Beer In Ads #5086: Ehrhart’s Party Store Bock Beer

September 24, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. 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.

Wednesday’s ad is for an unknown Bock Beer, which was published on September 24, 1965. This one was not for a specific brand of bock beer, it was instead for a liquor store called Ehrhart’s Party Store. I cut out the middle of the ad, which consisted of some other ads for root beer along with information about the store and its hours. Surprisingly, sixty years after this ad ran, the store is still a going concern in Bucyrus, Ohio. This ad ran in The Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, which serves Bucyrus, Crawford County and Ohio.

Beer In Ads #5085: Celebrated Miller’s Bock Beer

September 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for Miller Bock Beer, which was published on September 23, 1903. This one was for the Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was originally founded in 1855. This ad ran in The Honolulu Star Bulletin, of Honolulu, Hawaii because the ad was really for the liquor department of the Hoffschlaeger Co., which also made whiskey. Miller apparently only made a bock from 1888-1920. I do love the remark about it being the “most nutritious in the market.” Plus, “Doctors recommend it to their patients with the greatest confidence,”

Beer Birthday: Yuseff Cherney

September 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 56th birthday of Yuseff Cherney, co-founder, former COO and head brewer of Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego. Although not too long after selling Ballast Point in later 2015 to Constellation Brands, Yuseff left the brewery, in July of 2016. For a time, he was focusing his energy on their rebranded spirits division, called Cutwater Spirits, although more recently that was sold, as well. I used to run into Yusseff in the Bay Area or at GABF, but I’m not sure we’ll see him as much in the beer world. He’s a great person and a terrific brewer. Join me in wishing Yusseff a very happy birthday.

Sierra Nevada’s Steve Dressler with Yuseff and his wife at the Chico leg of Beer Camps Across America a few years ago.

Claudia Pamparana, co-founder of Faction Brewing, Yuseff, Jeff Bagby, and his then-assistant brewer, Noah Regney, now with Hollister Brewing at the Boonville Beer Festival in 2007.

Yussef with Fal Allen (from Anderson Valley) at Prost Brewing during CBC a few years ago in Denver.

Yusseff-01 — Matt Matthew Brynildson, Earl Kight, and Yuseff at the European Beer Star Awards in Germany a few years ago.

Yusseff-03 — Yuseff with 2013’s Hop Queen. (Note: last two photos purloined from Facebook.)

Historic Beer Birthday: Lord Chesterfield

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Lord Chesterfield, whose full name was Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (September 22, 1694-March 24, 1773). He “was a British statesman, and a man of letters, and wit. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he subsequently embarked on the Grand Tour of the Continent, to complete his education as a nobleman, by exposure to the cultural legacies of Classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to become acquainted with his aristocratic counterparts and the polite society of Continental Europe.

In the course of his post-graduate tour of Europe, the death of Queen Anne (r. 1702–1714) and the accession of King George I (r. 1714–1727) opened a political career for Stanhope, and he returned to England. In the British political spectrum he was a Whig and entered government service, as a courtier to the King, through the mentorship of his relative, James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, the King’s favourite minister, who procured his appointment as Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales.

Today he’s arguably best known for two things. The first is the numerous letters written to his illegitimate son Phillip Stanhope. They consisted of 400 private correspondences written over thirty years, first published a year after Lord Chesterfield’s death as “Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman.” From that correspondence, many quotations have become well-known, such as “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” “Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked,” “Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves,” and “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” Then there’s “Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough” and “Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. Follow nature and not fashion: weigh the present enjoyment of your pleasures against the necessary consequences of them, and then let your own common sense determine your choice.”

Portrait by Jonathan Richardson from 1728.Here’s the description from the Oxford edition of Chesterfield’s collected letters:

Not originally intended for publication, the celebrated and controversial correspondences between Lord Chesterfield and his son Philip, dating from 1737, were praised in their day as a complete manual of education, and despised by Samuel Johnson for teaching “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master.” Reflecting the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Pope, Addison, and Swift, Lord Chesterfield’s Letters reveal the author’s political cynicism, his views on good breeding, and instruction to his son in etiquette and the worldly arts. The only annotated selection of this breadth available in paperback, these entertaining letters illuminate the fascinating aspects of eighteenth-century life and manners.

The second thing he’s known for today is Yuengling Brewery’s Lord Chesterfield Ale, which the brewery first brewed in 1829, the year they were founded as the Eagle Brewery.

The Lord Chesterfield Ale label in 1934. lord-chesterfield-3

Historic Beer Birthday: Alfred Werthmueller

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Alfred Vinzenz Werthmueller (September 22, 1835-?). Werthmueller was born in Germany, and with a partner, brewed the first lager in the state of Iowa. He became part of the Wertmueller & Ende Co. Brewery in 1892 and appears to have been bought out by his partner, Charles Ende, when in 1902 the name changed to the Ende Brewing Co. It started out in Burlington, Iowa as the Union Brewery in 1856, and closed in 1915.

I can find almost no information about Werthmueller or even the brewery he was a partner in for ten years. He’s referred to as a brewer in USBA convention minutes, and for the Ninth Convention was still in Iowa, but during the Tenth Convention he’s listed as a representative of G. Bosch & Co. I can’t find any information about G. Bosch & Co., although there was a Bosch Brewery in Michigan from 1874 to 1973. But it was founded by a Joseph Bosch, so it may have been a different company. But that’s all I could find, and nothing about his later life or where he ended up.

burlington-1889 — Burlington, Iowa in 1889.

Here’s an account of the brewery from “100 Years of Brewing:”

Historic Beer Birthday: Clarence C. Geminn

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Clarence C. Geminn (September 22, 1915-April 21, 2006). He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and his German immigrant grandfather worked in a brewery and his father became a brewer at the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis, and Clarence apprenticed there, too, before getting his beer education at the Siebel Institute. After his graduation in 1951, he was hired by Genesee Brewing in Rochester, New York, and in 1959 became their Brewmaster. The following year at Genesee he developed the recipe for Genesee Cream Ale, which not only became their best-selling beer, it was also for a time the best-selling beer in America, all the more amazing because it was distributed primarily in the Northeast. Tom Acitelli has a nice history of the beer he wrote for All About Beer entitled “How Cream Ale Rose: The Birth of Genesee’s Signature.” In 1995, he retired after 36 years as brewmaster.

This is his obituary that’s been posted at his Find-a-Grave page:

It’s a trade that is often passed through the family, and it’s not unusual to hear that the son of a brewmaster has married the daughter of a brewmaster of another brewery. Keeps it in the family. Clarence Geminn, who’s of German descent, was brewmaster of Genesee Brewery from 1959 to 1978, one of only four brewmasters at Genesee since it started brewing in 1933. Born in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, his father was a brewmaster and his grandfather a brewery worker. In 1934, Geminn started work as an apprentice brewer at the same brewery where his father worked, the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis. Later, he went to the Siebel Institute, now in Chicago, and took a nine-month course to obtain a brewmaster’s diploma.
“It’s sort of a finishing school after you’ve had the practical training,” Geminn said. In 1951 he left Star-Peerless for Genesee. “You could see the handwriting on the wall. That little brewery wasn’t going to make it.” Geminn knew about Genesee because he met William Hoot at Siebel. Hoot is now president of Genesee and Wehle’s cousin. THE ROLE of the brewmaster has changed, Geminn said. Operations such as bottling are outside the realm of the brewmaster, and there are positions above the brewmaster, such as vice president of production, the position Geminn now holds. When Geminn worked in St. Louis, all the trappings of a brewmaster’s power were evident. “In the old days, the brewmaster had a residence on the property. He had free rent and free light. The brewmasters had their own formulas and they were very secretive. That’s where they got their power. “The owner must have known what was going on, but sometimes he didn’t. There were some tricks of the trade, like how you add the yeast and how to blend to achieve a uniform product that was the brewmaster’s secret.” – But even when Geminn came to Genesee in 1951, not all the traditions were gone. Asked if the brewery workers tipped their hats to him, Giminn smiled and said: “Yes, I had that happen to me. Nobody would come into my office until they took their hat off, and the foremen would practically click their heels.”

And here’s his obituary from the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, New York on April 24, 2006.

And this article about Geminn is from the Belleville News Democrat of Illinois from March 10, 1964.

Beer Birthday: Carlos Sanchez

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 67th birthday of Carlos Sanchez, who was the brewmaster at Six Rivers Brewery in McKinleyville, behind the Redwood Curtain. Carlos is a veteran brewer of over 20 years, having originally interned at Humboldt Brewing Co., becoming assistant brewer there in 1990. He’s also worked at Mad River Brewing and attended Chicago’s Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology. In 1996, the opportunity to start brewing at a local start-up tempted Sanchez to become Six Rivers’ first, and only, brewmaster. He’s been there a long time, brewing an impressive stable of beers, including many sound interpretations of classic styles and a few others that are utterly unique. Earlier this year, he announced his retirement. Join me in wishing Carlos a very happy birthday.

carlos-6-rivers — Carlos between Six Rivers’ owners Meredith Maier Ripley and Talia Nachshon at their 11th anniversary party several years ago.

Historic Beer Birthday: George Kenneth Hotson Younger

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of George Kenneth Hotson Younger (September 22, 1931-January 26, 2003). “Younger’s forebearer, George Younger (baptised 1722), was the founder of George Younger and Son of Alloa, [Scotland] the family’s brewing business (not to be confused with Younger’s of Edinburgh). He was the great-great-great-great-great-grandfather of the brewery founder. “Younger’s great-grandfather, George Younger, was created Viscount Younger of Leckie in 1923. Younger was the eldest of the three sons of Edward Younger, 3rd Viscount Younger of Leckie.”

Here’s his biography, from Wikipedia:

He was born in Stirling in 1931 and educated at Cargilfield Preparatory School, Winchester College, and New College, Oxford, where he obtained a Master’s degree. Joining the British Army, he served in the Korean War with the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. On 7 August 1954, he married Diana Tuck, daughter of a Royal Navy captain; they had 4 children.
He first stood for Parliament, unsuccessfully, in North Lanarkshire in the 1959 General Election. Subsequently, he was initially selected to stand for the Kinross and West Perthshire seat in a by-election in late 1963, but agreed to stand aside to allow the new Prime Minister Alec Douglas-Home the chance to enter the House of Commons.
Following in the footsteps of his great-grandfather the 1st Viscount, Younger became Member of Parliament for Ayr in 1964 and served as Margaret Thatcher’s Secretary of State for Scotland for seven years. He subsequently succeeded Michael Heseltine as Secretary of State for Defence in 1986 when Heseltine resigned from the cabinet over a dispute about helicopters known as the Westland crisis.
Younger quit the cabinet in 1989, and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland, becoming its chairman in 1992. He was created a life peer as Baron Younger of Prestwick of Ayr in the District of Kyle and Carrick on 7 July 1992, five years before succeeding to the viscountcy. As such, he continued to sit in the House of Lords after the passage of the House of Lords Act 1999 which expelled most of the hereditary peers.

This is the Meadow Brewery around 1890, before it became known as George Younger & Sons.

This is part of Younger’s obituary from the Independent, the small portion that’s about his time working for the family brewery business, must of the rest is about his political career, which appears to be the primary focus of his life, the beer was apparently just an afterthought, something he had to do.

George Kenneth Hotson Younger was born at Leckie in 1931. After Cargilfield, where he was head boy, he went to Winchester. None of the honours which were later to come his way gave him such pleasure as being Warden of Winchester. After National Service in Germany and Korea with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders, he went up to New College, where he read Modern History. Joining the family firm of George Younger and Company, part of Bass, he rose to be a senior sales manager – following the tradition of his great-great-great-uncle William McEwan, who combined a career as a politician with that of successful brewer (best remembered for Mc- Ewan’s Export). As the Edinburgh University Public Orator put it at the degree ceremony for Younger’s doctorate honoris causa in 1992,
There was not for this son an immediate short cut to the boardroom. Instead he worked through the company in a range of roles from labourer to sales manager for Glasgow. He played a significant part not only in brightening up the design of its canned beers but also in the dramatic reorganisation of Scottish brewing which first brought together several of central Scotland’s brewers into United Caledonian Breweries and then merged them with Tennants to form Tennant Caledonian Breweries Ltd, of which George Younger was a director from 1977 to 1979.

Beer Birthday: Dave McLean

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is Dave McLean’s 56th birthday. Dave was the founder of Magnolia Pub & Brewery, the gastropub on Haight Street in San Francisco, along with the production brewery known as the Smokestack in the Dogpatch neighborhood of the city. He is a tireless champion of craft beer in the Bay Area, having worked on Slow Food Nation, The Eat Real Festival and SF Beer Week, among much else. He more recently co-founded Admiral Maltings along with Ron Silberstein and Curtis Davenport. More recently he’s opened a new brewery, Hidden Splendor, in Richmond. Join me in wishing Dave a very happy birthday.

Craig Cauwels (from Schooner’s) and Sam Calagione (from Dogfish Head) stopping by to see Dave at the Double IPA Festival at the Bistro a couple of years ago.

A sextet from San Francisco at GABF 2008. From left: Adrienne McMullem, with 21st Amendment, Ben Spencer, from Magnolia, Sean Paxton, the homebrew chef, Ben’s wife, Shaun O’Sullivan, from 21st Amendment, and Dave.

Dave and me at the end of a very long, but satisfying, day at the first Slow Food Nation event several years ago in San Francisco.

Me, Dave, and Shaun O’Sullivan saying goodbye to Anchor Brewing at their tap room shortly before they closed.

Food and beer mixed happily and deliciously at the Slow Beer Festival 2008, as evidenced here by Ian Marks (from Hog Island Oyster Co.), Taylor Boetticher (from the Fatted Calf), Dave, John Tucci (from Gordon Biersch San Francisco) and Shaun O’Sullivan (from 21st Amendment).

Historic Beer Birthday: Thomas Greenall

September 21, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Thomas Greenall (September 21, 1733-January 18, 1805). He founded Greenall’s Brewery in 1762.

Here’s a history of the brewery, from Wikipedia:

Greenall’s Brewery was founded by Thomas Greenall in 1762. Initially based in St Helens, the company relocated to Warrington in 1787.
It bought the Groves & Whitnall Brewery in Salford in 1961, Shipstone’s Brewery in Nottingham in 1978 and Davenport’s Brewery in Birmingham in 1986. For much of the 20th century, the company traded as Greenall Whitley & Co Limited. The St Helens brewery was demolished in the 1970s to make way for a new shopping centre. The Warrington brewery on the edge of Stockton Heath was bought by Bruntwood, renamed Wilderspool Business Park and is now let to office occupiers.
The company ceased brewing in 1991 to concentrate on running pubs and hotels.
In 1999, the tenanted wing of the Greenall’s operation was sold to the Japanese bank, Nomura for £370 million and the main Greenall’s operation, involving 770 pubs and 69 budget lodges, was sold to Scottish and Newcastle for £1.1billion. Greenalls started to focus its resources on its De Vere and Village Leisure hotel branding at that time.
In February 2005, Greenalls sold The Belfry to The Quinn Group for £186 million.
The Greenall family connection remained as Lord Daresbury, the descendant of the original founder, remained the non-executive chairman. This tie was severed in 2006 when Daresbury stepped down from the post and much of the family’s interest was sold.

And this is from Funding Universe:

Patriarch Thomas Greenall learned the brewing trade from his wife’s family in the 1750s and founded his own brewery in northwestern England at St. Helens in 1762. Brewing was a highly competitive business, with rivals ranging from the lone homebrewer to inns and pubs that brewed their own ales to wholesale brew masters like Greenall. Though the founder dabbled in nail making, coal mining, and yarn spinning throughout the late 18th century, brewing remained the family’s core interest. By the turn of the century, Thomas had brought sons Edward, William, and Peter into the business. The Greenalls began to purchase their own pubs and inns as early as 1800, helping to accelerate a gradual elimination of their competition. In Britain, it was customary for bars owned by breweries to carry only the beers brewed by the parent company. For nearly two centuries, these “tied houses” were a profitable segment of Greenall’s business.
In 1788, Greenall formed a separate partnership with William Orrett and Thomas Lyon to purchase the Saracen’s Head Brewery in nearby Wilderspool. Business was so good that within just three years the three partners undertook a £4,400 expansion of the operation.
The family business interests endured a rapid succession of generations in the first two decades of the 19th century. In 1805, both Thomas Greenall and William Orrett died. By 1817, the passing of William and Peter Greenall left only Edward to operate the growing St. Helens brewery. Just a year later, Thomas Lyon died. His nephew and heir, also Thomas, was interested in the Wilderspool brewery only as an investment. In 1818, 60-year-old Edward assigned eldest son Thomas to manage the family’s half interest in Wilderspool and charged younger son Peter with management of the family brewery at St. Helens.
While Peter pursued politics, eventually winning election to Parliament, Thomas proved to be the brewer of his generation. By this time, the family businesses had grown to the point that the Greenalls served as chairmen, guiding the overall direction of the company but leaving daily management concerns to other top executives. Throughout this period, ownership of the pubs and inns through which Greenall’s porters, sparkling ales, and bitters were dispensed was a key to maintaining a strong competitive position.

And this is Greenall Whitley & Co’s., Wilderspool Brewery, in Warrington in 1887.

This account from The Groves & Whitnall’s Globe Works begins with Thomas:

Thomas Greenall became manager of his mother-in-law’s brewery in St Helens, Lancashire, in 1754, and went on to build his own in Hardshaw, St Helens, in 1762. In 1786 he bought the Saracen’s Head Brewery at Wilderspool, Warrington, in partnership with William Orrett and Thomas Lyon. In 1787, the partners acquired an interest in the brewery of Edward Greenall and Co in Cunliff Street, Liverpool, which ceased trading in 1814. In 1807, Orrett’s son sold his interest to Lyon and Greenall. On the death of Thomas Lyon, nephew of the original partner, in 1859, Greenall and Company was formed.

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