Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1236: A Doctor’s Reasons

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Saturday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1904. It’s an unthinkable ad in today’s world, where health claims are strictly forbidden in beer advertising, even if they’re true. In a fictional, or hypothetical at best, conversation between a doctor and his patient, the physician unequivocally endorses Schlitz beer because it’s so pure. How does he know? Because he’s seen it being brewed, which of course makes no sense. But my favorite advice the doc gives is about why pure beer is good for you. “The hops form a tonic; the barley a food. The trifle of alcohol os an aid to digestion. And the custom of drinking beer supplies the body with fluid to wash out the waste. People who don’t drink beer seldom drink enough fluid of any kind. A great deal of ill-health is caused by the lack of it.” And no, it doesn’t cause biliousness, which is a “term used in the 18th and 19th centuries pertaining to bad digestion, stomach pains, constipation, and excessive flatulence.” Whew, dodged a bullet there.

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Beer In Ads #1235: Goodbye Hug

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Friday’s ad is for the U.S. Brewers Industry Foundation, from the 1940s, sometime during World War II. This is from the brewing industry’s “Morale is a Lot of Little Things,” their award-winning campaign that talks about the little things that help people’s morale during the war. Not surprisingly, beer is usually one of them.

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Beer In Ads #1234: When Knights Were Bold

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Thursday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch, from 1945. A World War 2 ad, showing a modern soldier — a Sergeant First Class — in which he compares himself to a suit of armor, most likely while liberating a European castle. The tagline reads “When Knights were Bold .. they were not so Big.” I guess the big strapping enlisted man is taller than the knight would been, based on the armor’s size.

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Beer In Ads #1233: If You Got To Go, Go Natural

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Wednesday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch brand Natural Light, from 1996. The ad depicts a scene from the Battle of the Little Big Horn, more commonly known as “Custer’s Last Stand,” which took place today in 1876. The ad can be found, oddly enough, in the Autry Library in southern California. Anheuser-Busch apparently created a reproduction of an 1892 pamphlet with the lengthy title Authentic history of the Indian campaign which culminated in “Custer’s last battle,” June 25, 1876 : from comments by General Fry, Captain E.S. Godfrey (Seventh Cavalry, U.S.A.), (volume XLIII, the Century monthly magazine, January, 1892), Captain Charles King, Adjutant-General State of Wisconsin, Olin D. Wheeler, of the Northern Pacific Railroad, and others. The “specially numbered reprint” was done exclusively for the 23rd annual conference of the Little Big Horn Associates, July 18-21, 1996, which was held in St. Louis, Missouri, and included the “Natural History Lesson” ad. The original pamphlet was distributed with another painting, Otto Becker’s Custer’s Last Fight in 1896,” which was used to create a poster in 1896 that AB distributed to its customers and bars, making it the first example of brewery advertising. As a result, it has become one of the most highly sought after pieces of breweriana. This newer painting appears less serious in tone, and there’s no additional information I can find about who created the illustration for the Natural Light ad.

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Beer In Ads #1232: Blacksmith Romance

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Tuesday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1941. It’s part of a series of ads Ballantine did under the umbrella name “Early American something,” in this one, for example, it’s “Early American Interlude.” I find this one a little creepy. It reminds me more of the cover of a romance novel, with a smiling colonial babe peering in at a shirtless blacksmith.

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Beer In Ads #1231: Plane Sailing For Lindy …

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Monday’s ad is for Pickwick Ale & Stout, from the 1920s. Brewed by Haffenreffer & Co. (a.k.a. the Haffenreffer Brewery) of Boston, Massachusetts, the spot where the brewery used to be in Jamaica Plain is where the Boston Beer Co. today operates a Samuel Adams Brewery. The Lindy in the ad’s headline is a reference to Charles Lindbergh and his famous solo flight to France, which took place in 1927, smack dab in the middle of Prohibition. So I suspect that ad might possibly be a few years older than most sources claim. The beer bottle calls the beer “Pickwick Pale,” but the neck label reads “Extra Pale Pickwick.” Also, it reads Haffenreffer across the middle of label, but just below that is “New England B’w’g Co.” and below that “N.E. Breweries Co. Ltd.” of “London E.C. England.” So that’s a lot of confusion on one beer bottle. I do love the tagline at the bottom, though: “The Tang of Good Old Ale.”

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Beer In Ads #1230: E. Anheuser Co.

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Sunday’s ad is for E. Anheuser Co., from 1879. It’s a beautiful ad, from back when child labor wasn’t an issue. They were probably able to maximize profits by employing kids, who work for milk and cookies. Although a few of them are taking a break at a picnic table and enjoying bottles of E. Anheuser Co.’s St. Louis Lager Beer. Or perhaps they’re Oompa-Loompas? But what a gorgeous lithographic ad.

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Beer In Ads #1229: The Brew Of Quality

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Saturday’s ad is for Pabst, which most sources claim is from 1920 or the 1920s. It’s mostly a simple photo 9or is that an illustration?), but some of the text is priceless. Starting with the “most refreshing thirst quencher on the market this long, blazing summer” (how exactly would you measure that?), to “Its label means exactly what is says” (so that’s “The Brew Of Quality,” I guess), “And you don’t have to remember a ritual to get it” (not like those other beers that require a special dance or secret handshake before you can buy them).

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Beer In Ads #1228: Its Heart Belongs To Europe

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Friday’s ad is for Imperial Pilsener, from 1976. Imperial Pilsener was made by the Hofbrau Brewing Co. from Allentown, Pennsylvania. It’s interesting to see a beer using “imperial” in its name in the 1970s. Using the tagline “Its heart belongs to Europe,” it seems less like they’re using it to denote strength than an air of European-ness.

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Beer In Ads #1227: Real Quality Beer For 100 Consecutive Years

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Thursday’s ad is for Iron City Beer, from 1960. Despite a clock in the background, they seem to have a funny idea about time. Actually, even funnier, that clock looks like it marks both the days in a month and the hours in a day; a clock and a calendar. The ad claims “Real quality beer for 100 consecutive years,” but that seems to ignore those pesky 13 years when no one was supposed to be brewing beer.

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