Falls City Beer

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In 1905, local tavern and grocery store owners got together and formed the Falls City Brewing Company as a way to break a local monopoly on beer production by the Central Consumers Company. Prohibition hit in 1919 and knocked many breweries out of business, but Falls City changed their name to the Falls City Ice and Beverage Company and survived selling block ice and soft drinks. When Prohibition ended, they changed their name back to Falls City Brewing Company and from then until the late 1960s, Falls City was a dominant brewery and was the most popular beer in Louisville. Oertel’s and Fehr’s, Louisville’s other top breweries eventually went out of business and Falls City was the lone survivor until the national players like Schlitz, Miller and Budweiser became too powerful to compete with.