Long before the emergence of the microbrewery craze of the 1980s, Sacramento was recognized as a brewery city. And the most famous of the city’s early breweries was the Buffalo Brewing Co.

Established on Nov. 1, 1888 and marketing its first beer on May 10, 1890, Buffalo Brewery, as it was often referred to, joined an already strong Sacramento brewery tradition.

A decade prior to Buffalo Brewery’s founding by German immigrant Herman H. Grau, Sacramento was already home to eight breweries.

It was not until the arrival of Buffalo Brewery that Sacramento gained the notoriety of being home to the largest brewery west of the Mississippi.

Buffalo Brewery was constructed at 1717 21st St. on the 320-foot by 320-foot city block bounded by 21st, 22nd, Q and R streets at a total cost of $400,000, including machinery and equipment.

Otto C. Wolf of Philadelphia created architectural plans and designs for the brewery and A. McElroy of San Francisco was named as general contractor.

Although various work was performed by non-Sacramento area businesses, whenever possible, the brewery leaders hired the services and materials of local businesses.

Construction on the brewery, which began in early 1889 under the supervision of building committee members Grau, Louis Nicholas and Frank Ruhstaller, was completed the following year.

According to an 1890 Sacramento County historical record, the facility’s 5-story main structure measured 40-feet by 40-feet. Attached to this building was a 100-foot by 50-foot, 4-story icehouse or ice plant, a 40-foot by 60-foot boiler house and other features such as a washhouse, condensing room and coal sheds.

One of the main features of the brewery was its 45-foot by 100-foot malt-house, which was designed to accommodate 70,000 to 80,000 bushels of malt.

The brewery was initially designed to handle 60,000 barrels, with sufficient space to expand its production at a minimal cost.

A 25-foot by 40-foot packing room was located in the back portion of the icehouse. It was there that the shipping process was once accommodated through the arrival of railroad cars and wagons.

Another important feature of the brewery was the artificial ice plant operation, which produced 30 to 40 tons of ice per day. Located just south of the packing room, the plant manufactured ice through condensed steam, to assure the production of deodorized and filtered water, which was placed in ice cans and frozen for the purpose of creating the utmost, high-level of purity.

The brewery also consisted of the 40-foot by 60-foot bottling works building and the 30-foot by 40-foot stables, which were located along 21st Street.

To accommodate the financial matters of the brewery, business offices were located on the first floor of a 2-story, 32-foot by 32-foot building. The company’s directors and stockholders met on the building’s upper floor.

Grau, as well as the original officers of the brewery, Adolph Heilbron, president; I. R. Watson, vice-president; Fred Cox, treasurer; and William E. Gerber, secretary, was among the first people to meet in this building.

Ruhstaller was also among the people who met in this building during the brewery’s earliest years.

A Swiss immigrant, Ruhstaller delivered an impressive local brewing resume, which included his 1881 purchase of Sacramento’s first brewery, the then-32-year-old City Brewery.

Ruhstaller, whose family later became the managers and major shareholders of Buffalo Brewery, also maintained a headquarters and taproom for his business in a building, which still sits at the southeast corner of 9th and J streets.

Ruhstaller’s son, Frank J. Ruhstaller, eventually became the president of Buffalo Brewery.

As Buffalo Brewery’s founder, Grau, a native of Germany, also served as the company’s general manager and was one of the brewery’s largest stockholders.

It was Grau, who arrived in America at the age of 17 in about 1863, who named this famous Sacramento brewery after the city of Buffalo, New York, where he resided before coming to California.

Grau’s roots in the brewing industry date back to 1871 through his marriage to J. F. Bertha Liegele, whose father Albert Liegele was a renowned brewer in Buffalo.

It was through this association that Grau became involved in the industry, eventually becoming a member of the largest brewing enterprise firm in Buffalo.

Coming to Sacramento in 1887, Grau soon took up permanent residency and with the assistance of Gerber, who was an associate of the California State Bank, he organized a stock company with the intention of opening a brewery.

At this time, Gerber was noted as saying, “We shall use only the best material. Our beer will be of the highest standard of excellence and equal in quality to that made in this or any other country.”

Grau’s extreme desire to succeed at a high level with his own brewery in Sacramento was evident through his many actions, which included the construction of his first class brewery and the addition of the people, who he selected to operate the brewery, including head brewer Baptiste Nierendorf, a graduate of the famed Brewers’ Academies in Germany.

Just as Grau desired, Buffalo beer, which was originally sold in bottles and at various local businesses on draft, was known for its quality.

Buffalo Brewery, which transported its beer through the use of three railroad spurs, enjoyed success outside California, as it was marketed to other states and in the Hawaii Islands, Alaska and parts of South and Central America, China and Japan.

The arrival of Prohibition put a halt to the brewery’s alcohol manufacturing, as the company continued to operate, opting to produce non-alcoholic beverages.

With the repeal of Prohibition, Buffalo Brewery returned to its practice of producing beer in 1934, following a $1.5 million revamp of the old brewery facility. It was also during this year that Buffalo beer was first offered in cans.

Never completely recovering from its loss of sales caused by Prohibition and suffering from the effects of increased competition, the brewery was sold to Grace Brothers, which owned breweries in Santa Rosa and Los Angeles.

After a short-lived attempt to keep the brewery open, it was soon closed and the brewery buildings remained vacant until they were demolished in 1949 and 1950 to make way for the construction of the present headquarters of the Sacramento Bee.

After a 32-year absence, the name Buffalo beer began to appear on labels once again.

The Sacramento Union surprised many of its readers in September 1974 with its headline, “Buffalo Beer will be back in Sacramento Next Month.”

With an appreciation for local history, Sacramento attorneys Douglas Long and Philip McKibbin were responsible for bringing back the name, “Buffalo Beer.”

This historical action provided one more example of Sacramentans’ love for their history, as can also be seen through a similar 1970s revival, when a new edition of the Sacramento Solons played their AAA Minor League baseball games at Hughes Stadium from 1974 to 1976.

Although the then-new premium light lager Buffalo beer, which was strictly brewed in Portland, Ore. from the original 1890s recipe, took off like a stampede in Sacramento, it eventually became an endangered species before losing its fizz and once again dissolving in the late 1970s.

Now more than a half-century from the days of the original Buffalo Brewery and nearly three decades removed from its mini-revival, the Buffalo name remains strong in Sacramento’s rich historical past, as one of the city’s all-time famous institutions.