Beer In Ads #5184: The “B”s Are Here, Bruton Bock Beer

January 27, 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 ad is for Bruton Bock Beer, which was published on January 27, 1939. This ad was for the Bruton Brewing Co. of Baltimore, Maryland, which was originally founded in 1855 by George Neisendorfer. Over the years it had several owners and a variety of names, and for it’s last five years in business, from 1935-1940, it was known as the Bruton Brewing Co. This ad ran in The Evening Sun , also of Baltimore, Maryland.

Beer Birthday: Logan Plant

January 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the 47th birthday of Logan Plant, founder and brewmaster of Beavertown Brewery, which he started in 2011. I met Logan first at the Firestone-Walker Invitational Beer Festival a few years ago and have run into a couple of times since both there and at the RateBeer Best Festival. He’s a very friendly and talented person and his beer is great, and it’s always been a pleasure to hang out with him. Please join me in wishing Logan a very happy birthday.

At the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2017.

logan-jeremy-me — With Jeremy Marshall, from Lagunitas, and me at the RateBeer Best Awards show in January 2017.

With Matt Brynildson at the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2017.

SAM_6302 — With me, Matt Brynildson and another F-W brewer at the Firestone-Walker Invitational in 2016.

Historic Beer Birthday: William Tunis Ryerson

January 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of William Tunis Ryerson (January 27, 1829-December 28, 1891). He was born in New York, and his father was a senior partner in the Ryerson and Brown Transfer Co. The Ryersons came to America in 1646, so I suspect he didn’t struggle financially too much. When he was 44 year old, in 1873, he joined the New York City brewery Yuengling & Co. on 213 Front & 4th Avenue as an investor and controlling partner. But he left just four years later to help form the New York Cab Company, which consolidated the existing taxi service in the city. Meanwhile, Yuengling closed the New York brewery in 1882. Ryerson passed away in late 1891, age 62.

Historic Beer Birthday: Henry Hubach

January 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Henry Hubach (January 27, 1843-June 16, 1915). He was born in Germany but moved to the U.S. in 1865. It appears he may have been involved in the Wayne Street Brewery of Fort Wayne, Indiana, at least between 1874-1876. One breweriana reference states that it was actually known as the Henry Hubach Brewery for those two years. Although 100 Years of Brewing mentions that Hubach had been in the U.S. for twelve years before buying the brewery in Ohio, which would mean he emigrated in 1865 at the age of 22. They further state that he had previously worked in breweries in Philadelphia, Cincinnati and Milwaukee, not listing Indiana at all. So it’s possible, however unlikely, that there were two different Henry Hubachs.

At some point, our Henry Hubach moved to Tiffin, Ohio, which is in the northern part of the state. In 1877 he bought the Fred Giege & Jacob Schumucker Brewery, renaming it the City Brewery, though in 1906 it became known as Hubach’s Brewery Co. Some sources indicate City Brewery was its original name when it first opened around 1855, while others claim its original names was the Siegrist Brewery. The brewery operated until 1916, the year after Hubach died, and appears to have not survived his passing.

There’s surprisingly little biographical information about Hubach, although the Brewers Journal in 1915 did publish a brief obituary which sheds some light:

A local pamphlet-size book entitled the “History of Tiffin’s Breweries and Bottling Works,” by Joseph Terry has the most information I could find on Hubach.

The brewery building six years before it was destroyed by a fire in 1966.

Most accounts seem to say that Hubach bought his Ohio brewery in 1877, but it appears that he may have simply rented it for the first six years, only completing the purchase of it in January of 1883.

And speaking of the flood, some of the brewery’s best photos I could find are from the flood, known as the Great Flood of 1913.

“The brewery built on Tiffin, Ohio’s Madison Street near the Sandusky River was in operation by 1859. By 1878 the business was owned by Henry Hubach. The building withstood the 1913 flood; it was destroyed by fire in the 1960s.”

Beer Birthday: Peter Kruger

January 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks 2 Comments

Today is the 56th birthday of Peter Kruger, who for many years was the head brewer at Bear Republic Brewing. Peter was an early brewer at Full Sail in Hood River, Oregon. He came to California to become the original brewer at Stumptown Brewery when they opened in 2001, but left in 2005 to join Bear Republic. Peter has become an integral part of Bear Republic’s success since joining the team, and is a terrific person to share a pint with. More recently, after the changes at Bear Republic, he’s moved to Flagstaff, Arizona to become the COO at Mother Road Brewing. The only downside to that is we don’t see as often these days. Please join me in wishing Peter a very happy birthday.

Me, Peter, and Agus Blanco at GABF a couple of years back.

Peter explaining one Bear Republic’s beers at their annual GABF Tasting at the brewpub in 2009.

Peter (2nd from the left) with the Bear Republic gang accepting another award at GABF in 2007.

ezryder-2 — Bear Republic brewers Rich Norgrove, Jode Yaksic, Peter and Ray Lindecker during a visit in 2008.

Rich Norgrove and Peter at the New Albion re-launch at Russian River Brewing a couple of years ago.

Historic Beer Birthday: Charles Hebrank

January 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Charles ‘Carl’ Hebrank (January 27, 1809 or 1811-March 18, 1887). He was born in Hohen Neuendorf, Germany, where he trained as a brewery. After marrying Catherine and having three children, around 1853 he moved his family to the United States, settling in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

He soon after partnered with Marcus Rapp (who was also a recent immigrant from Germany) to open a brewery in 1850 they called the Rapp & Hebrank Lager Beer Brewery, but in 1874 shortened to the Hebrank & Rapp. His two eldest sons, Lewis (or Louis, accounts differ) and John, were also trained in brewing and later opoened their own breweries in Kansas and West Virginia. Shortly after Hebrank died in 1887, the brewery was reorganized as the Parkersburg Brewing Co. but closed for good in 1914, thanks to West Virginia passing Anti-Saloon laws that took effect that year, even before the nationwide prohibition.

The Hebrank and Rapp Brewery around 1880.

Beer In Ads #5183: Like From The Fountain Of Youth Is A Glass Of Leidiger Bock Beer

January 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Monday’s ad is for Leidiger Bock Beer, which was published on January 26, 1910. This ad was for the Leidiger Brewing Co. of Merrill, Wisconsin, which was originally founded in 1884 by George Ruder, and the Leidiger family appears to have bought the brewery around 1895. This ad ran in The Merrill Star Advocate , also of Merrill, Wisconsin.

Beer Birthday: Bob Uecker

January 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

Today would have been the 91st birthday of Bob Uecker, who is an “American former Major League Baseball player and later was a sportscaster, comedian, and actor, but he passed away less than two weeks ago. Facetiously dubbed ‘Mr. Baseball’ by TV talk show host Johnny Carson, Uecker had served as a play-by-play announcer for Milwaukee Brewers radio broadcasts since 1971. He was honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame with its 2003 Ford C. Frick Award in recognition of his broadcasting career.” But he is best-remembered, beerwise, for his humorous commercials in the 1980s for Miller Lite beer.

This is his biography, from his Wikipedia page:

Though he has sometimes joked that he was born on an oleo run to Illinois, Uecker was born and raised in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He grew up watching the minor-league Milwaukee Brewers at Borchert Field. He signed a professional contract with his hometown Milwaukee Braves in 1956 and made his Major League Baseball debut as a catcher with the club in 1962. A below-average hitter, he finished with a career batting average of .200. He was generally considered to be a sound defensive player and committed very few errors in his Major League career as a catcher, completing his career with a fielding percentage of .981. However, in 1967, despite playing only 59 games, he led the league in passed balls and is still on the top 10 list for most passed balls in a season. At least a partial explanation is that he spent a good deal of the season catching knuckleballer Phil Niekro. He often joked that the best way to catch a knuckleball was to wait until it stopped rolling and pick it up. Uecker also played for the St. Louis Cardinals (and was a member of the 1964 World Champion club) and Philadelphia Phillies before returning to the Braves, who had by then moved to Atlanta. His six-year Major League career concluded in 1967.
Perhaps the biggest highlight of Uecker’s career was when he hit a home run off future Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, after which Uecker joked that he always thought that home run would keep Koufax from getting into the Hall of Fame.

After retiring as a player, Uecker returned to Milwaukee. In 1971, he began calling play-by-play for the Milwaukee Brewers’ radio broadcasts, a position he holds to this day. During his tenure, he has mentored Pat Hughes, Jim Powell, Cory Provus and Joe Block, all of whom became primary radio announcers for other MLB teams. For several years he also served as a color commentator for network television broadcasts of Major League Baseball, helping call games for ABC in the 1970s and NBC (teaming with Bob Costas and Joe Morgan) in the 1990s. During that time, he was a commentator for several League Championship Series and World Series.
As of 2016, Uecker teams with Jeff Levering to call games on WTMJ in Milwaukee and the Brewers Radio Network throughout Wisconsin, save for some road trips which he skips; for those games Lane Grindle substitutes for Uecker on the radio broadcasts. Uecker is well known for saying his catchphrase “Get up! Get up! Get outta here! Gone!” when a Brewers player hits a home run.
Known for his humor, particularly about his undistinguished playing career, Uecker actually became much better known after he retired from playing. He made some 100 guest appearances on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. During one Tonight Show appearance Carson asked him what the biggest thrill of his professional baseball career was and with his typical dry wit Uecker replied, “Watching a fan fall out of the upper deck in Philadelphia; the crowd booed.” Most of his wisecracks poked fun at himself. He once joked that after he hit a grand slam off pitcher Ron Herbel, “When his manager came out to get him, he was bringing Herbel’s suitcase.” On another occasion, he quipped, “Sporting goods companies would pay me not to endorse their products.” On his later acting career, he commented, “Even when I played baseball, I was acting.”
Uecker also appeared in a number of humorous commercials, most notably for Miller Lite beer, as one of the “Miller Lite All-Stars”

Here’s a selection of some of Uecker’s commercials for Miller Lite:

From 1983:
From 1984:

From 1986:

From 1987:

From 1988:

Another one from 1988, promoting the Olympics:

Historic Beer Birthday: Carl Dinkelacker

January 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Carl Dinkelacker (January 26, 1863-September 5, 1934). He was born in Böblingen, Landkreis Böblingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. In 1888, he founded the Dinkelacker Brewery in Stuttgart, Germany, and by the end of the 19th century, it was the largest brewery in town. In 1996, it merged with Schwaben Bräu, which is also located in Stuttgart to create Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu, but in 2004 was acquired by InBev. More recently, it again became an independent family-owned company in 2007, called Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu GmbH & Co. KG. Unfortunately, there’s not much biographical information I could find about Carl.

Here’s a short history of the brewery from Hobby db:

The brewery Dinkelacker is a Swabian brewery. It was founded in 1888 by Carl Dinkelacker in Tübinger Strasse in Stuttgart, where even today a brewery of the company is located. The founding was a challenge as there were already many established breweries in the area at that time. However, the brewery withstood the competitive pressure, so that it was one of the largest breweries in Stuttgart at the end of the 19th century. The annual production in 2013 was approximately 600,000 hectoliters.
In 1994, the actually competing breweries Dinkelacker and Schwaben Bräu opened a joint logistics center under the name Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu Logistik (DSL) . In 1996, Dinkelacker and Schwaben Bräu merged to form Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG in order to be able to survive in the increasingly difficult market. In 2003 InBevexpanded to the German market. The company took over the beer division of the Spaten-Franziskaner-BräuGmbH, which was also the majority shareholder of Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu AG. Thus, Dinkelacker operated from October 1, 2004 to December 31, 2006 under the umbrella of InBev. Since 2 January 2007 Dinkelacker together with Schwaben Bräu under the name Dinkelacker-Schwaben Bräu GmbH & Co. KG is again an independent family-owned company.

The brand has been available in the U.S. off and on over the years, including being served at the New York World’s Fair in 1964. While I attended that World’s Fair, I did not sample the being, being only five years old at the time.

Brewery wagon in the early 20th century.

The brewery today.

Beer Birthday: Ralph Olson

January 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks 1 Comment

Today is Ralph Olson’s 75th birthday. Ralph was the general manager/co-owner of HopUnion, a co-op that supplied hops to many of the craft breweries. Ralph is retired but for awhile I’d still see him at occasional beer events throughout the country, but not as much lately. He’s been a good friend to and very supportive of the craft beer industry. Join me in wishing Ralph a very happy birthday.

Ralph and me at the end of the brewer’s reception at GABF in 2007.

Dave Keene, from the Toronado, Dave Pyle, Ralph and Becky Pyle, who are also with HopUnion, along with my friend Dave Suurballe.

Ralph with the other HopUnion Ralph, Ralph Woodall, and Rob Widmer, the younger half of Widmer Brothers Brewing, at the 15th Anniversary Party for the Celebrator Beer News.

cbc07-05 — Ralph Olson, the Big Cheese from HopUnion. If you look carefully in between his “Sponsor” and “Exhibitor” badge you can see his title really is officially “the Big Cheese.

ralph-olson-3 — Ralph sandwiched between Jessica, the former event coordinator for the AOB and Chad Kennedy, brewer at Laurelwood Public House & Brewery in Portland, Oregon at GABF in 2006.

ralph-olson-4 — With Natalie Cilurzo of Russian River Brewing, who’s accepting an award at the Alpha King Hop Challenge in 2006. If you look closely, you can find the award money.

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