A local brewer plans to bring beer back to the old Hamm’s Brewery.

The East Side brewery, which in the 1950s was home to the fifth-largest beer company in America, rolled out its last beer in 1997.

Now, Flat Earth Holdings, LLC, the company better known as the Flat Earth Brewing Co., has signed a licensing agreement with St. Paul to locate in a portion of the old brewery site.

The company will move into buildings No. 7 and No. 8 in a long-vacant section of the Hamm’s Brewery off Minnehaha Avenue. Company president John Warner said he plans to occupy about 50,000 square feet.

“We’re not doubling our space,” said Warner, whose brewery now occupies a modest site by Pearson’s Candy on West Seventh Street. “We’re 14-timesing our space.”

Flat Earth Brewing started in 2007 on Benson Avenue, south of Highland Park, and quickly became known for its hand-crafted assortment, including its Angry Planet Pale Ale and the popular Cygnus X-1 Porter, which is named after a black hole. Flat Earth’s seasonal specials include a Black Helicopter Coffee Stout and the Mummy Train Pumpkin Ale.

Work on the new site is in the beginning stages. In the long term, Warner hopes it will include a taproom and beer garden among the East Side brewery’s brick buildings.

STEEPED IN HISTORY

The brewery’s history is almost synonymous with that of St. Paul.

In 1865, German immigrant Theodore Hamm became the owner of a small brewery overlooking Swede Hollow when the previous owner defaulted. Hamm had no experience in the trade, but his brewery grew over the next 20 years to cover 4 acres.

The family business stayed there for another century, overseen by three generations of Hamms and eventually a lovable mascot, the Hamm’s Bear.

The klutzy cartoon bear — often pictured in television ads tipping over canoes or tripping over its own feet — was named by Advertising Age in 1999 as a key emblem of the 75th best ad campaign of the 20th century: “Hamm’s beer: ‘From the Land of Sky Blue Waters.’ ”

The company went through a series of sales before landing under the auspices of Stroh’s, its final owner. Over the course of 30 years, Hamm’s and a string of neighboring employers vacated the East Side, including Whirlpool in 1984 and 3M in the latter half of the last decade.

Neighborhood efforts to breathe new life into the Hamm’s campus have included plans for an Asian Pacific Cultural Center, which was twice slated to receive $5 million in state funding. The money was vetoed each time by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Jim Danielson, general manager of Everest LLC, said the five buildings north of Minnehaha Avenue are almost fully occupied by his company’s tenants, who are tired of looking out at the broken windows and spray paint across the street.

“It would make me happy if they clean that eyesore up,” Danielson said. “They’re starting to. It would make the whole neighborhood happy. Our building is pretty full right now.”

ON TAP

In the Twin Cities, the surging popularity of micro-brews and locally made, handcrafted beers has helped some beer makers expand virtually overnight.

Many are adding taprooms where alcohol can be enjoyed on the brewery premises, a result of loosened distribution restrictions under the state’s so-called Surly Bill, which was passed by the Legislature in 2011.

Brooklyn Center-based Surly Brewing Co. recently closed on the purchase of 8 acres of land off University Avenue in Minneapolis, near the St. Paul border, for a “destination brewery” and event center.

Burning Brothers Brewing and Bang Brewing Co. are two startup brewers who recently announced plans to open taprooms in St. Paul, in part to help fund the launch of their own micro-breweries.

Flat Earth’s move to the new location won’t be cheap. Warner has applied for a $375,000 grant from the city’s neighborhood STAR program, which is funded by a citywide half-cent sales tax.

The grant was recommended for approval by the STAR board, but the mayor’s office and St. Paul City Council will weigh in later this summer.

“I want the city to be my partner,” Warner said. “It’s a god-awful property that I’m going to make look like a jewel.”

The improvement will be a welcome sight.

The sprawling brewery campus is split between private and public ownership. About a third was torn down over the years to make way for Phalen Boulevard.

Before retiring last November, Curt Lange spent 15 years as general manager of the third of the Hamm’s site that remains privately owned by Everest LLC and investor Howard Gelb.

With Gelb’s portion of the property attracting an over-the-road trucking outfit, a hospital laundry, artists, attorneys and even a small call center, Lange spent years pressuring the city to find worthy tenants to occupy the publicly owned south end of the brewery campus, which is blighted by broken windows and graffiti.

“It’s been a long time,” said Lange on Monday, who was happy to hear of a yet another employer moving in. “It’s going to be jobs, and I think we need jobs. I think it would be a positive thing.”

Frederick Melo can be reached at 651-228-2172. Follow him at twitter.com/FrederickMelo.