Jacob Best Sr. (1786 – 1861) was a German-American brewer who founded what would later become known as the Pabst Brewing Company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Best was born in Hesse-Darmstadt,[1][2] where he learned the trade and ran a small brewery in Mettenheim, Rhenish Hesse, until immigrating to Milwaukee in 1844 to join his sons.
His daughter Margaretha married Moritz Schoeffler, a prominent newspaper editor who founded The Wisconsin Banner.
The brewery was renamed Pabst Brewing Company and remained at the same location along Chestnut Street (now Juneau Avenue) until closure of the complex in 1997.
Jacob Best Sr. devoted the remainder of his life to local politics.