From Bestowing Blessings to Brewing Beers

Built during a boom in the Pittsburgh industrial sector, a restored church now houses a successful brewery.

The St. John the Baptist Church was built in Pittsburgh in 1902 to serve a growing number of factory workers flooding the Steel City. The church was renowned for its stained-glass rose window set above a massive chapel. During the Depression the church provided food and shelter, and later was a shelter for flood victims. 

However, by the early 1990s, the same jobs that brought workers to the area began to dry up – taking the church’s parishioners with them. The church was abandoned in 1993. 

About three years later the Church Works Brewery moved into the space after performing extensive renovations, turning the cavernous chapel into a brewery and beer hall. Included in the Church Works Brewery’s award-winning beer offerings are: Celestial Gold, Pipe Organ Pale Ale, the Pious Monk Dunkel and ThunderHop. 

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