The successor on the same ground: Drewry's, 1936–1972, and the brand that would not come home

1 October 1936 – November 1972 · SOUTH BEND (BOUNDARY)

The successor tenure is dated at both ends, as the row requires. Drewry's Limited of Winnipeg — Canada's brewing company founded by E. L. Drewry in 1877 — entering the United States after repeal, purchased the Muessel Brewing Company of South Bend on 1 October 1936 (the Evansville Sterling purchase was its companion move the same year); a separate American Drewry's company was established, equipment was upgraded, and production of Muessel beer ceased entirely — the flagship family's brand ended by the successor's hand, on a date. Drewry's ran the Elwood Avenue plant as its largest operation, merged with Associated Brewing in 1963, and was sold to G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, in June/August 1972 (both months print, as the sources give them); Heileman phased the plant out, the last cases of beer left the South Bend plant in November 1972, and about 350 workers were displaced on the fuller account. Tenure: 1936–1972, thirty-six years, succeeding eighty-four family years on the same ground.

The brand that would not come home, printed as a finding: Drewry's-labeled beer was last produced in 1997 (at Evansville, closed that year); the brand passed to Pittsburgh Brewing, which never manufactured it, and in 2011 Chicago entrepreneur Francis Manzo purchased Drewrys, announcing South Bend — the site of Drewry's largest operation — as the launch city for a rebranded beer, with production slated for 2013. No record reached shows that relaunch production occurring in South Bend. The finding stands as printed: the brand was bought for a homecoming that the record does not show happening. Osceola ground has no successor tenure of its own; there was never a first tenure to succeed.

Sources: Erskine / Drewrys company history; Drewrys Brewing Company record (1936 Muessel purchase; 1963 Associated merger; 1972 Heileman sale; Nov. 1972 last cases; 1997 last production; 2011 Manzo purchase and announced South Bend relaunch).