Syracuse breweries

Between 1860 and 1930, Syracuse was the brewing capital of upstate New York. It's breweries could be found in the center of the city along the Erie Canal, near railroads, and on the city's Northside. Below are two current brewery locations as they exist today (November 2011). You can be certain that both of these buildings will not be around too much longer.

Onondaga Brewery / Ryan's Consumer's Brewery Co: 501-511 Butternut St
Established in 1865.
Brewery operations shut down in 1920 due to Prohibition, resumed later in 1933.
Renamed Haberle Congress Brewing Co in 1933, closed in 1962.
At one time the brewery employed 70 men and 30 horses.
Beer included: Haberle Ale, Black River Ale, Steinbrau Beer, National Ale, and Derby Porter, among others.
Jan Primus Gambrinus, a mythical Flemish king, was an 11-foot tall cast zinc sculpture fixated at the brewery's 4th story.
Gambrinus can now be found at the Onondaga Historical Museum on Montgomery St.

















George Zett Brewing Co: 2314 Lodi St
Began in 1858 by Francis Xavier Zett with only a few hundred dollars in capital.
Additions in 1888 were done by his son, George Zett after Francis passed away in 1881.
A part of the malt that was used was made on premise.
Prohibition in 1920 forced Zett to sell soft drinks.
Brewery operations resumed in 1933 and ceased in 1937.
Fire destroyed the main building in 1943.

















Here's a list of a few others. There's more than this in Syracuse's history, but these are a few to note if you're actually driving by and are curious...

Greenway Brewery: demolished, current site of the Hawley Ave rowhouses.
National Brewing Co: 921-925 N State St (demolished in 2010, now an abandoned lot)
Moore & Quinn: 102-110 S Crouse Ave (closed in 1950)
Crystal Spring Brewing Co: 1001 Burnet Ave - northeast corner of Vine St and Burnet Ave (abandoned lot)
Kearny Brewery: northwest corner of Park St and N Salina St (abandoned lot)
Rock Spring Brewing Co: corner of Grand Ave and Avery Ave (site unknown)

Lastly, and the two that I'm most confused over, is the main Greenway Brewery site and the Bartels Brewing Co site. Niagara Mohawk now occupies the site at which the Greenway Brewery stood and I believe Bartels was located very close to this along W Water St (now the site of a parking garage). But while walking around the area recently I found this building further west down Water St...



I think that's a section of one of the two breweries, unless I'm way off. West of that was a building that had "Amos" at the top of it (different from the Amos building near Clinton Square). This was built in 1885, which I believe was the Amos mill of the Standard Milling Co, unless I'm mistaken.





It's a beautiful building. Regardless of what either of these two structures were, they both look like they're in excellent shape. The buildings at Butternut and at Lodi? Not so much.

Let me know of any errors in the comments section.