By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
The John L. Schwartz Brewery was one of 29 breweries operating in Buffalo when Prohibition shut off the tap on Western New York’s taste for beer. The brewery stood on a no longer existing portion of Bennett Street between William and Clinton on the East Side.
A one-time president of the state brewers association, Schwartz was born in Buffalo near the corner of Washington and Chippewa in 1859 to German immigrant parents. He was a member of the first graduating class of Canisius College in 1870.
1911 ad.
Starting in 1893, he was a partner in the Star Brewery, which stood at Spring and Cherry Streets, having bought out the old Queen City Brewing Company. He bought out his partners and merged with the Clinton Cooperative Brewery, renaming the new beer works the John L. Schwartz Brewery in 1902.
Schwartz brewed beer, ale and porter. The most heavily marketed of Schwartz’ products was Alma Beer.
“Schwartz Alma Beer,” read a 1918 ad, “is the standard by which other beers are judged. Nothing goes into it but the purest ingredients. Nobody has a hand in making it but the men who have been making beer for years. If care and knowledge and the best barley and hops can produce a good beer then you need to taste Alma beer, for ‘the proof of the pudding in there.’ Unlike other beers, Alma beer is matured and given that finished flavor that convinces the man ‘who knows’ that there is no other beer just like it. It is popular because it is good.”
Schwartz lived at a home at 12 N. Pearl St. until his death in 1929. His son Karl lived in the home until 1960, when it was torn down to make way for a parking lot.
