St. Pauli Girl

St. Pauli Girl beers are brewed and bottled by the St. Pauli Brauerei, which is located within the Beck’s brewery in Bremen, Germany. The brand derives its name from the fact that the original brewery, which was established in 1857 by Lüder Rutenberg, was located next to the former St. Paul’s Friary [de] in Bremen. There are currently three brands of beer brewed: St. Pauli Girl Lager, St. Pauli Girl Special Dark and St. Pauli Non-Alcoholic Malt Beverage. The beer is only produced for export and is not sold in Germany. St Pauli Girl, like many German breweries, advertises that they brew all of their beers according to the Reinheitsgebot (German purity law) of 1516, even though they use culture yeast as an ingredient, which is not allowed by the 1516 law. The distinctive label depicting a woman wearing traditional outfits was introduced in the 19th century with the advent of the bottled beer. The local artist commissioned for the label drew his inspiration from the waitresses at the time. St Pauli Girl’s Beers were first introduced into select US markets in 1965. National Distribution began in 1975. St. Pauli Non-Alcoholic was first sold in the United States in 1991. The St Pauli Girl website claims that their beer is the number two selling German beer in the United States.