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During the California Gold Rush, lager beer was a scarce and costly luxury in northern mining camps, typically hauled in at great expense from distant coastal cities. Sensing opportunity in this thirsty frontier economy, German immigrant Jacob Ellsazer established Shasta’s first brewery in 1851, helping transform the rough mining town into a regional center for beer production. He was soon joined by fellow brewers Andrew Schuler, George W. Hoffman, and Louis Behrle, whose brewing operations supplied miners across northern California. In early Shasta County, their success underscored a broader reality: the most dependable fortunes were often made not in the mines themselves, but in the businesses that grew up around them, serving those who came to California prospecting for gold.
RESOURCES:
1850 U.S. Census
1852 California State Census
Fire - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, May 14, 1853
Blacksmithing (advertisement). - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, March 3, 1855
Tailoring (advertisement) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, August 25, 1855
Improvements In Shasta - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, October 6, 1855
Gilbert & Arnold (advertisement) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 24, 1855
Shasta Brewery - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, November 19, 1859
Washington Brewery Lager Beer - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, August 20, 1859
1860 U.S. Census
Dissolution - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 14, 1860
Express Saloon (advertisement, San Francisco) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, February 9, 1861
Brewery For Sale (advertisement) - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, September 21, 1861
Notice - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, October 4, 1862
Died - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, October 10, 1863
Died - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, September 16, 1865
Dissolution of Partnership - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, December 21, 1867
The San Francisco Breweries - The Daily Alta California newspaper of San Francisco, April 1, 1867
Died - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 6, 1867 (Hoffman residence near the Washington Brewery.)
Delinquent Taxes 1868-1869 -The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, January 30, 1869 (Hoffman)
1870 U.S. Census
Saloon - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, July 29, 1871
Returned - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, January 4, 1873
The Washington Brewery - The Shasta Courier newspaper of Shasta, April 27, 1878
1880 U.S. Census
Morning Union newspaper of Grass Valley, July 23, 1885
Morning Union newspaper of Grass Valley, October 20, 1885
The Shasta Brewery - The Morning Union newspaper of Grass Valley, December 15, 1886
Over the Coast - The San Jose Mercury newspaper of San Jose, December 25, 1886
The Red Bluff Daily News newspaper of Red Bluff, May 10, 1898
Shasta County, California Naturalization Records, 1850-1932, for Jacob Ellsazer
1900 U.S. Census
The Man Who Made Who Made the First Beer in Old Shasta - The Free Press newspaper of Redding, December 11, 1903
1910 U.S. Census
