-of-the-art brewing equipment. At the time, 25 of the operation's 30 skilled workmen were employed full-time, and Iron City Brewery continued to expand its markets to become the largest brewery in Pittsburgh.

After the 1866 expansion, Leopold Vilsack, a Pittsburgh native who learned the brewer’s trade at Pittsburgh’s old Bennett Brewery, joined Frauenheim, Miller & Company. The young man later became a partner, investing his small wealth in the firm when Miller retired and another partner died. Iron City Brewery then became Frauenheim and Vilsack Company.

Frauenheim and Vilsack’s fame spread throughout the brewing industry across the country, as the company had built one of the most complete and extensive breweries in the United States. With a brewing capacity of about 50,000 barrels a year, the Iron City Brewery was an impressive operation, able to compete favorably in sales with any brewery west of the Atlantic Coast area. Historians and newspapers were amazed that a brewery could be so big. The total value of Iron City, from stock to raw materials, was about $150,000 – an unheard of sum for a brewery.