Andrew Hemrich, pioneer brewer of the Pacific Northwest, was born in Buffalo County, Wisconsin. As a young lad he was educated in his father, John H. Hemrich's Union Brewery in Alma, Wisconsin. At age thirteen he was sent to learn the brewery business in a firm in La Crosse, after which were short apprenticeships in Best's and Schlitz's breweries in Milwaukee. Then he went west and worked in a small concern in Colorado and another in Eureka, Nevada.

It seems Hemrich's experiences in these mining boom towns gave him a case of "Gold Fever". In 1876 he and two friends headed back west with the intention of working in the ore-fields of Montana, but the promising claims were all taken.

In Glendale, Montana Hemrich partnered with Frank Gilg to form a brewery to cater to the thirsty miners. He worked there for eighteen months then sold his share and bought a claim, but the claim was panned out so, desperate for money, he took a job as foreman of the city brewery in Bozeman. Then in 1883 Hemrich and his father put up capital to buy the minority stake in the Bay View Brewery in Seattle, Washington. The next year the controlling partner, Mr. John Kopp, sold his interest to Hemrich's father. The brewery was controlled by the Hemrich family for the next fifty years. When the new century turned the brewery, now named the Seattle Brewing & Malting Co., was the regions largest brewery and had distribution nearly worldwide. Andrew Hemrich died on May 2nd, 1910 at the age of 53 years.