The Spearman Brewing Company was located at 1600 Barrancas Avenue and opened on May 18, 1935, right after the passing of the 21st Amendment that repealed Prohibition. The company was owned by Guy Maxwell Spearman Sr. (1894-1966), who also owned the Crystal Ice Company, and would be the only brewery between New Orleans and Jacksonville. The new, modern brewery would have the capacity of producing 25,000 barrels per year.
Spearman came to Pensacola in 1929, where he opened the Crystal Ice Company. It is said that it was one of the only facilities that could handle draft beer at that time "because of its need for constant refrigeration." One thing led to another and Spearman began making plans to open up his brewery next door to his icehouse. His new brewery building was three stories high and housed a bottling machine that could produce 6,000 bottles per day. They even expanded their distribution to within a 200-mile radius of Pensacola. To guarantee his non-stop distribution schedule he bought a fleet of Ford trucks because of their past dependability with his icehouse. During WWII, the military ensured that his business would succeed to the point that he increased his plant to 150 workers that produced 80,000 barrels just in 1943. And just to give the Navy boys a little variety, strictly for the war effort, he created several brands such as: Draft Beer, Draft Ale, English Ale, Straight Eight Beer, and Bon Premium Beer.
By 1959, Spearman sold his brewery to "International Breweries" and returned to his ice plant. But soon, even the new company couldn't keep up with the brand name corporations and were forced to close their doors in 1964. Spearman would pass away on May 25, 1966 in a Birmingham hospital and was returned to Pensacola and buried in Bayview Cemetery. The old brewery building would outlive him but not for long. It remained empty until it was torn down in 1987 thus forever ending a colorful chapter in Pensacola's history.
Comments