Millennium Countdown: 1980

Brewery time line

1860 - The Carson Brewery first opened by John Wagner and three partners

1863 -Brewery produces and sells 500 barrels of beer at $3 a barrel

1864 - Two-story brewery built at King and Division streets

1877 - Brewery owned by Jacob Klein

1899 - Klein dies

1900 - Carson Brewing Co. formed by James Raycraft and Frank Golden

1910 - Brewing company bought by Max Stenz

1913 - Steam beer converted to Tahoe Beer, plant expanded

1915 - Begins soft drink and delivery service

1920 - Prohibition: Sales decline and in a year only 150 barrels of near-beer sold; Stenz becomes sole owner and begins bottling of near-beer known as Tahoe Lager

1926 - Brewing company managed by Stenz's son-in-law Arnold A. Millard

1930 - Millard enters coal, wood, fuel-oil and ice business

1933 - Beer regains legal status and brewery is expanded

1948 - Brewery closed by Millard

1950 - Building bought by Donrey and converted to Nevada Appeal newspaper plant

1974 - Idea for community arts center born by spinoff committee from city Bicentennial Committee

1980 - First community arts center in state, Brewery Arts Center, opens June 10

Paper: Nevada Appeal - 19 days to the millennium - Monday, June 12, 1980

Publisher: Donald W. Reynolds

General Manager: David A. Osborne

Editor: Steven R. Frady

Advertising Manager: Dale Wetenkamp

Circulation Manager: Don Helms

Production Manager: John"Jack" R. Gibson

Published each evening Sunday through Friday at 200 Bath St.

A Nevada owned member Donrey Media Group

Beer, news and art find home on King Street corner

By Kelli Du Fresne

In the June 11, 1980, Nevada Appeal we see some of the early beginnings of the Brewery Arts Center.

The center started as an idea of the city's Bicentennial Committee in 1974. Today, 25 years later both floors of the 1864 building have been restored and are used to bring art to the public. The second floor, now resembles its first life as a lodge/ballroom. Refurbishment of the room was completed in May.

Under the headline: "Arts Alliance given donation at opening," the Appeal reported: The Carson City Arts Alliance received a donation of $50,000 Saturday night at the grand opening of the Brewery Arts Center, the first community arts center in Nevada.

The gift from the Donald Reynolds Foundation of Donrey Media Group was announced by Dave Osborne, general manager of the Nevada Appeal, during the dedication ceremonies in the new theater at the south end of the Appeal's old building at Division and King streets.

"The funds will go toward furnishings and equipment for the theater," said Executive Director DeeAnn Ridings,"For a better floor, a new ceiling acoustical paneling, stage lights and a lighting and curtain grid, a sound system and innercom, and a lighting and sound control booth, removable seating platforms and other equipment such as projectors and lecturns for meetings."

The opening celebrated work begun in 1974 by the Carson City Bicentennial Committee, from which the incorporated Arts Alliance was formed.

"Each of us will have our lives enriched by this facility," keynote speaker Gov. Robert List told the audience. "And those giving of their time, labor and money have given not only to the community but to future generations."

In 1950, media mogul Donald W. Reynolds purchased the former Carson Brewing Co. building from Arnold Millard, the last in its 84-year history to use the building as a brewery.

Reynolds purchased the building as a plant for printing the Nevada Appeal and the Carson Chronicle.

Former City Editor Sue Morrow said for a time, the tiny newsroom was tucked into a corner on the second floor.

Former reporter and editor Steve Frady said they had old slate tables that were so cold in the winters the journalists almost stuck to them when working.

The paper's new building on Bath Street opened in 1973 and was a great improvement.

The state's first brewery, The Carson Brewery, was opened in 1860 by John Wagner & Co. By the time Nevada attained statehood in 1864 business was soaring and the company built a two-story brick building on the southwest corner of King and Division streets where it made its steam brew.

According to the Kit Carson Trail Inventory, beer was made by placing grain in a 900-gallon vat. Heat was then used to cause the grain to sprout. "The grain is then spread on the floor and in a day or two little blades like grass spring from the mass until the floor looks like a green lawn with the sprouts reaching an inch in height.

"It is then shot through a chute to the second floor, where it is dried in a kiln. It then becomes malt. From the kiln it is ground up in a machine and put into a tub of hot water. After remaining a few hours it is pumped into a kettle which holds about 600 gallons.

"After being boiled up in the kettle it is run into a cooler, a large shallow tank of wood, where it lies until all the heat is out. It next goes into tanks holding about 500 gallons each and is allowed to ferment. In a few hours a white foam rises on the top and gathers about four inches thick. There are four of these tanks on the ground floor of the brewery, where in the hottest days the air is as cool as midwinter."

Prior to the purchase of the first truck in 1915, beer was delivered by horse-drawn wagons.

The Kit Carson Inventory tells of a horse that pulled the wagons developing a taste for Tahoe beer. The horse was said to prefer beer to water and would, when left standing near a beer keg, turn it over and sniff the stale liquid. On occasion, when given a good beer, he lost no time chugging it down.