Ferdinand A. Heim was born in East St. Louis, Illinois to a brewing family. When Heim was 22 years of age he went off to Los Angeles to study and lived in a house owned by his rich uncle, Ferdinand Heim Sr. the brewing magnate of Kansas City Missouri. In 1892 the younger Heim married, and started a large family. When the elder Heim died in 1895 his 26-year-old nephew took his inheritance and started a bottling business at 401 Ramirez. In 1901 he expanded his company to brewing, and moved to 1834-36 North Main Street. In 1903 he sold out to Los Angeles Brewing Co. Vice President Edward Mathie, who continued the firm as the Mathie Brewing Company. The business lasted until Prohibition, then reopened in 1933 as the Monarch Brewing Company. The brewery closed for good in 1940. Ferdinand A. Heim died a year later, on September 8, 1941, age 72 years.