Then and Now: Bohemian Breweries

Prohibition brought beer to a standstill in Spokane. There were five big breweries before the dry years, including the Galland-Burke, Schade and New York breweries. And at Second Avenue and Cedar Street there was Hieber Brewing and Malting, later called Inland Brewing, built in 1899. During Prohibition, John G. F. Hieber tried various nonalcoholic drinks to survive and invested in real estate. The company adopted the Bohemian name when it reopened. After Prohibition, three former and one new beer factory went into production making original and national brands for the local market. Bohemian Breweries superintendent Robert Muzatko imported hop roots and barley seed from Bohemia to start making Bohemian Club and Champagne Velvet beers. Ramping up, Muzatko added keg washers and cold storage and equipment to make 60,000 bottles a day. The plant was successful in the post-World War II beer market, but one by one, Spokane breweries shut down and the bottling of national brands sent to newer breweries that could turn out 1000 bottles a minute. In 1948, Bohemian bought out Golden Age Breweries, housed in the old Schade brewery. Then Atlantic Brewing of Chicago bought Bohemian in 1956. When Atlantic announced the closure of Bohemian in 1962, it was the last brewery operating in Spokane. A Portland company took over the beer brands. The building with the bottle-shaped smoke stack was razed in 1964. Hieber died in 1941.

—Jesse Tinsley