An advertisement in the Detroit Free Press announcing the initial offering of 240,000 shares of Pros’ t Brewing Company stock, September 17, 1933.
by early fall the brewery was producing its first batches of Croft Ale.
On March 23, the newly incorporated Frank Fehr Brewing of Louisville, Kentucky, held an IPO of 500,000 shares at $ 1.50 each. Tombstones advertising the new issuance noted that the funds raised would facilitate the production of a new brewhouse and the purchase of new equipment allowing the brewery to produce at least 350,000 barrels a year, which would make it one of largest breweries south of the Ohio River. On March 27, St. Louis giant Falstaff Brewing Co. issued 177,000 new shares of common stock— one quarter of its company— at $ 7 each to raise around $ 1.2 million of new capital. Bauer, Pogue & Company, the same broker that carried out the Fidelio offering, handled the offering.
Legal beer returned to much fanfare in the second quarter of 1933. In fact, many pundits credited beer’ s return as a key contributor to the sharp economic recovery
that spring. The New York Times noted on April 16 that,“ Beer seems to have loosened up the purse strings and the public feels better.” Indeed, beer’ s return directly created up to a half million jobs related to brewing, service and distribution, including new jobs for makers of brewing equipment, glass bottles and other key inputs. More entrepreneurs jumped in headfirst, and brewery stock issuances heated up alongside the temperature with 19 in June, 31 in July and 30 more in August.
The Fred Krug Brewery of Omaha, Nebraska, issued shares that summer because Albert Krug wanted to honor the legacy of his late father by bringing his brewing facility back to life under its longstanding name after 16 years of idleness. While the Krug family retained a majority of the brewery’ s 500,000 shares, they offered 215,000 of them for public sale at $ 1.50 each. The funds raised by the IPO financed the Krug brewery’ s rehabilitation, the construction of new brew and stock houses and the purchase of new equipment such as mash tanks and kettles.
The Pros’ t Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan, also offered shares during the heady summer of 1933. Unlike most brewery entrants, Pros’ t had no pre-Prohibition history, but made liquid malt— an ingredient in beer also used in baking— during the final years of Prohibition. The
Location of the 127 breweries that issued stock in 1933. Larger dots represent multiple breweries.
18 FINANCIAL HISTORY | Summer 2025 | www. MoAF. org