Pittsburgh Brewing Co. kegged and stored the last 62 barrels of Iron City beer at its 140-year-old Lawrenceville plant yesterday.

A new era began in Latrobe on Wednesday, where Iron City operations have a five-year lease with City Brewing Co. That plant used to produce Rolling Rock beer.

The difference between the two plants is like moving from the Victorian era to robotics. Iron City produced 170,000 barrels a year in Lawrenceville; it plans to make 1 million barrels in Latrobe.

"Ten years from now," said Iron City President Tim Hickman, "we might be one of the big boys and buy a brewery in Pittsburgh."

It wouldn't be the property beside the Herron Avenue bridge on Liberty Avenue, where operations ceased yesterday.

"Several real estate developers are interested," he said. One idea is to locate a brew pub, with small-scale brewing on site; another is a residential development.

The 468,000-square-foot plant occupies 9 acres. The company will maintain its corporate headquarters and a warehouse on the property.

The move was anticipated by workers before the announcement came earlier this year.

"We've seen things going downhill and downhill and figured two years ago it would happen," said Don Conners, a brewer at the plant for 30 years. "Then we figured last year it would happen. Now it's happened."

Escalating costs -- including a federal excise tax that could more than double -- have pushed most regional beer-making operations toward contracts like the one Iron City has in Latrobe.

It was the kind of deal the brewers of Samuel Adams inked when Pittsburgh Brewing Co. began brewing their product in 1989. When Sam Adams became one of the big boys, the Boston Brewing Co. could afford its own brewery. It calls itself a small craft brewery but is reaching for a goal of 2 million barrels a year, according to its Web site.

"The days of brewing like this are over," Mr. Hickman said yesterday. "Finding someone who will brew for you is the way to go. The excess cash generated is going back into marketing so we can grow the brand."

Among the company's plans are to add to its line seasonal craft-style beers including an Oktoberfest, a spring bock and a lime beer, Mr. Hickman said.

The company has licenses to sell in nearby states, including Michigan and North Carolina, and recently obtained licenses to sell in Alabama, Arizona and Nevada, he said.

Mr. Hickman gave interviews in the lot surrounded by a complex of brick buildings, one built in 1884, one in 1896 -- antiques with a few broken windows. Five buildings ring the lot, three of them adjacent rectangles that attest to the company's 19th century expansion.

"This plant was built where energy costs weren't an issue," he said. "When technology got old, they would just add a building. The capital investment would be $12 million to $15 million to make this plant competitive."

Property taxes cost the company $100,000 a year. It paid $3.5 million in federal excise tax and almost $1 million in excise tax to the state. The utility bills cost $250,000 a month, he said, adding, "Over the last six months, we started to generate negative net income."

The 51 employees in Lawrenceville have not been offered jobs in Latrobe. Mr. Hickman said "we and the unions are working on that now, trying to get people moved over."

Mr. Conners, 50, said he won't try to get on in Latrobe. "It's 53 miles away."

He plans to work for a tow truck business he has worked for on weekends.

He doesn't believe the company wants to transfer its Pittsburgh brewers. "We don't believe a thing he [Mr. Hickman] says. They [Latrobe] have 22 brewers and seven are working now, so they have to call back those guys first. They could go to a million barrels and it wouldn't make a difference. It only takes 22 brewers."

Mr. Hickman said robotics is employed at the Latrobe plant, into which the Rolling Rock company put $22 million "just on the bottling end" before it moved production several years ago. That plant has been shut down for eight months.

The Rolling Rock brand, which Anheuser-Busch bought several years ago, is up for sale again.

Marketing was blamed for Rolling Rock's struggles, and its officials spent three times the $1.5 million Pittsburgh Brewing has spent to pitch Iron.

Mr. Hickman said the company had one choice to keep the brand alive, a decision that 200 distributors it employs in Pittsburgh depend on, he said.

"We're not jumping for joy here. There's a lot of history. We're doing this to stay alive."