7260 Southwest Avenue

History of Schlafly Bottleworks

As demand for bottled Schlafly beer increased throughout the late nineties, we began searching for a local site to build an additional brewery. Upon finding that good, used equipment was available, we decided that our dream of running our own bottling operations was feasible and we began purchasing our equipment in the summer of 2000.

Just as we had with our original brewery, the Schlafly Tap Room, it was important to us to look into reviatalizing an existing building as opposed to creating something completely from scratch. To that end, it became obvious that an old supermarket site might provide the perfect layout for our needs. We fortunately stumbled upon our location in Maplewood, MO, just blocks beyond the boundary separating St. Louis City and St. Louis County and purchased the building in September of 2001.

We then chose the local Architectural Design Guild, who had already consulted with others previously interested in the property, and whose president Barry Greenberg is very active in the Maplewood community.

As opposed to our Tap Room location, which simply required the restoration of an old building, this building needed to be completely re-hauled to fit all our tanks — and to reflect the personality of the company. The design took six months and focused on getting the layout right, including all of the elements needed to operate an efficient brewery. Because we had the opportunity to recreate the feel of the place, and to incorporate some environmentally friendly aspects into the design, we were intent on spending the time needed to plan it properly and we consulted Energy Solutions on making some “green” decisions.

The general contractor, GT Lawlor, began demolition and construction in May 2002, and eleven months later, we opened our doors on the 70th anniversary of Prohibition’s repeal.