Beer In Ads #5363: Bock Orbec

September 29, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Two years ago I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. Bock, of course, may have originated in Germany, in the town of Einbeck. Because many 19th century American breweries were founded by German immigrants, they offered a bock at certain times of the year, be it Spring, Easter, Lent, Christmas, or what have you. In a sense they were some of the first seasonal beers. “The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers in the 17th century. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced ‘Einbeck’ as ‘ein Bock’ (a billy goat), and thus the beer became known as ‘Bock.’ A goat often appears on bottle labels.” And presumably because they were special releases, many breweries went all out promoting them with beautiful artwork on posters and other advertising.

Tuesday’s poster is for Bock Orbec, which was created around 1899. This poster was made for, embarrassingly, a soft drink, which I didn’t realize until I started looking into the particulars of the poster. “Boisson Gazeuse à la Mode” translates as “Trendy Carbonated Drink.” Although one source refers to it as “a popular carbonated beverage and beer distributed by Maison Rigolet in Marseille.” Still, it was too cool of a poster so I decided to stay with it. Sorry, not sorry. The poster was created by Romanian poster artist, painter, and illustrator Jean de Paléologue, who often signed his name as PAL (or Pal), and the lithograph was printed by Imp. P. Vercasson, in Paris, France.

Historic Beer Birthday: Frank H. Stahl

September 29, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Frank Harmon Stahl (September 29, 1876-October 28, 1909). He was the son of John H. Stahl, who in 1870 bought the City Brewery in Walla Walla, Washington. Although he continued to operate the brewery by that name, the business was called John H. Stahl & Co. until 1905, when Frank took over and renamed it the Stahl Brewing and Malting Co.

This is his short obituary from the Brewers Journal for 1909:

There’s not very much information I could find about him, not even a photograph. Gary Flynn at Brewery Gems has more about the brewery itself, in an article about Stahl’s Brewing Company ~ City Brewery and more broadly about the History of the Pioneer Brewing Company of Walla Walla, which includes the various business entities that operated the brewery over the years, from 1855 until it closed for good in 1952.

And here’s another obituary from the Columbia Twice-A-Week:

Here’s a short history of the brewery from 100 Years of Brewing:

walla-walla-1876 — This is Walla Walla in 1876, about six years after Frank Stahl’s father bought the brewery.

Beer In Ads #5362: Heineken’s Bokbier

September 28, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Monday’s poster is for Heineken’s Bokbier, which was created in the 1950s. This poster was made for the Heineken Brewery, which was founded in 1864 by Gerard Adriaan Heineken. The poster was created by prominent Dutch commercial artist and illustrator Jacob Jansma.

Historic Beer Birthday: Frederick Schaefer

September 28, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Frederick Schaefer (September 28, 1817-May 20, 1897). Frederick is the “F” in F&M Schaefer Brewing Co., founding it with his brother Maximilian in 1842. He was born in Wetzlar, which is part of Hesse, in what today is Germany. He arrived in New York in 1838, a year before his brother joined him in America.

This is his biography from Find a Grave:

Beer Magnate. He emigrated to the United States in 1838, settled in New York City, and was employed by a local beer maker. In 1839 his brother Maximilian also emigrated, carrying with him the recipe for lager, a popular brew in Germany that was then unknown in America. In 1842 the Schaefers bought out their employer and established F & M Schaefer Brewing. Lager proved popular and the Schaefer company became one of the country’s largest beer producers, with Frederick Schaefer remaining active in the company until failing health caused him to retire in the early 1890s. By the early 1900s, its customer base in the Northeastern United States made Schaefer the most popular beer in the country, a position it maintained until ceding it to Budweiser in the 1970s. The Schaefer brand continued to decline, and as of 1999 is owned by Pabst Brewing, a holding company that contracts for the brewing of formerly popular regional brands.

This is what the brewery looked like in 1842, when Frederick and his brother opened the brewery.

Below is part of a chapter on the history of F&M Schaefer Brewing Co., from Will Anderson’s hard-to-find Breweries in Brooklyn.

Longest operating brewery in New York City, last operating brewery in New York City [as of 1976], and America’s oldest lager beer brewing company — these honors, plus many others, all belong to The F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co.
“F. & M.”, as most breweriana buffs know, stands for Frederick and Maximilian, the brothers who founded Schaefer. Frederick Schaefer, a native of Wetzlar, Prussia, Germany, emigrated to the U.S. in 1838. When he arrived in New York City on October 23rd he was 21 years old and had exactly $1.00 to his name. There is some doubt as to whether or not he had been a practicing brewer in Germany, but there is no doubt that he was soon a practicing brewer in his adopted city. Within two weeks of his landing, Frederick took a job with Sebastian Sommers, who operated a small brewhouse on Broadway, between 18th and 19th Streets. Frederick obviously enjoyed both his job and life in America, and the next year his younger brother, Maximilian, decided to make the arduous trip across the Atlantic also. He arrived in June of 1839 and brought with him a formula for lager, a type of beer popular in Germany but unheard of in the United States. The brothers dreamed, and planned, and saved – and in the late summer of 1842 they were able to buy the small brewery from Sommers. The official, and historic, starting date was September, 1842.

schaefer-brewery-1849 — The new brewery they built in 1849.

Sommers’ former facility was a start, but that’s all it was, as it was much too small. New York beer drinkers immediately took a liking to “the different beer” the brothers brewed, and in 1845 Frederick and Maximilian developed a new plant several blocks away, on 7th Avenue, between 16th and 17th Streets (7th Avenue and 17th Street is today, of course, well known as the home of Barney’s, the giant men’s clothing store). This, too, proved to be just a temporary move; the plant was almost immediately inadequate to meet demands and the brothers wisely decided to build yet another new plant, and to locate it in an area where they could expand as needed. Their search took them to what were then the “wilds” of uptown Manhattan. In 1849 the brewery, lock, stock and many barrels, was moved to Fourth Ave. (now Park Avenue) and 51st Street. Here, just north of Grand Central Station, the Schaefers brewed for the next 67 years, ever-expanding their plant. The only problem was that the brothers were not the only ones to locate “uptown.” The area in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s grew rapidly all during the last half of the 19th century, and especially after the opening of the original Grand Central Terminal in 1871. Frederick and Maximilian had wisely purchased numerous lots between 50th and 52nd Streets, and by the time they passed away (Frederick in 1897 and Maximilian in 1904) the brewery was, literally, sitting atop a small fortune. Maximilian’s son, Rudolph J. Schaefer, fully realized this when he assumed the Presidency of the brewery in 1912. In that same year Rudolph purchased the 50% of the company owned by his uncle Frederick’s heirs. He thus had complete control of the brewery, and one of the first matters he turned to was the suitable location for a new, and presumably everlasting, plant. In 1914, in anticipation of its move, Schaefer sold part of the Park Ave. site to St. Bartholomew’s Church. This sale, for a reputed $1,500,000, forced Rudolph to intensify his search for a new location. Finally, in June of 1915, it was announced that the brewery had decided on a large tract in Brooklyn, directly on the East River and bounded by Kent Avenue and South 9th and 10th Streets. Here, starting in 1915, Rudolph constructed the very best in pre-Prohibition breweries. The move across the river to their ultra-new and modern plant was made in 1916, just four years before the Volstead Act crimped the sails (and sales!) of all United States breweries, new or old alike.

Schaefer-family — Three generations of Schaefers.

Historic Beer Birthday: Alexander Rodenbach

September 28, 2026 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

Today is the birthday of Alexander Rodenbach (September 28, 1786-August 17, 1869). He was a co-founder of Brouwerij Rodenbach, along with his brothers. His younger brother Pedro Rodenbach was a military officer and fought in the Battle of Waterloo. When he left the army in 1818, he married a brewer’s daughter, Regina Wauters, who was from Mechelen in Belgium. After Pedro’s father died, he and his brothers, Alexander, Ferdinand and Constantijn, bought a brewery in Roeselare. When their agreed-upon partnership ended after fifteen years, Pedro and Regina bought them out. It was originally called Brasserie et Malterie Saint-Georges. Afterward, Alexander opposed King Willem I and became a member of the National Congress, a position he held for 38 years, and for 25 years was also the mayor of Rumbeke, in Western Belgium. He also went blind as a youngster, when he was eleven, and was an advocate for helping the blind throughout his life.

This is a translation of his French Wikipedia page:

Alexander descends from a family of medieval German knights, the Van Rodenbachs. His father Jean had four sons: Ferdinand (1773-1841), Alexander (1786-1869), Constantin-Francois (? -1846) and Pierre (? -1848). Alexandre was born in Roeselare in 1786. With blindness at the age of 11, he will develop his other senses. He became the pupil of Valentin Haüy, then propagated the system of writing and teaching invented by Haüy.
In 1820, he bought a small brewery in his hometown. This brewery takes the name of Rodenbach and will last until its acquisition in 1998 by Palm Breweries. A beer tribute to the brewery is called Alexander Rodenbach in honor of the founder.
He began his political commitment around 1826 in the Catholic opposition movement against King William, notably by petitions. He earned the nickname “the blind man of Roeselare”. With his brothers Pierre and Constantin, they helped to create the “Catholic movement of the Netherlands”.
In parallel, Alexandre continues his actions with the blind by becoming involved with teaching methods and Catholic schools.

In 1830 Alexander and his brother Constantine entered politics in the Catholic and congressional movement of the Chamber of Deputies. Alexander was re-elected until May 1866.
His brothers also make less careers in politics. Ferdinand was commissioner of the arrondissement of Ypres from 1831 to 1841 (date of his death); Constantine is deputy with Alexander and then becomes ambassador to Athens; Pierre made a career in the army from 1826, when he created a corps of volunteers, up to the rank of captain.
Among his actions as a politician, he participated in the founding of the Institute of Blind and Deaf-mutes in Brussels, he manages the typhus and famine crisis of 1846-1847, he is a member of the commission Agriculture Superior of Belgium.
He died in Rumbeke in 1869. He was the burgomaster of Rumbeke from 1844 until his death in 1869.

And this is the history currently on the brewery website:

Entrepreneur, statesman, author, people’s representative, burgomaster. Unmarried. Went blind in his youth. Ran the brewery from 1821. Wrote scathing petitions against the policy of William I and in favour of freedom of speech and the press. Was instrumental in the Revolution in Roeselare in 1830 and supported his brothers Constantijn and Pedro in Brussels. Elected as a member of the Constitutional congress. As a parliamentarian, campaigned for the economic development of West Flanders, including railway and canal construction in Roeselare. Enjoyed a reputation in Europe for his books on teaching the blind and the deaf-and-dumb. Was multilingual, wrote poems and books, played the piano, was an art lover and a pragmatic revolutionary.

This biography is from the “National Biography of Belgium, XIX,” published in 1907:

RODENBACH (Alexander), politician, publicist and philanthropist, born in Roeselare, of a family originally from the Grand Duchy of Hesse, September 28, 1786, died at Rumbeke on August 17, 1869.
He was the second son of Jean Rodenbach and the brother of Ferdinand, Constantin Francis and Peter.
Alexander lost sight at the age of eleven, and it was in vain that his father, a notable merchant of Roeselare, submitted him to four operations by the best oculists of the time, including the celebrated Dubois, the surgeon of Napoleon. He was raised in Paris at the Museum of the Blind, founded and directed by Valentin Haüy. Endowed with energy and tenacity in every way, Rodenbach learned to be initiated into those arts which his unhappiness seemed to forbid him: dancing, riding and swimming. He applied himself particularly to developing the acuity of his senses, and Haüy soon counted him among his best pupils. So when King Louis of Holland asked the illustrious protector of the blind in 1807, one of his disciples to propagate his method to the school at Amsterdam, Haüy sent him Rodenbach, so much the better in this task that his knowledge of Dutch made it considerably easier for him to teach. About 1810 he returned to Roeselare, where he devoted himself to the industry and commerce of his parents. In 1828 he published his Letter on the Blind, following that of Diderot, and the following year his “Glance of a blind man on the deaf and dumb”; he later resumed this last subject in “The blind and the deaf-mute” (1853) which had two years after a second edition. a blind man on deaf-mutes “; he later resumed this last subject in “The blind and the deaf-mute” (1853) which had two years after a second edition. a blind man on deaf-mutes “; he later resumed this last subject in “The blind and the deaf-mute” (1853) which had two years after a second edition.
In 1829 Rodenbach proved, against Dewez and Barante, that it was at West Roosebeke , at the foot of the Keyaertsberg , that Philippe Van Artevelde was beaten and killed. Then he published his “Record on phonography or musical telegraphic language,” and some time after his “Historical and Geographical Notices on the City of Roeselare”.
Towards 1826, lthe Catholic opposition had redoubled its attacks against the government of King William, particularly on the laws of education. From the beginning, Alexander and Constantine Rodenbach actively collaborated with the “Catholic of the Netherlands” and contributed to the petitioning movement. “The Blind of Roeselare,” it was the name by which Alexander was designated, made this city a center of petitioning. At the first sound of the revolution, while his brother Pierre was rushing to Brussels to organize a body of volunteers, Alexander kept up the agitation inWest-Flanders. During and on the September days he went with Ferdinand to Lille, where, in concert with Bartholomew Dumortier, he summoned an assembly of the banished (September 27, 1830). While Pierre Rodenbach brought Louis de Potter back to Brussels, Alexander returned to Bruges, where he organized the revolution with Adolphe Bartels. He caused the Dutch garrison to be disbanded by his inflamed proclamation addressed to the non-commissioned officers of the army, and carried to the barracks by canvassers.
On the 4th of November, the inhabitants of Roulers sent him to sit at the National Congress, with Constantine his brother. In the following elections, he was elected deputy and bedroom until May 1866.
At the Congress, Alexander strongly supported the project of expulsion of the Nassau presented by his brother. Both voted for the Duke of Leuchtenberg, and then supported the regent’s hesitant policy. In 1831, while Constantine gave his voice to Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, Alexander refused to vote for this prince “convinced,” said he, “that he has too much honor to accept the crown under the humiliating conditions of the Holy Alliance He. More tenacious than his brother, who approved the eighteen articles, he signed the protest of 29 June 1831 and voted against the violation of the integrity of the territory. We see that Rodenbach displayed great parliamentary activity.
Later, he contributed powerfully to the erection of an Institute of the blind and deaf-mutes in Brussels, where he had his improvements adopted in the system of Haüy. As a protector of the blind and deaf-mutes, he introduced in the discussion of the communal law an amendment which obliges the communal councils to pay annually to the budget of their expenses maintenance and instruction costs for the blind and the deaf-mute indigents.
After the reorganization of the state universities at Liege and Ghent (September 27, 1835), it was Alexander Rodenbach who negotiated the translation of the Catholic university, founded at Mechelen in 1834, at Louvain (December 1, 1835). On December 27, 1841, he lost his brother Ferdinand (b. 3 May 1773), commissioner for ten years in the arrondissement of Ypres; in 1846, Constantine, ambassador at Athens; in 1848, Pierre, retired captain. These bereavements did not destroy his energy. As burgomaster of Rumbeke, he rendered immense services to the whole population of the district during the disastrous years from 1846 to 1847, when famine and typhus decimated Flanders. At bedroom, Alexander supported the abolition of the stamp of the newspapers and demanded the reduction of their port to a penny and that of the letters to ten centimes. At that time he was appointed member of the superior agricultural commission of the kingdom.
In October 1855, The Imperial Institute of the Young Blind in Paris organized a great festival in his honor, and he delivered a discourse full of encouragement to his young companions in misfortune. On August 10, 1861, he represented Belgium at the inauguration of the statue of Haüy, in Paris.
In 1858, a painful incident, which his author might have avoided, came to quarrel with Rodenbach, with one of his old friends, like himself a zealous philanthropist. J. Cappron, director of the Institute of the Deaf and Dumb in Antwerp, had composed a Flemish work, based chiefly on the work of M. de Gérando, “Memoirs on the instruction of the deaf mutes” (Paris, 1827) and had dedicated it to Rodenbach. Abbe C. Carton of Bruges thought he saw a plagiarism, and accused the author of literary insincerity in a strange letter, to which the blind man of Roeselius replied on March 30, 1858. Carton replied bitterly, insinuating that Rodenbach was unaware of these issues. Cappronintervened in the debate and proved that Carton, in his “Crowned Memory of the Academy of Belgium,” had himself borrowed much from de Gerando. The quarrel remained there.
It was also around this time that Rodenbach had a curious interview in Lille with the famous deaf-mute Jean Massieu , director of an institution for the blind in Lille.
Early the great philanthropist, who enjoyed the general esteem of his fellow-citizens, also excited the admiration of the stranger. His tenacity, his energy in misfortune, his vast intelligence had created a European fame, and visitors from all quarters came to solicit an interview with him in his modest village of Rumbeke. In 1835 he had obtained the cross and was appointed, in 1854, an officer of the order of Leopold. In the same year he received the decorations of St. Michael of Bavaria, Danebrog, Wasa, Christ of Portugal and the Rose from Brazil. The following year, Spain appointed him commander of the Order of Charles III., And the Pope created him Knight of St. Gregory the Great. In 1856 he was appointed knight of the Medjidie of Turkey, of Saint-Maurice of Sardinia, of Saint-Georges of Parma, of the Savior of Greece, of Francis I of the Two Sicilies; Napoleon III granted him the cross ofthe Legion of honor.
Alexandre Rodenbach, by his high qualities, was one of the most beautiful Belgium independent. His life will tell all the disinherited of nature what the will can do, even against the most unfortunate of infirmities. His name, inseparable from those of Haüy and Braille, will be honored like that of a benefactor of humanity.
His posthumous work, “Aide-Mémoire de l’aveugle de Roulers”, was published at Merchtem in 1870 by his nephew, Felix Rodenbach, then receiver of the recording at Ixelles (born in Roulers in 1827, living in Bruges), who wrote several books on recording rights.

The brewery began brewing a beer named for Alexander in 1986, and have subsequently brought it back from time to time:

RODENBACH Alexander was brewed for the first time in 1986 on the occasion of Alexander Rodenbach’s 200th birthday and is now back by popular demand to the delight of beer lovers here and abroad. Its aftertaste is reminiscent of a Burgundy wine and its freshness makes this beer the perfect aperitif or accompaniment to cheeses or dessert.

Historic Beer Birthday: Gerard Adriaan Heineken

September 28, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Gerard Adriaan Heineken (September 28, 1841-March 18, 1893). In 1864, he founded the Heineken brewing dynasty that’s still family-owned today.

This is part of the Wikipedia page for Heineken:

On 15 February 1864, Gerard Adriaan Heineken (1841–1893) convinced his wealthy mother to buy De Hooiberg (The Haystack) brewery in Amsterdam, a popular working-class brand founded in 1592. In 1873 after hiring a Dr. Elion (student of Louis Pasteur) to develop Heineken a yeast for Bavarian bottom fermentation, the HBM (Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij) was established, and the first Heineken brand beer was brewed. In 1875 Heineken won the Medaille D’Or at the International Maritime Exposition in Paris, then began to be shipped there regularly, after which Heineken sales topped 64,000 hectolitres (1.7 million U.S. gallons), making them the biggest beer exporter to France.

Here are some “interesting facts” about the early days of Heineken from the website First Versions:

In 1869 Gerard Heineken decided to switch from traditional top fermentation to the Bavarian method of bottom fermentation, a totally different technique that produces a clearer, purer beer, which keeps longer.
On January 11, 1873, Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij NV (HBM) was established, and Gerard Heineken was appointed President.
A second brewery was opened in Rotterdam in 1874.
In 1886 Dr. Hartog Elion, a pupil of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, developed the “A-yeast” in the Heineken laboratory. This yeast is still the key ingredient of Heineken beer.

And this is from the Heineken N.V. Wikipedia page:

The Heineken company was founded in 1864 when the 22-year-old Gerard Adriaan Heineken bought a brewery known as De Hooiberg (the haystack) in Amsterdam. In 1869 Heineken switched to the use of bottom-fermenting yeast. In 1873 the brewery’s name changed to Heineken’s Bierbrouwerij Maatschappij (HBM), and opened a second brewery in Rotterdam in 1874. In 1886 Dr. H. Elion, a pupil of the French chemist Louis Pasteur, developed the “Heineken A-yeast” in the Heineken laboratory. This yeast is still the key ingredient of Heineken beer.

And this longer biography is a Google translation of Oneindig Noord-Holland:

Gerard was born in Amsterdam in 1841 as the son of Cornelis Heineken and Anna Geertruida van der Paauw. He grew up with his brother and two sisters at a time when various contagious diseases were haunting the city. Many fled from run-down and impoverished Amsterdam. Gerard’s half-sister died in 1851 and his brother Adriaan, who was only eight years old, died two months later.

Gerard was a child of his time: he had a great interest in art, the history of the city and new technological developments. In 1863 Gerard had his eye on the somewhat dilapidated De Hooiberg brewery on the Nieuwezijds Achterburgwal in Amsterdam. Gerard’s move to take over the brewery was, to say the least, remarkable. The consumption of beer, still the national folk drink in the 17th century, had only declined. Preference was often given to wine, coffee, cocoa or tea and for the workers, gin and brandy were sufficient, which also had a better shelf life than beer. In addition, the quality of beer had recently deteriorated, so that the brewing industry enjoyed little prestige.

What probably appealed to Gerard was the technical aspect of brewing. It was a time when many new techniques were being developed and with that much progress was possible. In England, partly due to the steam engine, the beer industry had grown to such an extent that it was comparable to the textile industry or mining. In addition, beer was considered a blessing for public health in the Netherlands. If people wanted to move forward and regain their former prosperity, they had to drink the gin and the beer. Beer was therefore an ideal product to invest in if you had money and enough guts.

Gerard had a nose for entrepreneurship and managed to bring the beer back to the man. The switch to the so-called Beijerse or bottom-fermented beer was the first major success. Expansion soon became necessary and three years later the first stone was laid for a new factory on Stadhouderskade.

To keep up, Gerard made sure that the most modern techniques were used in the brewery. He was the first to buy a very expensive ice cream machine, which solved the cooling problems in one fell swoop. Yet the brewery is not only doing well. The international market and Paris in particular remains difficult to conquer. There was strong competition from Germany but also from our own city, where Amsterdam’s Amstel beer provided exciting times. Nevertheless, Gerard always managed to come back as the largest Dutch beer brewery.

While 1893 seemed to be a quiet year, disaster struck on March 18 for Gerard. He collapsed during a meeting, after which he died almost immediately: a heart attack. His son Henry Pierre Heineken (1886-1971) would eventually take over, but lacked business acumen and interest and did more harm than good. Fortunately, his son, the well-known Freddy Heineken (1923-2002), seemed to have inherited more of his grandfather’s talent for trade and leadership. Freddy did everything he could to get the company back into the hands of the Heinekens and would then be able to turn Gerard’s beer brand into a global brand.

Beer In Ads #5361: Felsen-Bräu Bock Bier

September 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Sunday’s poster is for Felsen-Bräu Bock Bier, which was created around 1910. This poster was made for the Brauerei Felsen-Bräu, in Lauterecken, Germany, which was founded in 1860. The poster was created by German artist Otto Obermeier of Munich.

Historic Beer Birthday: Carl Adolf Riebeck

September 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Carl Adolf Riebeck (September 27, 1821-January 28, 1883). He was primarily an industrialist and mining entrepreneur from Clausthal, Germany. According to Wikipedia, “Riebeck later became the wealthiest citizen of Halle, operating the Riebecksche brewery, Leipziger Brauhaus zu Reudnitz, in the Saxon Reudnitz,” which today is part of the town of Leipzig. As far as I can tell, the brewery is still around, but there’s some confusion (at least to me) as to what happened to it. One source claims that today it’s owned by the Radeberger Group while another seems to say it’s part of Braugold, but I’ll explore that in more depth below. At any rate, he and his family operated the brewery during his lifetime.

This biography is from a defunct German website profiling German Industrialists, and I used Google Translate to convert it to English:

The largest square in Saxony-Anhalt’s largest city, Halle, is named after Carl Adolf Riebeck. Why did you choose this name? Carl Adolf Riebeck was born in poor conditions, his ancestors had all been miners. He started casting ore at the age of 10 and soon entered the mine. The village school gave him little, he could hardly write properly right throughout his life.
The poor payroll conditions led him to seek his fortune outside the home area at the age of eighteen. So he came to Zeitz and Weissenfels. Riebeck soon became Steiger and later Bohrmeister. Why he again worked as a riser in a small pit after his return in 1847, which was a social decline, is unclear. In 1847 he married, in the marriage 6 sons and 3 daughters were born. During the Revolution of 1848/49, he served a one-year prison sentence, which he probably got for criminal offenses (tax evasion?) And then went back to central Germany.
There he got a higher position in the “Saxon-Thuringian joint stock company for brown coal utilization,” a state-owned company. He got to know the area very well and received in 1855 the position of a mountain inspector. Another ascent rejected the board. In particular, it was said that a former convict, who could barely write, had no business on the board. Riebeck then concealed a very rich coal discovery and bought the area in 1858 itself. This was the beginning of an unprecedented career.
At that time there were already several companies in the area that produced tar and other distillation products. His own first facilities in Gosserau (Weißenfels district) consisted of devices that had been sorted out by other companies. The bad machines and his low capital meant that his company did not want to get ahead. Only when he managed to borrow 20,000 Taler from a Halle bank, the company could flourish.
In return, he offered to pay a thaler for every hundred pounds of tar sold. After a few years, Riebeck was able to repay both the loan amount and the interest. One of the foundations for wealth was the law that was then in effect at the Weißenfelser Revier,

Gradually, he bought almost all lignite recycling companies in the area around Halle and Weißenfels. Riebeck realized early on that the high-bituminous coal that he had initially processed would run out and expand his production range. In the 1860s, it increasingly relied on two pillars: the smoldering of bitumen-rich coal and the production of briquettes from bituminous coal. In addition, his company produced tar, which he sold to Bitterfeld for further processing. Increasingly, he had the technique and procedures scientifically justified. The introduction of scientifically supported industry-related research is one of its pioneering achievements.
With his money Riebeck was also a major landowner in the area around Halle, he owned several manors and participated in the still existing brewery in Reudnitz (today part of Leipzig).
Because he rejected the struggle of social democracy for the improvement of working and living conditions, he introduced social measures far in advance of Bismarck’s social legislation (sickness and disability funds, foundations, etc.). He wanted to show that a social democracy was not needed to achieve improvements, but that it was much easier and without disputes about the patriarchal benevolence of the entrepreneur possible.
In just under 25 years, Riebeck has gone from the propertyless to the richest citizen of Halle, to the largest landowner in the district of Weissenfels and to the Prussian Council of Commerce. He was always a pure practitioner in his activity, who was suspicious of everything that was theoretical and theoretical. This he also remained in view of the successes that resulted from working with chemists of the University of Halle. Riebeck was able to compensate for his lack of school education with the help of handicraft talent and a sense for the technical.
When Riebeck died, he owned 15 coal mines, three mineral oil factories, 31 smolderies, 27 briquette presses and 13 brickworks, as well as a brewery and a handful of manors.

This account of his personal life is from his Wikipedia page:

Riebeck was born into a mining family from Clausthal. In 1827, his father, Steiger, a mine surveyor’s assistant, moved with his family to Harzgerode to work in the Lower Harzironstone mines in Anhalt.
In 1847, Riebeck married Maria Renk ( 1825-1873 ). From this marriage 7 children were born, of which three survived to adulthood. Of these 7 children, only two were sons, Emil Riebeck and Paul Riebeck. His daughter Margaret (1864-1904) married General Reinhard Gottlob Georg Heinrich Freiherr von Scheffer-Boyadel, who was knighted in 1890. His daughter Maria married geoscientist Herbert Credner in 1872.
In 1877, Riebeck married his second wife, Emilie Balthasar, producing two children.

And the same Wikipedia page details his career:

Riebeck eventually left school to begin working in 1835 as a pit boy and later as Lehrhäuer in Harzgerode’s Albertine ironstone mine. At the age of 18, he left the Harz mountains to work in the brown coal mines of Zeitz and Weissenfels. He attended a mining school in Eisleben and qualified to become a mining foreman.
After an accident, Riebeck was sentenced to one year of imprisonment for criminal breach of duty, which he served between 1848 and 1849. After his release, he found a job at Sächsisch-Thüringischen Aktiengesellschaft, that excavated brown coal. In 1856 he was promoted to the post of mining inspector.
He resigned in 1858 after realizing that he would not be considered for a higher position. He bought brown coal mines in the area of Bitterfeld und Weißenfels and soon began mining operations. Riebeck borrowed money to invest in the upgrade of coal technology as well as distillation units for the production of paraffin, mineral oil and tar.
The petroleum factories of Gosserau, Webau, Reußen bei Theißen and Oberröblingen became the foundation of Riebeck’s empire.
Within a few years, Riebeck acquired refining plants and briquette factories in Hall, Schwelereien, Whiterock and Bitterfeld. He developed brown coal mining into a large scale industry within Saxony and Thuringia.
Riebeck later became the wealthiest citizen of Halle, operating the Riebecksche brewery, Leipziger Brauhaus zu Reudnitz, in the Saxon Reudnitz and some manors.
Even before social legislation was created, he provided social security measures for his workers.

As for the brewery, it was founded in 1862 and Riebeck bought it out of bankruptcy in 1871, and turned it around. Here’s one account of its history according to the Leipzig Brauhaus in Reudnitz Wikipedia page, which also concludes that today is owned by the Radeberger Group.

The history of the brewery goes back to the year 1862, when
Adolf Schröder founded the Leipzig beer brewery in Reudnitz in the suburb of Reudnitz, which had not yet been incorporated into Leipzig. As early as 1871, the bankruptcy-ripe enterprise was sold to the industrialist
Carl Adolf Riebeck and some citizens of Leipzig.
Under the leadership of Riebecks, the development of the brewery began to become the most important in Saxony and the fourth largest in the
German Reich. In 1887, this was renamed Riebeck & Comp. trading companies converted into a stock corporation. On the threshold of the 20th century, the company owned the most modern brewing equipment in Europe and the largest brewhouse in the world. The company acquired the Altenburger Aktienbrauerei and the brewery Gottlieb Büchner in Erfurt.
The company also acquired the majority of shares in the Kiesel-Haberland brewery in Finsterwalde , the Vereinsbrauerei in Döbeln, the Heßberg brewery in Heßberg , the Pfannenberg brewery in Zerbst, the Partuschke brewery in Torgau and the Kürsten brewery in Arnstadt.
Furthermore, the Riebeck & Comp. AG at the Aktienbrauerei Neustadt-Magdeburg AG (62.4%), the Vereinsbrauerei AG Greiz (74%), the Reichsquelle brewery AG Mühlhausen(40%), the Bürgerliches Brauhaus AG Saalfeld (66.23%), the Vereinsbrauerei AG Zwickau (58.3%), the Vereinsbrauerei AG Apolda (72%), the Bergbrauerei AG Riesa (74%), the Aktienbrauerei Greußen ( 70%), the brewery Hack AG Meiningen (40%), the brewery Krostitz (74%), the Germania brewery AG Oschersleben , the export beer brewery AG Peter Königsee, the town
brewery AG Wurzen and the monastery brewery AG Stadtroda.

By air strikes more than half of the brewery building was destroyed during the Second World War. In 1946, the nationalization of the company, which henceforth operated as VEB Riebeck brewery, later as VEB Landes-brewery. At the same time, the gradual reconstruction of brewery facilities began. In 1959, the brewery with other breweries, including the former brewery VEB Westquell as former brewery CW Naumann in Plagwitz, together to combine VEB Sachsenbräu. In 1968, the formation of the VEB Getränkekombinat Leipzig, whose parent company was the VEB Sachsenbräu followed.

After the political change in the GDR, the Combine was dissolved.
The brewery now appeared with the new brand “Reudnitzer.” In 1991, the Dortmund-based beverage company Brau und Brunnen AG took over the company and renamed it to Leipziger Brauhaus Reudnitz GmbH. For the modernization of the production plants, Brau und Brunnen AG invested about the equivalent of approx. 50 million euros.
In 1993, a fully automated brewhouse was inaugurated. Due to economic difficulties of the parent company was the Reudnitzer brewery with its 170 jobs in 1997 threatened by the closure. It could be averted by massive citizen protests.
In 2005, the brewery was sold to the Radeberger Group of the Oetker Group. In the same year, a new bottling plant with a capacity of up to 60,000 bottles per hour was installed. With the elimination of the last brewed products Reudnitzer Pilsner and Reudnitzer Ur-Bock 2012 ended the beer brand Reudnitzer. The Leipziger Brauhaus zu Reudnitz GmbH is removed from the trade register. The production facilities are used to produce Sternburg beer.

However, on the Wikipedia page for Braugold, they tell a different story of the path that the Riebeck brewery took.

In 1920 the [Braugold] brewery acquired Baumann Buchner AG. At the same time the brewery merged with Leipzig Riebeck Brauerei AG, founded by Carl Adolf Riebeck. In 1921 the reorganized brewery produced 2.5 million gallons of beer.
After the end of World War II, the brewery was transferred to public ownership in 1948. With the entry of the trademark Braugold the brewery in 1956 received its current name. In 1967, the production of today’s best-selling beer brewing Pilsner special gold began. 1969 was formed by the merger of nine breweries in the district of Erfurt VEB Kombinat drinks Erfurt. The Braugold brewery was the parent company and seat of the line of the combine.
After the turn and the associated end of the beverages combine the Braugold brewery was first adopted by the Lich private brewery in 1990. In 1996 it was taken over by the successor to the former owner, the Riebeck group, which included at that time the brewery in Eisenach and the Wernesgrüner brewery. On 1 January 2011 took over the beverage group Forest Hoff Braugold Brewery.
In the fall of 2010, production in the Erfurt was halted for all seven types of beer, as the largely run-down brewery building did not allow for economical production. The actual brewing and bottling is now done in a brewery in Braunschweig.

Historic Beer Birthday: Louis Centlivre

September 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks 2 Comments

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Today is the birthday of Louis Alphonse Centlivre (September 27, 1857-February 15, 1942). He was born in Dubuque, Iowa, and was the son of C.L. Centlivre, who founded the C.L. Centlivre Brewing Company with his brother, Frank. It was also known as the French Brewery and much later as the Old Crown Brewery.

The brewery was first known as the French Brewery when it was founded in 1862, but Charles L. Centlivre’s name was associated with it from the very beginning. In 1893, the name was formally changed to the C.L. Centlivre Brewing Co., which it remained until it was shut down in 1918 by the Indiana State Prohibition, two years before it was national. During Prohibition the brewery was called Centlivre Ice & Storage Co. After repeal in 1933, it was rebranded as the Centlivre Brewing Corp., until 1961, when it was changed to the Old Crown Brewing Co. That was still its name when it closed for good in 1973.

This biography of Louis is from “Men of Progress, Indiana: A Selected List of Biographical Sketches,” edited by William Cumback and Jacob Beckwith Maynard:

c-l-centlivre-brewery

This account of Centlivre is from an unnamed printed source at the Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne, Indiana:

Louis-Centlivre

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Historic Beer Birthday: Frank D. Yuengling

September 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Frank D. Yuengling (September 27, 1876-January 29, 1963). He was the grandson of David G. Yuengling, who founded the Eagle Brewing Co. in 1829, and today it’s “America’s oldest brewery.” The name was changed in 1873 to D. G. Yuengling and Son when David’s son Frederick Yuengling joined the company. Frank D. Yuengling was Frederick’s son, and after his father passed away in 1899, “he took over the running of the brewery, borrowed $500,000, and slowly bought out the other family members, with he and his mother living on $50 a month until the debt was repaid. He ran the company until his death in 1963.”

This biography of Frank Yuengling is from a “History of Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania … including a genealogical and biographical record of many families and persons in the county,” published in 1907:

100 Years of Brewing has a short summary of D.G. and the brewery’s early years.