In 1975, San Francisco multi-millionaire Paul Kalmanovitz gained control of the Falstaff Brewing Company. Two months later, the Narragansett Brewery asked the city of Cranston for nearly $750,000 in tax relief on the grounds that some of the company’s facilities were obsolete, thus overtaxed. With property taxes on the brewery and land coming in at more than $300,000, the Rhode Island General Assembly granted tax relief in the form of an exemption from the alcoholic beverage tax for the first 100,000 barrels of beer—saving the brewery almost $200,000 a year. Meanwhile, the brewery’s energy bill in 1980 reached $2.8 million; ninety-five percent of which going toward the production of beer.

In June of 1981, plans were made to convert the brewery’s oil-burning steam pipes. The brewery asked the Providence Gas Company for a year-round, five-year agreement of continuous service—something the company could not

guarantee. Despite the intercession of the Governor and Cranston’s mayor in the discussions, no agreement was reached. It was evident that the brewery’s days were numbered.

In addition to aging facilities, outdated equipment and increased costs of operation, union workers went on strike for better wages and improved benefits. Meanwhile, years of neglect in Narragansett’s marketing were taking their toll. On July 31, 1981, citing increasing competition from the national brewing companies, the Narragansett Brewing Company laid off 350 workers—effectively ceasing production at the Cranston brewery.

By February of 1982, production of the Narragansett brand had shifted to the Falstaff plant in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The water from the Scituate Reservoir had been considered the finest in the country; the water in Fort Wayne, not so much.

Falstaff reopened the Cranston plant on January 13, 1983 to produce keg beer. Six brewers and 19 contract workers were recalled to begin brewing 450 gallons. A second batch of 800 gallons was started a day later, but those beers never

reached the market. Three months after the brewery reopened its doors, it closed them for the last time.

In July of 1995, much of the brewery equipment was shipped off to China. On October 27, 1998, demolition of the once proud brewery began. The bottling plant and eight other buildings were demolished over several months. The last remaining vestige of the brewery facility—the trolley barn—was demolished after a fire in 2005.

* With acknowledgement to Rick Redman and Virginia McKenna,
and the American Breweriana Journal