Hamm’s Brewery: Pour a little out for SF’s greatest sign ever

No one raised a glass in 1954, upon the arrival of the greatest sign in San Francisco history. There was no Champagne christening, or drinks poured in its honor.

The Hamm’s Brewery sign was able to toast itself, high above the Central Freeway, a neon chalice that filled and emptied endlessly in the San Francisco night sky. It seems like a dream now. There is no known video, and The Chronicle only has black-and-white photos. But for more than two decades, the 13-foot-tall glass of luminescent beer was the most prominent landmark in the center of the city.

“The brewery, the most modern in the West, is located at 1550 Bryant Street,” The Chronicle wrote June 22, 1954. “The 13-story building is topped with the largest electric sign west of Chicago featuring a three-dimensional glass of beer.”

The Hamm’s glass was 18 feet in diameter, with 5,000 lightbulbs and 6,300 feet of tubing that were synchronized to simulate the golden glass filling up to a foamy white froth. A steam machine emitted white smoke from the top.

The newspaper sent out Bob Campbell, a World War II photographer who worked with the paper for three decades, to take photos from every angle around the building. Workers can be seen rappelling down the giant “Hamm’s” sign next to the electrified beer glass. None of the photos appeared in the paper the next day; The Chronicle chose a smaller photo of workers bottling beer instead.

It wasn’t the greatest sign of all time for its longevity; the Hamm’s Brewery sign lasted only 22 years. The Mr. Peanut sign along Highway 101 and the Union 76 Tower and the Hills Bros. Coffee sign near the Bay Bridge were on well-traveled highways, so they were seen by more people. The Mission District “17 Reasons Why” sign was more mysterious.

But for the real Bay Area residents — the ones who were heading into the city, not just passing through town — the Hamm’s sign was a beacon. It was best seen from the Central Freeway, which spilled into the neighborhoods, reminding workers on the way home that they should pour a cold beer.

Much like Sutro Tower, which went up two years before the Hamm’s Brewery closed, the sign was a way to orient yourself in the center of San Francisco.

Rises over home plate

Built on the same top-floor platform as the Rainier Brewery sign that preceded it, the Hamm’s sign could be seen rising over the home plate side of Seals Stadium. When the Giants arrived in 1958 and took their first team photo, the Hamm’s chalice appears above the rim of the ballpark, as if it’s sneaking a look at the new players.

Hamm’s Brewery announced it would be closing May 8, 1975. A few days later, an auction notice appeared in the newspaper, offering, among other things, ammonia compressors, beer, yeast and syrup pumps, and a “5,000-foot Lamson Conveyor, w/ power belt roller, turns and GH motor drives.”

The following January, the building’s owners used a crane to lower the glass to the street. It was never seen by the public again. Chronicle columnist Herb Caen, appropriately, wrote the eulogy.

“Add vanishing landmarks: the 25-foot beer glass complete with 5,000 bulbs and steam that adorned … Hamm’s Brewery since 1954,” Caen wrote on Jan. 8, 1976. “Ed Berliner and David Weisz … are returning the $60,000 sign to Ad Art of Emeryville which rents it out.”

Another Chronicle article suggested the glass was put on a flatbed truck and headed for storage in Los Angeles. (Repeated pleas for information about the fate of the neon chalice, on my blog The Big Event and social media, have gone unanswered in recent years.)

Punk rock ‘vat rats’

The brewery added a little more history when the empty beer vats were taken over by punk rockers and used as rehearsal studios — “vat rats,” who ended up making an artistic impact in the late 1970s and early 1980s San Francisco punk rock scene.

By 1983, the vats were gone, razed to make a parking structure. A $3 million low-interest federal loan allowed the owners to turn the brewery into office space.

The multiuse building is still there, filled with nonprofits and startups. Paintings and a few photos of the neon sign are hung in the bottom floor lobby, but that’s all that remains of the wonderful neon glass that brightened a city.

Peter Hartlaub is The San Francisco Chronicle’s pop culture critic. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub

Do you know what happened to the Hamm’s Brewery sign? Send tips to Peter Hartlaub at phartlaub@sfchronicle.com.