Aztec Brewing Company

In 1921, San Diego businessmen Edward P. Baker and Herbert Jaffe, and brewing engineer William H. Strouse opened Cervecera Azteca, SA, in Mexicali, the capital city of the Mexican state of Baja California, since Prohibition disallowed them to manufacture, sell or transport alcohol in the United States.

[citation needed] With the end of Prohibition in 1933, a new brewery was built in San Diego and the entire operation moved to the new location soon afterward.

The label continued to refer to the beer as “Famous” even though it was no longer the same recipe that had won the gold medal.

Aztec quickly had a new rival – San Diego Brewing Company, which had originally opened in 1897, but had closed in 1920 for the duration of Prohibition.

Keeping track of the number of beer brands Aztec made is difficult, because with a minimum order of 500 cases, the company would put any label on its bottles for the customer.

Beer’s primary markets were San Diego, Los Angeles, Long Beach, and parts of Arizona.

Photographs of the 1933 San Diego brewery show a modern facility with a very colorful tasting room, known as the rathskeller.

[5] Decorations in the rathskeller included, "painted and carved tables and chairs and ceiling beams, chandeliers, tiled mahogany cabinets, stained glass windows and doors, and a 9-foot replica of the Aztec calendar".

[5] Coincidentally, among other works by Moya del Piño are murals painted for the Acme Brewing Company of San Francisco in 1935.

[6] The Acme Brewing Company building and rathskeller was demolished in 1990, however the Moya del Pino murals were moved and currently live at the Logan Heights Library in San Diego.

Altes was bought by the National Brewing Company of Baltimore, Md., which closed the San Diego brewery in 1953.

[9] In 2008, John Webster discovered the brand and began bringing it back to life with his partner, Claudia Faulk, and son Tristan Faulk-Webster.

Webster learned about Aztec Brewing Company while researching old California beer brands for a line of T-shirts he was designing.