Sunday, March 28, 1999
Cleveland brewer revives P.O.C. beer The Associated Press
CLEVELAND — An extinct beer with an eye-catching name has made a comeback in Cleveland — P.O.C.
P.O.C., popularly known as Pride of Cleveland although brewers never defined what the initials stood for, once sold 400,000 barrels a year in eight states but went out of business in 1986. It was among the most popular beers in Cleveland during the 1950s.
Now, local brewer Stuart Sheridan has resurrected the beer, which is selling for about $5 a six-pack of bottles, with initial distribution limited to Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland.
“We're bringing back a beer known as Pride of Cleveland, and you can't do that unless you have something you can be proud of,” Mr. Sheridan said.
P.O.C. was first created around 1914 at a local brewery as a heavy, high-alcohol Bohemian beer. Through the decades, the brand passed through the hands of several companies, reaching its peak of popularity in the 1940s and 1950s as a lighter-bodied beer.
But that popularity died in the decades before P.O.C. went out of existence, as the beer became a cheaper, watered-down brew.
Mr. Sheridan is aiming for a taste that re-creates the P.O.C. of the beer's most popular days.
“We've got to show this is a genuinely premium pilsener,” he said. “It's more like the 1950s-style P.O.C., not the 1970s P.O.C.”
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Cleveland brewer revives P.O.C. beer The Associated Press
PRICIEST HOMES
