Georgia Breweries History: Olde Heurich Brewing The Olde Heurich (HI-rick) Brewing Company is successor to the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co., which was founded near Dupont Circle in Washington, DC, on August 2, 1873, by German immigrant Christian Heurich. Within ten years, Heurich's brewery had become the most successful and the largest of the more than twenty that operated in the nation's capital during the late 19th Century. This growth led to Heurich's construction of a larger brewery in 1894 that encompassed over two blocks on the Potomac River in the Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington. After repeal of Prohibition, the Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. continued as an innovator in the American brewing industry. The Chr. Heurich Brewing Co. marketed 13 different brands of beer throughout its 83 years in business, but its most successful products were a variety of styles under the popular Heurich, Senate, and Old Georgetown brand names. Upon the elder Heurich's death in 1945, his son succeeded him as president. Christian Heurich, Jr., operated the brewery until industry consolidation and competition led him to cease brewing operations in January 1956. In 1961-62, the buildings were razed to make way for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Coming full circle, Heurich, Jr.'s, son, Gary F. Heurich, represents the third generation of his family to be actively engaged in the brewing industry, and, continuing another Heurich family tradition, he is one of the pioneers of the renaissance in American craft brewing. He began selling his first beer in Washington, DC, in 1986 at a time when there were only 36 craft brewers in the United States. By the end of the 20th Century, there were over 1,300, and for the first time in our country's history, the United States had more breweries than any other country, including Germany. In 1995 Heurich introduced Foggy Bottom Ale, the company's first introduction in its successful Foggy Bottom Family of Beers. Two years later, the original Olde Heurich beer was renamed Foggy Bottom Lager to bring it under the Foggy Bottom moniker, but it retained its original formulation.