[9][10] By 1873, production had grown to 20,000 barrels a year[8] and in 1880 Schmidt built a new brewery and ice house in order to be able to produce lager beer.

[6] In late 1896, Schmidt's purchased the Robert Smith India Pale Ale brewery, which traced its origins to 1774 and was then America's oldest brewing concern.

In 1888, the Robert Smith brewery had moved to a new plant, located at Thirty-Eighth Street and Girard Avenue in West Philadelphia, that was capable of producing 50,000 barrels annually.

The brew house was designed by architect Otto C. Wolf and was topped with a 235-foot high clock tower that included a "Schmidt's" sign that was illuminated at night.

[11] The Peter Schemm brewery closed in 1918 due to declining profitability brought about by World War I taxes and other wartime restrictions, including a lack of grain.

[6] Production of non-alcoholic cereal beverages required brewers to first make high-powered beer and then remove the alcohol it prior to sale.

[2] Schmidt's became known for its technical innovations and used more of its own original custom-made equipment than any other brewery in the country (most of it designed by Chief Engineer Richard Slama).

[23] The closure of the Duquesne brewery caused a lot of bitterness in the Pittsburgh area and a boycott of Schmidt's-produced Duke Beer ensued.

In the 1930s and 1940s, national brewers based in Milwaukee and St. Louis incurred relatively high costs transporting their beer to markets in the east and west.

[50][51] Eventually, the national brewers, such as Anheuser-Busch, reduced transportation costs by opening breweries around the country, but the premium prices and images remained, and higher profit margins resulted.

[63] Schmidt's attempted to appeal to younger drinkers by redesigning its label and launching a $3 million advertising campaign in 1979 that featured comedian David Brenner and singer Lou Rawls,[2][63] but it did not turn the brand around.

Extensive consumer research was performed in order to develop the taste of Golden Classicm and an expensive advertising campaign was launched to support it.

[65] Above the kettle floor there were multiple tiers, including a mezzanine, that were reminiscent of an opera hall and a control room from which production was monitored using modern computers.

[70] Schmidt's still produced more than 3.15 million barrels of beer a year in 1983,[71] but after more than a decade of criminal investigations into his practices and allegations of ties to organized crime, Billy Pflaumer was convicted in 1983 of a false billing scheme involving his trucking company, in which he had evaded paying $125,000 in excise taxes in three states.

[71] In 1987, Schmidt's largest creditor, Crown Cork & Seal Co., called in loans totaling about $24 million, which forced Pflaumer to sell the company.

This was a brand that the Schmidt brothers acquired in 1896 when they purchased the Robert Smith India Pale Ale brewery, which traced its establishment to 1774 and was then America's oldest brewing concern.

Schmidt's assured customers that Tiger Head Cream Ale was still being brewed in accordance with Robert Smith's original formula which was said to date to 1774.

[9] Supported by an expensive advertising campaign when launched in April 1982, Golden Classic was Schmidt's attempt to add a premium beer to its product line.

Break Special Lager was a low (1.74%) alcohol beer introduced in late 1983 in response to growing concern about drunk driving and health.

[10] In 1898 the elder Schemm, despondent over his loss of eyesight, took his own life by jumping off a bridge about 1,000 feet upstream from Niagara Falls.

[115] Thereafter Peter Schemm & Son was operated as a branch of The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Company, and it produced light and dark beers as well as a seasonal bock.

[117] Schmidt's continued operating the old Scheidt brewery in Norristown (which it renamed the Valley Forge Brewing Co. in 1960)[8] until late 1974, when it was closed and production moved to Philadelphia.

Attributed to Valley Forge Brewing Co., Casey's Lager Beer was released in the fall of 1980 in four different collector cans that featured Hall of Fame baseball players Richie Ashburn, Whitey Ford, Monte Irvin and Duke Snider.

[140] The increased amount of fermentable sugar resulting from this process produced a beer with a higher alcohol content, but essentially no remaining dextrins to provide calories.

[142] Rheingold biochemist and brewer Joseph L. Owades then developed Gablinger Beer,[141] which began to be test marketed in late 1966,[143] and was rolled out in the New York City area in June 1967.

[9] Gablinger's Beer, which was marketed for "special diet use", ran afoul of conflicting federal laws that both required and prohibited its label from stating how many calories it contained.

In 1978 the pre-Schmidt's Koehler Beer was described as having "pale color, good malty aroma, pleasant barley-malt flavor with some zest, a unique tangy finish, and clean refreshing after-taste.

[164] The tavern served only men until 1970, when a New York City law banning discrimination based on sex at public places went into effect.

In 1973 Ortlieb began contract brewing Olde English 800 Malt Liquor for Blitz-Weinhard, a Portland, Oregon brewer that did not have a brewery on the East coast.

Ortlieb responded by introducing its own brand, Coqui 900 Malt Liquor, which employed similar packaging to Olde English 800 and which may have even used the same recipe.