Thursday’s ad is for Bières de la Meuse, from 1896. From the late 1800s until the 1940s, poster art really came into its own, and in
Beer In Ads #2891: Bières de la Meuse
Archives for January 2019
Historic Beer Birthday: George Hauck
Today is the birthday of George Hauck (January 31, 1832-April 20, 1912). He was born in Germany, but came to America when he was 18, in 1850, and after working in several breweries, in 1863. settled in Kingston, New York. In 1864, he and a partner, George Dressell, founded a brewery, initially known as the Geo. Dressell & Co. Brewery. Twenty years later, Dressell passed away, and Hauck became the sole proprietor, changing the name to the George Hauck Brewery. In 190s, his sons joined him in the business, and it became known as the Geo. Hauck & Sons Brewing Co., before it closed due to prohibition in 1916. It was re-opened by a few different business entities after repeal in 1933, but none proved sustainable and it closed for good in 1938.
In “The History of Ulster County, New York,” there’s an entry on Hauck:
George Hauck and a young child in a horse and buggy, around 1900.
Here’s his obituary from Find-a-Grave:
George Hauck, president of the George Haurk and Sons Brewing Company, died on Saturday evening at his home on Wurts street, aged 80 years. He had been in failing health for some time. Mr. Hauck was born in Germany In 1832, a son of Adam Hauck. His father was a brewer by occupation. Coming to this country in 1849 be became associated with hib father In the latter’s brewery at the corner of Broome and Wooster streets in New York. Two years later they moved to Sheriff street where the brewery was continued. The son went to Cincinnati in 1852 and made a study of brewing. Four years later he returned to New York and entered the employ of Kress & Schaffer. He next went with the Lyon brewery and remained until it was destroyed by fire. From that time until 1861 Mr. Hauck entered the. employ of William Bertsche, who had a brewery where the Hoffman brewery now stands at Hone and Spring streets. Three years later Mr. Hauck and George Dressel formed a partnership and began brewing on the site of the present brewery at the corner of Wurts and McEntee streets. From the death of Mr. Dressel in 1884 until 1890 Mr. Hauck continued the business alone. The company was incorporated in that year. In 1867 Mr. Hauck married Miss Barbara Welker of Worms, Germany. Five children were born to then: John Hauck, Adam Hauck, Minnie Hauck, wife of Prof. C. W. Louis Stiehl of Oklahoma City; Louise Hauck, wife of John B. Kearney Mr. Hauck was a member of United German Lodge, No. 303. I. O. O. F., Franklin Lodge, No. 37, Knights of Pythias, the First German Sick and Aid Society and the Rondout Social Mannerchor. In politics Mr. Hauck was a staunch Democrat. The funeral will be held on Wednesday afternoon at 2 o’clock at his late residence, 115 Wurts street. Interment in Montrepose cemetery.
The Hauck Brewery.
This is short history of the brewery, from Thierry’s breweriana website:
George Hauck was born in 1832 in Germany. His father, Adam Hauck, was a brewer. George Hauck came to the United Sates as a young man in 1849. He went to work in his fathers brewery in New York City. In 1852 Hauck went to Cincinnati to contiue his brewing studies, only to return to New York 4 years later. Upon his return to New York City he went to work for Kress & Schaffer. He then went to work for Lyon Brewery until it was destroyed by fire. In 1861 Hauck went to work for William Bertsche in Rondout NY. Bertsche had a brewery on the corner of Hone and Spring Streets, later the Jacob Hoffmann Brewery would be located there. By 1864 Hauck and George Dressel formed a partnership and began brewing on the Corner of Wurts and McEntees Streets. The brewery was called Geo. Dressel and Co. Lager Beer Brewery. They were soon producing 5,000 barrels of beer a year. Hauck and Dressel ran the brewery until Dressel died in 1884. That same year that the main brick brewery building was built near the corners of Wurts St and McEntee St. The bottling plant was near the corner of Hone St and McEntee St. The bottling plant had been built earlier into a hillside with a cave at the rear of the building for cooling and storage of the beer that they produced.
The cave had resulted from an unusual partnership between a brewer and a baker. William Bertsche and his partner, Martin Uhle, had dug out the cave as a result of a business venture in October of 1856. Bertsche and Uhle had entered into a contract with Abraham Crispell to construct a “tunnel” on Crispell’s property on Holmes St (now known as McEntee St). Accordind to the contract, said “tunnel” was only be used for the purpose of storing Lager Bier”. Bertsche and Uhle would pay a yearly fee of $15.00 for the privilage of storing beer in the newly constructed cave. Records showed that the fee of $15.00 was paid to Crispell for the years of 1857, 1858 and 1859.
Later, Martin Uhle, who had been a baker, became a saloon owner and sold Bertshce’s beer and the cave that they had dug together would become the property of Geroge Hauck, Bertsche’s former employee.
Hauck then ran the brewery alone until 1890, the year the brewery was incorporated as the George Hauck Brewing Company.
George’s sons, Adam and John, became company officers.
In 1892 the Brewery was producing it’s signature “Red Monogram” beer. There even was a “Red Monogram” baseball team sponsored by the Hauck Brewing Company. In 1908, advertisements appeared in the local directory for Hauck’s “Rock Cellar Brew”. It was named after the cave that the held the bottling plant. By 1912, the brewery was turning out approximately 35,000 barrels of beer a year.
On April 20th 1912, the founder, George Hauck, died at his home after a long illness. His son, Adam Hauck, assumed the Presidency upon his father’s death. John, became the Vice-President.
In 1918, prior to the passage of the 18th Amendment, better known as Prohibition, the brewery was remodeled for the manufacture of peanut oil production. It was marketed as “Salanut”, “Refined Virgin Peanut Oil”. The brewery was now known as the Hauck Food Products Corporation. On December 9th 1920, John Hauck, 62 years of age, died at his home after a long illness. In early 1922, the Hauck Food Products Corporation was sold to Bankers Underwriters Syndicate of New York. John Kearney, Adam Hauck’s brother in-law, remained Vice-President while Adam and Mary had no part in the operation of the peanut oil factory.
In 1924, a “Near Beer” license was obtained and the production of “Near Beer” lasted four years, until 1928. Revenue Agents found the beer was over the alcohol content allowed and the “Near Beer” license was revoked.
Plagued by taxes and competition, the brewery never re-opened after the repeal of prohibition in 1933. A city directory in 1934 showed the Frank Brady Brewery as the new owner. Frank Brady continued to brew “Red Monogram” beer during his brief ownership. City directories 1935-1939 listed the Peter Doelger Brewing Corp as being located at that address. Finally in 1940 the Staton Brewery Inc was listed as a “Wholesale Beverage” distributor. Shortly afterwards, the building laid empty and became a city owned property. An oil company attempted to purchase the site, but public opposition to a zoning change stopped the sale. The Hauck buildings were demolished around 1942.
There was also a John Hauck Brewery in Ohio, but as far as I can tell they are not related. Also, George’s brother did start his own brewery in New Jersey, which was known as the Peter Hauck Brewery.
Historic Beer Birthday: William Hoffmeister
Today is the birthday of William Hoffmeister (January 31, 1827-1902), who was born in Germany, but emigrated to the U.S. in 1847, settling in Cincinnati, Ohio. There in 1856 he founded the William Hoffmeister Brewery, but it was only in production until 1873, when he closed it and opened a saloon. Being open for a mere seventeen years, there’s precious little information about either the brewery or William Hoffmeister, and I was unable to find any picture of him, his beer or his brewery, though this may be his coat of arms.
This is about all I could find on William Hoffmeister, from the Cincinnati Turner Societies: The Cradle of an American Movement, by Dann Woellert, published in 2012.
Beer In Ads #2890: Bière St. Nicolas de Port
Wednesday’s ad is for Bière St. Nicolas de Port, from 1933. From the late 1800s until the 1940s, poster art really came into its own, and in
Historic Beer Birthday: Christian Hess
Today is the birthday of Christian Hess (January 30, 1848-July 27, 1912). Hess was born in Germany, and that’s about all I could find out about the man who co-founded, along with George Weisbrod, the George Weisbrod & Christian Hess Brewery, usually shortened to just the Weisbrd & Hess Brewery, and also known as the Oriental Brewery.
Both Weisbrod and Hess were German immigrants, and originally their intention was simply to make enough beer to supply their Philadelphia saloon on Germantown Avenue. Some sources say they began as early as 1880, but most put the founding at 1882. The brewery was going strong until closed by prohibition. They managed to reopen in 1933, but closed for good in 1938.
A brewery poster from 1905.
In 1994, Yards Brewing renovated the old Weisbrod & Hess Brewery, but after the partners split, it became the Philadelphia Brewing Co., while Yards under the direction of Tom Kehoe moved to another location.
In the Philadelphia Brewing Co. tasting room upstairs, an old photo of the employees of the original brewery on the premises, Weisbrod & Hess Oriental Brewing Company.
Both Philadelphia Weekly and Hidden City Philadelphia have stories about the brewery and efforts to re-open it.
The brewery two years closing, in 1940.
The brewery was designed by famed local architect Adam C. Wagner, and this is an illustration of his design for the brewery from 1892.
An ad from 1899.
And a calendar from 1912.
Beer Birthday: Sean Turner
Today is the birthday of Sean Turner, who is the owner of Mammoth Brewing Co.. I first met Sean when he worked for another brewery (Deschutes, maybe?) but he worked for a few different breweries, representing them in and around the Bay Area. But in 2007, he bought Mammoth, and really turned it around, expanding the business and building a new, larger and more modern brewery in the ski resort town. They also took over running Mammoth Festival of Beers and Bluesapalooza, and if you haven’t made the trek there, it’s an amazing event. Join me in wishing Sean a very happy birthday.
Sean with Tom Dalldorf, from the Celebrator, at Matteo’s Public House in Nevada City for an event in 2010.
Getting the thumbs up from Tom McCormick, executive director of the CCBA.
Historic Beer Birthday: Martin Stelzer
Today is the birthday of Martin Stelzer (January 30, 1815-August 3, 1894). Stelzer was an architect, probably from Germany, who built a number of homes in Plzeň, Czech Republic, such as “the old (small) Synagogue in Pilsen, the Little Theatre (formerly on Goethe Street) and a stone Saxon bridge in the suburbs of Roudná which has one rare feature, a sweep middle.” He was also hired by the local Burghers (or citizens) to build the town brewery, which today is known as the Pilsner Urquell brewery. He is also believed to have hired their first brewmaster, Josef Groll.
This biography is from the Pilsner Urquell website:
When it comes to the founding of Pilsner Urquell, Martin Stelzer remains one of the most important figures, though he is also one of the most misunderstood.
Often mischaracterized as a brewer, Martin Stelzer was the most famous builder in nineteenth-century Plzen — something like the unofficial town architect. Born in 1815, Stelzer had constructed more than two hundred buildings in Plzen by the time of his death in 1894, including such important sites as Old Synagogue of 1859 and the Small Theater of 1869.
When he was first hired to create the new town brewery in 1839, however, Stelzer was just 24 years old — and, most importantly, he had never built a brewery of any kind. (Later, he would be seen as something of an expert on the subject.) One special demand: the new brewery was supposed to be a cold-fermentation or lager brewery, something that did not exist in Plzen at the time. To familiarize himself with the requirements of the project, Stelzer traveled to Bavaria in December of 1839, visiting several breweries there.
A common rumor holds that Stelzer befriended Josef Groll, the first brewmaster of Pilsner Urquell, during this trip, or even that Stelzer brought Groll back to Plzen with him. However, no confirmation of this appears to have been published during Stelzer’s lifetime. It certainly seems possible that the two were friends, however, given the closeness of their age: the original brewmaster was less than a year and a half older than the architect.
In addition to directing the expansion of the Burghers’ Brewery in 1849 and 1852, as well as the construction of a new fermentation room in 1856, Stelzer designed and built the brewery’s enlarged cooperage in 1870. Stelzer’s other projects included the next-door Gambrinus brewery in 1869 and the Dobřany town brewery in 1873. He remains part of everyday lore in Plzen today, having given his first name to the street Martinská in central Plzen as early as 1857.
Roger Protz wrote the entry for Pilsner Urquell in the Oxford Companion to Beer, and he mentions Stelzer in these two paragraphs.
Local businessmen and tavern owners in Pilsen committed to raise funds and build a new brewery, to be called Burghers’ (Citizens’) Brewery. A leading architect, Martin Stelzer, was hired to design the brewery and he toured Europe and Britain to study modern breweries that used the new technologies of the Industrial Revolution—pure yeast strains, steam power, and artificial refrigeration—to make beer.
He returned to Pilsen to design a brewery on a site in the Bubenc district with a plentiful supply of soft water and sandstone foundations where deep cellars could be dug to store or “lager” beer. He also brought with him from Bavaria a brewer called Josef Groll who had the skills to make the new cold-fermented style of beer. See groll, josef. The brewery was built rapidly and its first batch of beer was unveiled at the Martinmas Fair on November 11, 1842. The beer astonished and delighted the people of Pilsen. It was a golden beer, the first truly pale beer ever seen in central Europe, for the lager beers brewed in Bavaria were a deep russet/brown in color as a result of barley malt being kilned or gently roasted over wood fires. A legend in Pilsen says the wrong type of malt was delivered to the brewery by mistake but this seems fanciful. It’s more likely that Martin Stelzer brought back from England a malt kiln indirectly fired by coke rather than directly fired by wood. This type of kiln that was used to make pale malt, the basis of the new style of beer brewed in England called pale ale. A model of a kiln in the Pilsen museum of brewing supports this theory.
And here’s an account from Food Reference:
At the start of the nineteenth century, the quality of beer everywhere was often poor and standards varied wildly. This prompted some of the Plzen’s conscientious and passionate brewers to band together to find a way of producing a beer of a superior and more consistent quality.
Their first decision was one of their finest, to appoint a young architect called Martin Stelzer. Traveling far and wide to study the best of brewery design he returned to Plzen with plans for the most modern brewery of the age.
He chose a site on the banks of the city‘s Radbuza River, which offered a number of natural advantages – sandstone rock for the easy carving of large tunnels for cold storage, and aquifers supplying the soft water which would one day help make Plzen’s finest beer so distinctive.
But, most importantly, Martin Stelzer also discovered a brewmaster who would change the way that beer was brewed forever: a young Bavarian called Josef Groll.
The original gate, which still stands at the brewery.
The brewery today.
Beer In Ads #2889: Birra Napoli
Tuesday’s ad is for Birra Napoli, from 1922. From the late 1800s until the 1940s, poster art really came into its own, and in
Historic Beer Birthday: W.C. Fields
Today is the birthday of W.C. Fields (January 29, 1880–December 25, 1946). His full name was William Claude Dukenfield. He “was an American comedian, actor, juggler and writer. Fields’ comic persona was a misanthropic and hard-drinking egotist, who remained a sympathetic character despite his snarling contempt for dogs and children.
His career in show business began in vaudeville, where he attained international success as a silent juggler. He gradually incorporated comedy into his act, and was a featured comedian in the Ziegfeld Follies for several years. He became a star in the Broadway musical comedy Poppy (1923), in which he played a colorful small-time con man. His subsequent stage and film roles were often similar scoundrels, or else henpecked everyman characters.
Among his recognizable trademarks were his raspy drawl and grandiloquent vocabulary. The characterization he portrayed in films and on radio was so strong it was generally identified with Fields himself. It was maintained by the publicity departments at Fields’ studios (Paramount and Universal) and was further established by Robert Lewis Taylor’s biography, W.C. Fields, His Follies and Fortunes (1949). Beginning in 1973, with the publication of Fields’ letters, photos, and personal notes in grandson Ronald Fields’ book W.C. Fields by Himself, it was shown that Fields was married (and subsequently estranged from his wife), and financially supported their son and loved his grandchildren.”
Known as “The Great One,” William Claude Dukenfield was better known to the world by his stage name, W.C. Fields. Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, on January 29, 1880, Fields created a hard-drinking, sarcastic, egocentric persona that was so convincing he became one of the most famous drunk misanthropes who ever lived. He famously said that a man should “never work with animals or children,” and carefully cultivated the perception of a curmudgeon, but in real life he was a devoted father and grandfather.
His entertainment career began in vaudeville, where he made a name for himself as a juggler and comedian, and later took the act on Broadway, before making his first short films in 1915. He eventually made around 45 films, the most of famous of which were “Tillie’s Punctured Romance,” “The Fatal Glass of Beer,” “My Little Chickadee,” “The Bank Dick” and “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break.” Most of his most memorable quotes come from his films, though they’ve become entwined with his public persona, making it difficult to separate his roles from the man.
Fields with Mae West.
Fields’ screen character often expressed a fondness for alcohol, a prominent component of the Fields legend. Fields never drank in his early career as a juggler, because he did not want to impair his functions while performing. Eventually, the loneliness of constant travel prompted him to keep liquor in his dressing room as an inducement for fellow performers to socialize with him on the road. Only after he became a Follies star and abandoned juggling did Fields begin drinking regularly.[59] His role in Paramount Pictures’ International House (1933), as an aviator with an unquenchable taste for beer, did much to establish Fields’ popular reputation as a prodigious drinker. Studio publicists promoted this image, as did Fields himself in press interviews.
Fields expressed his fondness for alcohol to Gloria Jean (playing his niece) in Never Give a Sucker an Even Break: “I was in love with a beautiful blonde once, dear. She drove me to drink. That’s the one thing I am indebted to her for.” Equally memorable was a line in the 1940 film My Little Chickadee: “Once, on a trek through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew…and were forced to live on food and water for several days!” The oft-repeated anecdote that Fields refused to drink water “because fish fuck in it” is unsubstantiated.
On movie sets Fields famously shot most of his scenes in varying states of inebriation. During the filming of Tales of Manhattan (1942), he kept a vacuum flask with him at all times and frequently availed himself of its contents. Phil Silvers, who had a minor supporting role in the scene featuring Fields, described in his memoir what happened next:
One day the producers appeared on the set to plead with Fields: “Please don’t drink while we’re shooting — we’re way behind schedule” … Fields merely raised an eyebrow. “Gentlemen, this is only lemonade. For a little acid condition afflicting me.” He leaned on me. “Would you be kind enough to taste this, sir?” I took a careful sip — pure gin. I have always been a friend of the drinking man; I respect him for his courage to withdraw from the world of the thinking man. I answered the producers a little scornfully, “It’s lemonade.” My reward? The scene was snipped out of the picture.
There’s no doubt that regardless of how much Fields drank, he certainly created a reputation and persona around it. And while he seems to have favored whiskey, gin and other spirits, he did love his beer, too. Below are some quotes I’ve collected by Fields, the first group being quotes he said, or were attributed to him, while the second group are quotes from films he appeared in, and thus easier to verify.
Personal Quotes
- “I never drank anything stronger than beer before I was twelve.”
- “Everybody has to believe in something … I believe I’ll have another beer.”
- “If I had to live my life over, I’d live over a saloon.”
- “I never drink water; that is the stuff that rusts pipes.”
- “I drink therefore I am.”
- “There are only two real ways to get ahead today — sell liquor or drink it.”
- “I like to keep a bottle of stimulant handy in case I see a snake, which I also keep handy.”
- “I must have a drink of breakfast.”
- “I never worry about being driven to drink; I just worry about being driven home.”
- “It was a woman who drove me to drink, and I never had the courtesy to thank her for it.”
- “A woman drove me to drink and I didn’t even have the decency to thank her.”
- “Fell in love with a beautiful blonde once. Drove me to drink. And I never had the decency to thank her.”
- “Now don’t say you can’t swear off drinking; it’s easy. I’ve done it a thousand times.”
- “Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”
- “Reminds me of my safari in Africa. Somebody forgot the corkscrew and for several days we had to live on nothing but food and water.”
- “I never drink water. I’m afraid it will become habit-forming.”
- “What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?”
- “I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.” [Note: Tug McGraw has a similar quote attributed to him.]
Film Quotes
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- Ouliotta Delight Hemogloben: “Do you think he drinks?”
Mrs. Hemogloben: “He didn’t get that nose from playing ping-pong.”
- — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
- Ouliotta Delight Hemogloben: “Do you think he drinks?”
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- Receptionist: “Some day you’ll drown in a vat of whiskey!”
The Great Man: “Drown in a vat of whiskey. Death, where is thy sting?”
- — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
- Receptionist: “Some day you’ll drown in a vat of whiskey!”
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- The Great Man: [Suffering from a hangover] “Somebody put too many olives in my martini last night!”
Stewardess: “Should I get you a Bromo?”
The Great Man: “No, I couldn’t stand the noise!”
- — From “Never Give a Sucker an Even Break,” 1941
- The Great Man: [Suffering from a hangover] “Somebody put too many olives in my martini last night!”
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- Egbert Sousé: “Ten cents a share. Telephone sold for five cents a share. How would you like something better for ten cents a share? If five gets ya ten, ten’ll get ya twenty. A beautiful home in the country, upstairs and down. Beer flowing through the estate over your grandmother’s paisley shawl.”
Og Oggilby: “Beer?”
Egbert Sousé: “Beer! Fishing in the stream that runs under the aboreal dell. A man comes up from the bar, dumps $3,500 in your lap for every nickel invested. Says to you, “Sign here on the dotted line.” And then disappears in the waving fields of alfalfa.”
- — From “The Bank Dick,” 1940
- Egbert Sousé: “Ten cents a share. Telephone sold for five cents a share. How would you like something better for ten cents a share? If five gets ya ten, ten’ll get ya twenty. A beautiful home in the country, upstairs and down. Beer flowing through the estate over your grandmother’s paisley shawl.”
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- Egbert Sousé, to his bartender: “Was I in here last night, and did I spend a twenty dollar bill?”
Bartender: “Yeah.”
Egbert Sousé: “Oh, boy. What a load that is off my mind. I thought I’d lost it.”
- — From “The Bank Dick,” 1940
- Egbert Sousé, to his bartender: “Was I in here last night, and did I spend a twenty dollar bill?”
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- Cuthbert J. Twillie: “During one of my treks through Afghanistan, we lost our corkscrew. Compelled to live on food and water … for several days.”
- — From “My Little Chickadee,” 1940
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- Cuthbert J. Twillie, nursing a hangover: “I feel as though a midget with muddy feet had been walking over my tongue all night.”
- — From “My Little Chickadee,” 1940
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- Whipsnade: “Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.”
- — from “You Can’t Cheat An Honest Man,” 1939
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- S.B. Bellows: “Meet me down in the bar! We’ll drink breakfast together.”
- — From “The Big Broadcast of 1938,” 1938
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- Businessman: “You’re drunk.”
Harold: “Yeah, and you’re crazy. But I’ll be sober tomorrow, and you’ll be crazy for the rest of your life.”
- — From “It’s a Gift,” 1934
- Businessman: “You’re drunk.”
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- Quail, to a valet: “Hey, garcon. Bring me a drink.”
Valet: “Water, sir?”
Quail: “A little on the side…very little.”
- — From “International House,” 1933
- Quail, to a valet: “Hey, garcon. Bring me a drink.”
W.C. Fields in “International House.”
Beer In Ads #2888: La Perle
Monday’s ad is for La Perle, from 1919. From the late 1800s until the 1940s, poster art really came into its own, and in
