Ever heard of Country Club beer? It was brewed at this Kansas City spot after Prohibition

When Prohibition ended, brewers who’d survived the nearly 14-year ban on selling suds quickly tooled up to serve a very thirsty nation.

The M.K. Goetz Brewing Company, founded in St. Joseph, Missouri, in 1859 was better positioned than most—thanks to the success of its non-alcoholic near beer, Country Club Special.

As soon as brewing the real thing was legal again, Goetz set out to build “the most modern” facility in the country. The site it chose, 17th and Indiana Streets in Kansas City The site had served as the city’s old circus grounds.

The brewery opened in 1936 to great fanfare that included a live radio broadcast. The operation employed 250 people and was churning out 100,000 barrels a year. That number continued to rise as Country Club lager built a sizable Midwestern following.

But in the years after WWII, the Goetz family saw big changes sweeping through the beer business. In 1961, Goetz merged with the Pearl Brewing Company in San Antonio and shut down its Kansas City plant. Eventually, the building was razed and used as a parking lot for the Sears Catalog Distribution Center nearby.

Today, there’s no sign that either of those businesses once thrived on the spot. What is visible, especially from I-70, are the many mail trucks coming and going from the U.S. Postal Service Distribution Center at 1700 Cleveland Avenue.

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Looking for more Kansas City history?

While we’re talking about beer, let’s look back on KC’s first successful brewer

The Heim family was also in the brewing business, before they went “electric”

During the Pendergast years, food and drink helped keep “the machine” rolling