Historic Beer Birthday: Ebenezer Beadleston

March 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Ebenezer Beadleston (March 27, 1803-November 12, 1889). He was born in New York, and ran his father-in-law’s brewery, eventually taking it over with a partner and calling it the Beadleston and Woerz Brewery, although it traded under the name Empire Brewery. It remained in business until 1920, when Prohibition closed it for good.

Here’s a short biography from his Find-a-Grave page:

Ebenezer Beadleston was born in Queensbury, New York. In 1846 his father-in-law, Abraham Nash hired him to manage the Manhattan branch his thriving Troy New York brewery. The brewery was called Empire Brewery of New York City. Later Beadleston and partner Ernest G. W. Woerz, grew the brewery into one of the largest such concerns in the country. Ebenezer Beadleston died on the 12th of November, 1889. His brewery lived on for another 30 years, finally done in, in 1920, by National Prohibition.

Here’s his obituary from The Post Star, November 14, 1889, reprinted from The Sun the day before.

And here’s his obituary from the Baltimore Sun:

And this one is from The Evening World:

Beer In Ads #5188: Drink Bock Beer And You Will Soon Become Eligible To Membership In The “Don’t Worry” Club

March 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. With Spring approaching, there are so many great examples that I’m going to post two a day for a few months.

Friday’s first ad is for Ballentine’s Bock Beer, which was published on March 27, 1908. This one is from the Rockford Brewing Co., of Rockford, Illinois, which was originally founded in 1849 by Jonathan Peacock, which is why it was often known as the Peacock Brewery. This ad ran in The Rockford Register Star, also of Rockford, Illinois. The ad itself is quite plain, but I absolutely love the hilarious headline: “Drink Bock Beer And You Will Soon Become Eligible To Membership In The ‘Don’t Worry’ Club.”

Historic Beer Birthday: William Dow

March 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of William Dow (March 27, 1800–December 7, 1868). Born in Scotland, Dow emigrated to Montreal, Canada when he was 18 and eventually founded what became known as Dow Breweries.

Here’s a short biography from his Wikipedia page:

Born at Muthill, Perthshire, he was the eldest son of Dr William Dow (1765-1844), Brewmaster, and Anne Mason. Since 1652, his family had been brewing in Perthshire. Having gained an extensive experience in brewing under his father, he emigrated to Montreal from Scotland in about 1818. He was employed as foreman of Thomas Dunn’s brewery in Montreal and quickly became a partner. His younger brother, Andrew, who had also trained as a brewer, joined him, and on the death of Dunn, the company became known as William Dow and Company, later known as Dow Breweries. It soon was a strong competitor to Molson’s, the biggest brewery in the city. Dow was also a financier and in 1860 he built his home, Strathearn House, in Montreal’s Golden Square Mile.

And here’s a longer biography from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography:

The son of a brewmaster, William Dow emigrated to Canada in 1818 or 1819 with substantial experience in brewing. He was employed as foreman at Thomas Dunn’s brewery, one of the few in Montreal at that time; by November 1829 Dow was a partner and was joined by his younger brother, Andrew, who had also trained as a brewer. Known as William Dow and Company after 1834, the year of Dunn’s death, the firm prospered and became one of the principal competitors in Montreal to Molson’s, the largest brewery in the city. Like some of his competitors William Dow was also engaged in distilling and in this business too he was a major local supplier. By 1863 his plant was producing some 700,000 gallons of beer in comparison to the Molson’s 142,000 gallons. As his business grew, Dow took in other partners besides his brother (who died in 1853). During the early 1860s he was joined by a group of associates, headed by Gilbert Scott, to whom he eventually sold the business for £77,877 in 1864; it kept his name.
By that time Dow was already a wealthy man with a number of highly remunerative investments in other enterprises besides brewing and distilling. Through the 1840s he put considerable sums into Montreal real estate: in one transaction in 1844 he paid £5,580, mostly in cash, for four pieces of property. Investing also in railways and banks, Dow became important in this expanding sector of Montreal’s economic life. He was a director of the Montreal and New York Railroad Company (which had a line between Montreal and Plattsburg, N.Y.) from 1847 to 1852 and invested nearly £10,000 in its shares, an unusually large sum for anyone to put into a single joint stock company in that era. Dow was one of the Montreal promoters who merged this railway with its major competitor, the Champlain and St Lawrence, in 1855, after a vicious rate war threatened to bankrupt both companies. He also had a small investment in the St Lawrence and Atlantic Railroad and served briefly on its board of directors (1852–53). A shareholder in the City Bank, he was also a director of the Bank of British North America and the Montreal Provident and Savings Bank. Although a determined rival of the Molsons in the beer and whisky business, he was their associate in 1854 in the formation of still another Montreal bank, Molsons Bank [see William Molson*], which was later incorporated into the Bank of Montreal. Compartmentalization of their lives, especially in business, was characteristic of most Montreal businessmen and, indeed, was probably essential for success in this era of constantly expanding frontiers of enterprise.
Dow was a director of the Montreal Insurance Company between 1839 and 1852 and a member of the group which formed the Sun Life Insurance Company in 1865. His many other local corporate ventures included the abortive company organized in 1849 by John Young* to build a canal between the St Lawrence River and Lake Champlain, the Montreal Steam Elevating and Warehousing Company founded in 1857, the City Passenger Railway Company in 1861, and the Montreal Stock Exchange in 1852. Though not himself a shipowner, he invested in shipping companies and was one of the pioneer investors in the Atlantic Telegraph Company. In 1854 he and Hugh* and Andrew Allan*, William Edmonstone, and Robert Anderson of Montreal formed the Montreal Ocean Steamship Company with a capital of £500,000 to provide regular steamer connections between Great Britain and Canada.
Although a bachelor, Dow lived in baronial style in an immense, richly decorated stone mansion named Strathearn House at the top of Beaver Hall Hill in Montreal and also nearby in the country on his estate at Côte Saint-Paul. At his death, on 7 Dec. 1868, the house and the bulk of his estate, estimated to be in excess of (300,000, were left to his brother’s widow and her four daughters.

Firestone Walker Brewing To Assume Stewardship Of Trumer Pils In U.S.

March 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Firestone Walker Brewing of Paso Robles, California, announced today that they will be assuming stewardship of Trumer Pils USA, which is located in Berkeley, California in the old Golden Pacific brewery on Fourth Street.

Trumer is owned by the Gambrinus Company of San Antonio, Texas. They also own Shiner Beers, and previously owned BridgePort Brewing of Portland, Oregon, along with Pete’s Wicked Ales, though they discontinued both of those brands. The original Trumer brewery is located near Salzburg, Austria and has been brewing there since at least 1601. In 1775, the Sigl family bought the brewery and has continued to run it up to and including the current eighth generation.

In 2004, the Sigl family worked with the Gambrinus Co. to open Trumer USA in Berkeley, where brewmaster Lars Larson, who was trained as a brewer in Germany, perfectly dialed in the pilsner recipe to create the world’s most awarded pilsner in beer competitions.

Beginning in early summer, most likely around the middle of June, brewing will transition from Berkeley to Paso Robles, where brewmaster Matt Brynildson will take over brewing the beer to exacting specifications.

I spoke to Firestone Walker CEO Nick Firestone this morning and he stressed that they are not acquiring the brewery, but instead will be taking over production in their facility, and helping to keep this great beer alive, so to speak. It’s no secret that rising prices have hit California breweries especially hard with manufacturing costs, particularly in the Bay Area, skyrocketing. Beer lovers are still reeling from the loss of Anchor Steam Beer (which hopefully is on its way back) so at least fresh Trumer Pils will still be available and in capable hands.

Firestone Walker will continue to brew their own Pivo Pils, which is essentially an Italian-style pilsner, whereas Trumer Pils a German-style version of the lager. Packaging may be refreshed slightly, but distribution and availability should continue seamlessly through the summer transition.

The Gambrinus Company will be decommissioning the Berkeley brewery. At least that’s the plan for now, though that could change as they explore other options between now and when things wind down there around June.

Here’s more from the press release:

“The story of Trumer Pils spans continents and centuries. Trumer Privatbrauerei, the original European brewery, traces its roots to Obertrum, Austria, a small town outside of Salzburg, where brewing rights date back to 1601. In 1775, Josef Sigl, a Bavarian hops merchant, acquired the brewery and established the Sigl family’s stewardship of the brand, which continues today in its eighth generation. For decades, Trumer has been known for its precise, balanced pilsner brewed in the classic European tradition.
More than two centuries later, Trumer started a new chapter in the United States in 2004 when Carlos Alvarez, founder of The Gambrinus Company, began to brew Trumer Pils for the United States market at the Trumer Brewery in Berkeley, California. Alvarez assembled a team of craft brewers that imported Trumer Pils’ hops, malt and yeast from Europe into the United States. It was a revolutionary idea: rather than import a European lager across the Atlantic Ocean, Alvarez chose to brew it locally with the same methods and ingredients as the original beer. Under the leadership of longtime Brewmaster Lars Larson, Trumer Pils became known regionally and throughout the United States for its freshness, balance, and drinkability, winning 21 gold medals in the world’s most prestigious brewing competitions in the last 21 years.
This latest chapter in Trumer’s storied history begins with Firestone Walker assuming stewardship of Trumer Pils in the United States, continuing its California brewing tradition while protecting the quality and freshness that define the brand. Trumer Pils will now be brewed at Firestone Walker’s Paso Robles brewery as part of a long-term commitment to honoring its legacy while supporting its future growth. As part of this evolution, The Gambrinus Company will begin winding down operations at its Trumer Brewery in Berkeley.
“Our priority has always been to grow and steward Trumer Pils and ensure its future here in the United States,” said John Brozovich, CEO of The Gambrinus Company. “Entrusting the brand to a family brewery that understands this responsibility was very important to us. Firestone Walker approaches brewing with the same respect for tradition and quality, and we are confident they will carry Trumer Pils forward with great care.”
Firestone Walker shares a complementary heritage. Founded in 1996 by the Firestone and Walker families on California’s Central Coast, the company remains family-led and brewer-driven, built on the belief that beer is a craft passed from one generation to the next.
“Some beers are timeless,” said Nick Firestone, CEO of Firestone Walker Brewing Company. “Carlos loved this beer so much he brought it to U.S. drinkers and built a brewery to brew it…and I understand exactly how he felt. Trumer Pils is a sensational beer with a deep lineage. Our job now is simple: protect what makes it special and make sure this great beer continues to reach American drinkers.”
Firestone Walker Brewmaster Matt Brynildson will oversee the brewing transition. Internationally recognized for his work brewing precise, balanced pilsners, Brynildson emphasized that the goal is preservation rather than reinterpretation. “Pilsner brewing is a discipline built on detail and patience,” Brynildson said. “Trumer Pils is a beer I have admired for many years, and our responsibility is to protect the balance and drinkability that have always defined it.”
Seppi Sigl, owner of the original Trumer Privatbrauerei in Salzburg, Austria, concluded, “We are very pleased that the quality of Trumer Pils is so widely appreciated in the United States, and that we have been able to partner with Firestone Walker — a brewery that shares our values and has always put quality and family first.”
The Firestone Walker and Trumer U.S. teams will work together in the coming months to ensure a smooth transition for distributors and retailers. Consumers should expect uninterrupted availability of Trumer Pils going forward.”

About the two companies.

The Firestone Walker brewery in Paso Robles.

Firestone Walker Brewing Co.

Founded in 1996 by brothers-in-law Adam Firestone and David Walker, Firestone Walker Brewing Company is a family-led second-generation brewery based on California’s Central Coast. Helmed by CEO Nick Firestone and decorated Brewmaster Matt Brynildson, Firestone Walker’s main brewery in Paso Robles produces a diverse portfolio of award-winning beers, including 805, California’s #1 craft beer brand established in 2012; Mind Haze, one of the country’s top hazy IPAs; and Cali Squeeze, one of the nation’s fastest-growing beer brands. The Firestone brand family also includes iconic beers such as DBA, Union Jack, and Pivo Pils, as well as the storied Vintage Series of barrel-aged strong ales led by Parabola. As a California beer company, Firestone Walker also has two additional locations: the Barrelworks wild ale cellar in Santa Barbara County and the Propagator R&D brewhouse in Venice. Firestone Walker was recently named “Best American Brewery of the Decade” by Paste Magazine. More at 805beer.com and FirestoneWalker.com.

Trumer Pils

Trumer Pils’ U.S. operations were established in 2004 by The Gambrinus Company with a sister brewery to the more than 400-year-old Trumer Privatbrauerei in Salzburg, Austria, which has been family-owned and operated by the Sigl family for eight generations. Since then, the flagship beer brewed in California—Trumer Pils—has been awarded twenty-one Gold Medals in the most prestigious international beer competitions, making Trumer Pils the most awarded pilsner in the world. Characterized by a distinct hop aroma, brisk carbonation and light body, Trumer Pils is sessionable, refreshing, and truly best-in-class.

The original Trumer brewery near Salzburg in Austria.

Historic Beer Birthday: Michael Jackson

March 27, 2026 By Jay Brooks 12 Comments

Today would have been Michael Jackson’s 84th birthday (March 27, 1942–August 30, 2007). I first met Michael in the early 1990s, shortly after my first beer book was published. He is all but single-handedly responsible for the culture of better beer that exists today. He began writing about good beer in the 1960s and 70s and his writing has influenced (and continues to influence) generations of homebrewers and commercial brewers, many of whom were inspired to start their own breweries by his words. There are few others, if any, that have been so doggedly persistent and passionate about spreading the word about great beer. I know some of my earliest knowledge and appreciation of beer, and especially its history and heritage, came from Michael’s writings. Michael passed away in August 2007, nearly 14 years ago. I still miss him, and I suspect I’m not the only one. A few years ago, J.R. Richards’ documentary film about Michael Jackson, Beer Hunter: The Movie, debuted, which I helped a tiny bit with as a pioneer sponsor.

I did an article several years ago for Beer Connoisseur, for their Innovator’s Series, entitled Michael Jackson: The King of Beer Writers, A personal look back at the man who made hunting for beer a career. I reached out to a number of people who also knew Michael for their remembrances as well as my own, and as a result I’m pretty pleased with the results (although the original draft was almost twice as long).

I’ll again be playing some jazz and having a pint of something yummy in his honor, which has become my tradition for March 27, which I’ve also started declaring to be “Beer Writers Day.” Join me in drinking a toast to Michael Jackson, the most influential modern beer writer who’s ever lived.

At GABF in 2005, still wearing the same glasses. But my, oh my, have I changed. Sheesh.

On stage accepting the first beer writing awards from the Brewers Association with Lisa Morrison, James DeWan (Chicago Tribune), Jim Cline, GM of Rogue, Stan Hieronymus, who writes Real Beer’s Beer Therapy among much else, and Ray Daniels, formerly of the Brewers Association.

With Carolyn Smagalski receiving an award at Pilsner Urquell.

With Jack Joyce at an Event in Rogue San Francisco.

Michael and me at the Great Divide Media Brunch way back when.

Beer In Ads #5187: Ballantine’s Bock Is Here — With Horns!

March 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Thursday’s second ad is for Ballentine’s Bock Beer, which was published on March 26, 1936. This one is from the P. Ballantine & Sons Brewing Co., of Newark, New Jersey, which was originally founded in 1840. This ad ran in The Buffalo News, of Buffalo, New York.

Historic Beer Birthday: Augustus Hoeveler

March 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Augustus Hoeveler (March 26, 1820-December 20, 1868). He was born in Ankum, Lower Saxony, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1837, settling in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In his early twenties, in 1848, he opened a general store, but sold it a couple of years later to go into the glue business. I don’t know how that worked out, but a decade later he partnered with a cooper, John Miller, and they bought the Pittsburgh brewery started by Anton Benitz in 1842. The initially called it the Hoeveler & Miller Brewery.

I’m not sure how long he was involved in the brewery, but at least ten years from what I can tell. In 1863, he and Miller were joined by Edward Frauenheim, but by 1868, Hoeveler’s name was no longer listed and it became known as Frauenheim, Miller & Co. By 1888, the brewery became known as the Iron City Brewing Co. or the Pittsburgh Brewing Co., going back and forth and sometimes even known by both name simultaneously right through to the present where today’s it’s the Pittsburgh Brewing Co.

Augustus Hoeveler died in late December of 1868 at just 48 years of age. Here’s his obituary from the Pittsburgh Post on December 22, 1868:

Here’s one of the few ads I could find during the time when Hoeveler was involved:

And finally, here’s an unusual story about how someone apparently tried to murder Augustus Hoeveler and his family with an explosive device placed at his home from 1861:

Historic Beer Birthday: Bill Siebel

March 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Bill Siebel (March 26, 1946-November 8, 2015). Bill was the grand-grandson of John Ewald Siebel, who founded what would become the Siebel Institue of Technology. In the early 1970s, Bill became president of the brewing school his family founded, and held that post until his retirement in 2000. I had the pleasure of meeting Bill a couple of times judging at the Great American Beer Festival, when we sat at a few of the same judging tables. Talking in between flights, he had a great sense of humor and seemed like such a nice person. I was only sorry I had’t met him sooner. Join me in raising a toast to Bill tonight.

This is Bill’s obituary from the Chicago Tribune:

Bill Siebel was the fourth generation of his family to head a Chicago beer-brewing school that has produced tens of thousands of alums with surnames such as Busch, Coors, Pabst, Stroh and Floyd — as in 3 Floyds Brewing Co.
It wouldn’t be exaggerating to call him a member of the “First Family” of beer education in the U.S., said Charlie Papazian, president and founder of Denver’s Great American Beer Festival, the nation’s largest.
Bill Siebel was chairman and CEO of the Siebel Institute of Technology, established in Chicago in 1872 by his great-grandfather, Dusseldorf-born immigrant John Ewald Siebel. It bills itself as the oldest brewing school in the Americas. “There is one, based in Germany, established before us,” said Keith Lemcke, vice president of the institute, 900 N. Branch St.
“It’s been a continuous run,” Lemcke said, “except for this inconvenient time we call ‘Prohibition.’ ” During Prohibition, it kept going as a school of baking — which, like brewing, uses yeast.
Siebel Institute students, Lemcke said, have included August Busch III of Anheuser-Busch; John Mallett of Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo; the father and grandfather of Samuel Adams brewer Jim Koch; and Greg Hall, a brewmaster at Goose Island Beer Company and son of Goose Island founder John Hall.
“The contributions that the Siebel Institute has made to brewing — and to training craft brewers — in its long history, are far too numerous to count,” said Koch of Samuel Adams. “I’m a sixth-generation brewer, and my father graduated from Siebel in 1948 and my grandfather in 1908. . . . The industry has lost a great one.”
Mr. Siebel, who had esophageal cancer, died on Nov. 8 at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He was 69.

The family school is “the longest-living institution that has served as an educational institution for brewers in the United States,” Papazian said. “They’ve gone through a lot of transitions, from the small breweries going out of business in the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s, to embracing the small craft brewers that were emerging in the ’70s and ’80s, welcoming them, and offering them educational opportunities. Bill was involved with that transition.”
“Many of our employees are graduates of Siebel Institute, and the impact the school has made on the beer community is impressive,” said Ken Stout, general manager of Goose Island Beer Company. “A great industry leader has been lost, and we’ll miss him dearly.”
Bill Siebel and his brother, Ron, grew up near Devon and Caldwell in Edgebrook, and at the Southwest edge of the Evanston Golf Club in Skokie, where one of the tees was behind their home. A highlight of their youth was spending summers with their mother, Mary, at Paradise Ranch near Colorado Springs, while their father, Raymond, commuted back and forth from the Siebel Institute in Chicago. The Siebel boys became accomplished horseback riders.
They attended grade school at the old Bishop Quarter Military Academy in Oak Park. Bill Siebel graduated from Florida’s Admiral Farragut Academy and the University of Miami. He served in the Navy, rising to lieutenant, before returning to Chicago — and the family beer school — in 1971, said his wife, Barbara Wright Siebel.
Both brothers attended the Siebel Institute, where a variety of classes, diplomas and certificates focus on yeast, malt, fermentation, biological science, quality control, engineering and packaging. “One of my classmates in 1967 was August Pabst, and August Busch III was a few years before,” Ron Siebel said.
For decades, the school and laboratory were located at 4055 W. Peterson, where the Siebels had a brewing library and a second-floor bierstube with heirloom steins.
After their father and uncle sold the business, “Bill and I were successful in getting it back,” Ron Siebel said. “We got it back in the family hands, and it stayed there until [Bill] retired and wanted to liquidate his holdings in the institute.” Today, the school is owned by Lallemand, a Canadian yeast company.
Ron Siebel focused on selling products such as stabilizers, which preserve clarity in beer. “Bill was ‘Mr. Inside.’ He was very good with numbers,” his brother said. Because of him, “The business was always on a steady course.”
Bill Siebel retired in 2000, Lemcke said.
He restored himself and reveled in nature, hiking, and watching birds and animals. For their honeymoon, Bill and Barbara Siebel canoed nine days on the U.S.-Canadian Boundary Waters. And for 20 years, they canoed in Ely, Minnesota, where he enjoyed spotting bear and moose. He also loved reading Dostoevsky and Tolstoy.

And this is another obituary from website Beer Monopoly:

William (Bill) Siebel, philanthropist and former President of the Siebel Institute, died 8 November 2015, aged 69
In the classroom of the Siebel Institute in Chicago, there is a long wall featuring the graduating class photographs of students dating back to the year 1900. The year 1973 marked the first appearance of a young, moustachioed Bill Siebel in the faculty section of the Diploma Course photographs, and his image would appear in every class photo for the next 26 years.
Unless you knew Bill, visitors to Siebel could be forgiven for wondering who this prankster was, who, year after year, managed to blag his way into one of the world’s oldest brewing schools to have his photo taken with the brewing school’s graduates?
Certainly, Bill would have chuckled at the suggestion of him being a repeat gatecrasher at the school, which has borne his family’s name since the 19th century. He would have even taken delight in being awarded the nickname Zelig – the title character of a Woody Allen “mockumentary” from 1983 about a human chameleon that sneaked past guards at major events to rub shoulders with the high and mighty – because he would have known of the film or more probably would have even seen it.
Bill had a great sense of humour. When he attended the Munich trade fair Drinktec as an exhibitor for the first time in 1993, he came armed with only a poster, expecting to be given a tabletop for his brochures. To his surprise he had in fact rented a large booth. Bill being Bill made the best of this and immediately organised two dozen large trees in pots which he placed alongside the walls. If passers-by remarked that the Siebel Institute had obviously branched out into horticulture, Bill laughed his infectious and his eyes would sparkle behind his glasses as he repeated the story about his mishap over and over again.
Despite his self-effacing modesty, Bill represented the best of North American “beer royalty”. Being a fourth generation Siebel to run the business, whose passion for beer was undeniable – he was most inconsolable when he had to cancel being a judge at this year’s Great American Beer Festival in Denver due to his failing health – Bill felt equally strongly about his obligations as a citizen. He diligently and conscientiously gave his expertise to many good causes and probably even more in terms of financial support. However, you had to know him really well to discover this side of him.
Bill was a Chicago man: born and bred in the Windy City, which he loved but hated for its extreme weather. This may have been one reason why he chose to study in far-away Florida. He graduated from Florida’s Admiral Farragut Academy and the University of Miami. He served in the Navy, rising to lieutenant, before returning to Chicago — and the family beer business — in 1971.
The Siebel Institute of Technology was established in Chicago in 1872 by Bill’s great-grandfather, the German-born immigrant John Ewald Siebel. Unlike Bill, JE Siebel must have been a real sourpuss, judging from the dour-looking gentleman, whose bust Bill and his wife Barbara kept in their yard. On my last visit to Chicago this spring, we presented JE to the Siebel Institute – they already had the other of the two busts that JE had made – because Bill knew no one in his family would want such a stern character face them in the morning.
Bill did not bear his family’s heritage lightly. He would joke about how the Siebel Institute made it through this “inconvenient time” Americans call Prohibition. Officially, the Siebel Institute kept going as a school of baking – which, like brewing, uses yeast – and Bill would laughingly speculate that his ancestors probably were involved in all kinds of shenanigans. After all, Prohibition in Chicago gave rise to plenty of colourful gangsters whose empires were made with alcohol. In fact, reality was far bleaker than Bill liked to narrate it. When JE Siebel died in late 1919, Prohibition had already been ratified, which meant that the Siebel Institute could no longer teach brewing in America and several Siebel family members were left destitute, says Keith Lemcke, Vice-President of the Siebel Institute.
As we know, the Siebel Institute survived. But when Bill joined the Institute, his father and uncle had already sold the business. Fortunately, Bill and his older brother Ron succeeded in getting it back. “We got it back in the family hands, and it stayed there until Bill retired and wanted to liquidate his holdings in the institute,” Ron said. Today, the school is owned by Lallemand, a Canadian yeast company.
Both Bill and Ron attended the Institute to be taught all about yeast, malt, fermentation, biological science, quality control, engineering and packaging. “One of my classmates in 1967 was August Pabst, and August Busch III was a few years before,” Ron said. Over its long history, the Siebel Institute has produced tens of thousands of alumni with such illustrious surnames like Busch, Coors, Pabst and Stroh. But John Mallett of Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo; the father and grandfather of Samuel Adams brewer Jim Koch; and Greg Hall, a brewmaster at Goose Island Beer Company, were also among them.
For decades, the school and laboratory were located at 4055 W. Peterson, where the Siebels had a brewing library and a second-floor Bierstube in mock-Germanic style. For parties they liked to serve brat and sauerkraut.
While Ron would focus on selling auxiliary products, Bill was Mr Inside. “He was very good with numbers,” his brother remembers. Because of Bill, the business was always on a steady course. This does not mean that things were easy. For decades, the U.S. beer industry has been in a state of transition. In the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s a lot of the smaller brewers went out of business followed by the remaining mid-tier brewers in the 1990s. Fortunately for the Siebel Institute and thanks to Bill’s tireless travelling and networking, international students and craft brewers began to fill seats as of the 1990s. Bill wholeheartedly welcomed them, offering them educational opportunities.
Until his retirement in 2000, Bill taught at the Siebel Institute and took on various roles, from registrar, to President, Chairman and CEO.

Historic Beer Birthday: Conrad Windisch

March 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks 5 Comments

Today is the birthday of Conrad Windisch (March 26, 1825-July 2, 1887) who was a co-founder, along with Gottlieb Muhlhauser of the Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewing Co. of Cincinnati, Ohio, which was known as the “Lion Brewery.” He was originally a partner in the more famous Christian Moerlein Brewery, but in 1866 was bought out by Moerlein. During the same period, he also owned and ran the C. Windisch & Co. Brewery, located in the Covington, Kentucky, but it closed after just one year, in 1862. After leaving the Christian Moerlein Brewery, he partnered with Muhlhauser on the Lion Brewery, which remained open until prohibition.

Here’s a short biography from Find-a-Grave:

Brewer. A native of Germany, he was born in the village of Eggloffstein in Bavaria. At the age of 13, after an education in the common schools, he began to work full time for his father, Ulrich Windisch, at the family’s brewery and farm. During the German Revolution of 1848, he left his homeland and emigrated to America. Windisch first settled in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and worked for a brewer for a brief period of time before moving west to work at breweries in Belleville, Illinois, and St. Louis, Missouri. He eventually came to Cincinnati in 1850 and found similar work. Windisch worked for Koehler at the Buckeye Street Brewery for three years until he became a partner with Christian Moerlein in 1853. He also started his own brewery in 1862 and sold his interest to Moerlein in 1866 to devote his time to his own interests. With his brother-in-law, Gottlieb Muhlhauser, as well as Muhlhauser’s brother, Henry, the Muhlhauser-Windisch & Company was established. It was more commonly known as the Lion Brewery because of two stone carved lions atop each of the two gables at the entrance. The business soon became one of Cincinnati’s foremost brewers. They were among the first to introduce ice machines and was the city’s second largest during the 1880’s. In 1854, Windisch married Sophia Wilhelmina Kobmann, who was also from his native village and lived on an estate in present day Fairfield in Butler County, Ohio. He died at his residence in 1887 when he was 62 years old. The brewery continued with his son, William A. Windisch and later with another son, Charles Windisch and remained in operation until 1920 when Prohibition caused the doors to close.

Their brewery became known as the “Lion Brewery” because of the two lions that rested atop the brewery’s gables and many of their beer names used a lion in the name and on the labels.

The History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio has a short history of the Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewing Company:

Paired Creation also has a history of the brewery.

Beer Birthday: Rudi Ghequire

March 26, 2026 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the 67th birthday of Rudi Ghequire. Rudi’s been the general manager and brewmaster of Belgium’s Brouwerij Rodenbach, in Roeselare, West-Vlaanderen, since 1982. He’s been the face of Rodenbach as long as I can remember, even since Palm bought the brewery in 1998, Rudi’s been the face of the company. I’ve run into him at a few events over the year, and he gave us a tour during the Brussels Beer Challenge a couple of years ago. Join me in wishing Rudi a very happy birthday.