“Lang’s Brewery occupies an entire block, bounded by Best, Jefferson, Berlin, and Dodge streets, and its malt house, storehouse, and brewery buildings are of the most approved modern style of architecture, as the equipment is of the most thorough and complete kind. The brewery is the largest in area covered by buildings, in number of men employed, and in quality of output. The yearly production of the brewery is something over 150,000 barrels.” —llustrated History of the United Trades and Labor Council of Erie County, United Trades and Labor Council of Erie County, 1897

Gerhard Lang’s was the largest brewery Buffalo has ever known. When this photograph was taken in 1935, Lang’s was back in action following the 1933 repeal of Prohibition. The business dated back to establishment of Phillip Born’s brewery in 1840 before Gerhard Lang married Born’s daughter and assumed control of the brewery in 1862. In 1875, the brewery occupied this 34-acre site at Jefferson Avenue between Best and Dodge streets. Prior to Prohibition, Lang’s reached peak output of about 300,000 barrels, or 300 times the annual output of Community Beer Works in 2017. During Prohibition, Lang survived producing cereal beverages and soft drinks such as AA Near Beer and Hyan-Dry Ginger Ale. The brewery closed in 1949. Nothing from the original complex exists today.