Archives for February 28, 2023

Beer In Ads #4366: Miss Rheingold 1956 Brings May Flowers

February 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1956. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. Hillie Merritt was elected as Miss Rheingold 1955. Not to take anything away from the other Miss Rheingolds, but her story is pretty amazing. She was born Hildegarde Ercklentz in Hamburg, Germany in 1934 but she moved to New York when her father was given a position there with the German bank he worked for. In 1941, they had to flee the United States and lived for a time in Japan, before finally making it back to Hamburg after the war and then by 1950 was living once again in New York City. The story of that journey was written by her and published as “Journey Interrupted” in 2016. By 1955, she was Mrs. Hillie Merritt (although it may actually have been Merrill), with a one-year old son, and decided on a lark to enter the contest. Soon after the year she divorced and then married corporate executive David Mahoney, and they became a prominent couple in the NY social scene and in philanthropic circles. In 1990, they founded the Harvard Mahoney Neuroscience Institute, which Hildegarde Mahoney took charge of after her husband’s death in 2000 and she’s still running the charity today. In this ad, from May, Miss Rheingold 1956, Hillie Merritt, is standing in a yard filled with May flowers.

And below is another version of the same ad:

Historic Beer Birthday: John Holme Ballantine

February 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Holme Ballantine (February 28, 1834-April 27, 1895). He was the second of three sons of Peter Ballantine, who founded P. Ballantine & Sons. In 1857, he brought on his three sons as partners. John Holme served as president of the family brewery from 1883 until his death in 1895.

This is John Holme’s obituary from the Genealogical and Memorial History of the State of New Jersey:

And here’s a history of the Ballantine brewery from “A History of American Manufactures from 1608 to 1860,” by John Leander Bishop, Edwin Troxell Freedley, Edward Young, published in 1868:

Beer Birthday: Jeff Bell

February 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks

ypres-castle
Today is the 44th birthday of Jeff Bell, whose alter ego was, until several years ago, Stonch, one of England’s best bloggers. He retired from blogging to concentrate on his new job as landlord of a London pub, The Gunmakers, in Clerkenwell, a village in the heart of London. I stopped by to meet Jeff on my way back from a trip to Burton-on-Trent years ago. And several years back, I saw Jeff several times during GBBF week. But later, the blogging started up again, and he moved on from that pub, and for a time he was the landlord of the Finborough Arms in Earl’s Court, next to the Finborough Theatre, but he’s moved on from there, and for awhile was tramping around Italy as an “Englishman living in Tuscany.” But he’s back in England, and has taken up residence in the East Sussex town of Rye as the publican and proprietor of the Ypres Castle Inn. Join me in wishing Jeff a very happy birthday.

stonch-1
Jeff Bell, a.k.a. Stonch, at The Gunmakers Pub in central London.

P1150769
With a Gunmaker’s bartender at the British Beer Writers Guild event before the start of the Great British Beer Festival in 2009.

P1150880
In front of Gunmaker’s in the summer of 2009.

SAM_5804
Ron Pattinson, talking with Jeff and Mark Dredge at the Carlsberg Laboratories in Copenhagen a couple of years ago.

SAM_5995
Leaving Copenhagen; Pete Brown, Ron Pattinson, Jeff, Stephen Beaumont and Stan Hieronymus.

Historic Beer Birthday: James Younger

February 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of James Younger (February 28, 1818-August 5, 1868). He was born in Alloa, Clackmannanshire, Scotland, and was the son of George Younger, and the grandson of George Younger, who founded the brewery that would become George Younger and Son in 1764. He was also a first cousin of Robert Younger (1850-1887) and the ancestor of the Younger family of York, North Yorkshire. Presumably because he wasn’t the first, but one of several in the very early days of the brewery, there’s very little information about him I could find.

James-Younger

He married Janet McEwan, daughter of John McEwan, in November 1850.

george-younger-labels

George-Younger-meadow-brewery
Here’s the Meadow Brewery around 1890, just before it became known as George Younger & Sons.

Historic Beer Birthday: Joseph Metcalfe

February 28, 2023 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Joseph Metcalfe (February 28, 1832-?). There’s very little information I could find about Joseph Metcalfe. He appears to have been born in Yorkshire, England and was a brewer who owned breweries in both Louisville, Kentucky and New Albany, Indiana, which is just across the Ohio River from Louisville.

He’s mentioned, curiously, in Germans in Louisville, in the prehistory of the town, from a German perspective.

matcalfe-germans-in-louisville

And again similarly in an Encyclopedia of Louisville:

Here’s the story from IndianaBeer.com:

Colonel Joseph Metcalfe started a brewery in New Albany in 1847 which he sold to William Grainger in 1856 who sold it to Paul Reising in 1857. Reising sold it to Martin Kaelin in 1861 who renamed it Main Street Brewery. This was a two-story building of 40×60 feet with two lagering cellars. It employed five men who made 3,600 bbls by 1868.

And this is how he’s mentioned in Hoosier Beer: Tapping Into Indiana Brewing History:

Tavern Trove has a slightly different timeline for the brewery, as do a number of sources.

Joseph Metcalfe Brewery 1847-1857
William Grainger 1857-aft 1857
Paul Reising Aft. 1857-1861
Martin Kaelin, Main Street Brewery 1861-1882
Louis Schmidt, Main Street Brewery 1882-1883
Hornung and Atkins, Main Street Brewery 1883-1886
Jacob Hornung, Main Street Brewery 1886-1889
Indiana Brewing Co. 1889-1895
Pank-Weinmann Brewing Company. 1895-1899
Merged with the Southern Indiana Ice and Beverage Co. of New Albany, Indiana in 1899

Ackermans-Old-Rip-Beer-Labels-Southern-Indiana-Ice-amp--Beverage_79976-1

This is Metcalfe’s brewery shortly after he had sold it to Paul Reising.

paul-reising-brewery

Reisling-brewers
The brewery crew when it was the Paul Riesing Brewery.

Reisings-Kaiser-Beer-Labels-Paul-Reising-Brewing-Co-Inc_31932-1