George Lauer was born in Lipprichsheim, Bavaria. His family was poor, and spent all they had to came to the New World. The Lauers landed in Baltimore in 1822 and roomed with his George's aunt for a time in Reading, Pennsylvania. His father, also named George, was a brewer, and in 1824 he began practicing his trade ten miles west of town in Womelsdorf. It was here that 16-year-old George and his younger brother Frederick began to learn the business of brewing.

In 1826 the father sold the brewery and relocated his operation back in the town of Reading. He operated that brewery for another nine years. Upon retiring in 1835 he passed the firm on to his two sons. However that partnership lasted only a year.

In 1836 George branched off and established a brewery in an orchard in the coal country town of Pottsville, Pennsylvania, just down the road from the seven-year-old D.G. Yuengling & Son firm. The "Orchard Brewery" was popular and things were going well until the building suffered a fire 1854. But George was insured. He rebuilt and ran the new brewery in successful competition against the Yuenglings for another 24 years, retiring and selling to his nephew Henry Peter Lauer and his partners Lorenz Schmidt and James Heffner.

George Lauer (Jr.) died at age 71, on the 26th of January, 1879. The brewery he founded, the Mount Carbon Brewery, would continue to make beer for another 97 years, closing its doors for good on the 31st of March, 1976.

Lorenz Schmidt was born in Burghaslach, Bavaria, Germany. He fought in the Franco-Prussian war and in 1870 was involved in the siege of Paris. He emigrated to America in 1870 and took employment at the Frederick Lauer Brewery in Reading, Pennsylvania. In 1877 Schmidt and his friend James Heffner relocated to Pottsville, where they partnered with Henry Peter Lauer to purchase the debt-ridden Orchard Brewery owned by 70-year-old George Lauer. The new business was called Lauer & Co., Orchard Brewery. Over the next few years the other partners withdrew from the business, and by 1880 Schmidt was operating the brewery as a sole proprietor. A complete remodel in 1886 brought saw the plant through to Prohibition. Lorenz Schmidt died on the 21st of August, 1893. He was 48 years old.