Beer In Ads #5198: Back Again! Wiedemann’s Genuine Bock Beer

February 10, 2026 By Jay Brooks

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.

Tuesday’s ad is for Wiedemann’s Genuine Bock Beer, which was published on February 10, 1953. This one was for Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co., of Newport, Kentucky and was founded by John Butcher in 1860, though Wiedemann become involved fairly early, at least by 1870. This ad ran in The Cincinnati Post, of Cincinnati, Ohio. I love that they mention at the bottom that “It’s Registered, Too!”

Historic Beer Birthday: Jacob Hammel

February 10, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Jacob Hammel (February 10, 1827-July 9, 1901). He was born in Rheinfalz, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1849, when he was 22. He initially settled in Ohio, but moved to Lebanon, Illinois where he started the Illinois Brewing Co. For health reasons, his son William moved to Sirocco, New Mexico, and his brother Gustav joined him and they founded Hammel Bros. & Co. But their father Jacob joined them when he was older, around 1888, and they renamed it the Illinois Brewing Co.

This obituary is from the American Brewers Journal five years after his death in 1901, in their “Five Years Ago” page in the 1906 edition.

This description of Hammel and his breweries’ histories

According to an oral history interview of Clarence Hammel by Helen Sickles, his grandfather Jakob Hammel emigrated from Bavaria ca. 1848 in company with (Eberhard) Anheuser and briefly considered forming a partnership with him in St. Louis, Missouri. The two men were evading conscription into the army before the War of 1849. They separated, and Anheuser established E. Anheuser & Co. (later Anheuser-Busch) in 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri, while Hammel set up the Illinois Brewing Co. (also called Illinois Brewery Co.) ca. 1870 in Lebanon, Illinois. Jakob’s son, William Hammel, was born in 1857 and migrated as a young adult to Socorro in 1882. Like many other newcomers he traveled west on a doctor’s recommendation to find a cleaner and healthier environment. He set up a warehouse and imported beer from Illinois until 1886 when he bought property from Pedro Montoya and started a brewery housed in adobe buildings. In 1904 the Illinois Brewery Co. moved into a new stone building which is now known as the Hammel Museum. The product was a lager beer with the label, Export, later changed to Select. The brewmaster was Francis Eppele.
In 1919 the Volstead Act (18th Amendment) put an end to the brewing operation, and the company continued for almost half a century as an ice house and bottling plant. The company had a very early franchise for Pepsi-Cola to which it added Orange Crush, Dr. Pepper, and Grapette. The growing number of home electric refrigerators eventually reduced the demand for ice to an unprofitable level and the business closed in 1969. Ownership was transferred to the Socorro County Historical Society.

Hammel-Brewery-1902-04 — The New Mexico brewery around 1902-04.

And this is from “100 Years of Brewing.”

Historic Beer Birthday: John Kauffman

February 10, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Kauffman (February 10, 1839-January 15, 1886). Kauffman was born in Lorraine, France. He was part of the group that bought the Franklin Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1856. By 1859, it was called the John Kaufman & Co. Brewery, and it became the fourth largest brewery in Cincinnati. Eventually, he remained as the sole owner, and in 1882 renamed it the John Kauffman Brewing Co. It was closed by prohibition, and never reopened, although it was used as the Husman Potato Chip factory, so at least it was put to good use.

There’s an entry for the John Kauffman Brewery in the “History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio,” published in 1894:

Cincinnati Brewing History has this account of the brewery’s history, taken from Cincinnati Breweries, by Robert J. Wimberg, from 1989:

“In 1856 John Kauffman, George F. Eichenlaub, and Rudolf Rheinbold purchased the Franklin Brewery on Lebanon Road near the Deer Creek from Kauffman’s aunt. Her husband, John Kauffman, estabished the brewery in 1844. He died in 1845. In 1859 under the name Kauffman and Company, they began to build a new brewery on Vine Street and soon left the Deer Creek location. The first structure on Vine was completed in 1860.
In 1871 the Kauffman Brewery was the city’s fourth largest with sales amounting to $30,930. It was located on both the west and east sides of Vine north of Liberty and south of Green Street.
In 1860 Kauffman also bought the Schneider grist mill on Walnut Street near Hamilton Road (McMicken Avenue), but leased it out before long to another company.
In its first year on Vine Street, the brewery produced only about 1000 barrels. By 1877 the number grew to 50,000 barrels of beer. Kauffman’s beer was sold in Nashville, Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
In 1865 Eichenlaub retired from the business and he was followed by Rheinbold in 1877. John Kauffman then took over the leadership by himself. After his oldest son Johnn studied brewing in Augsburg, Germany, he went to work at the family brewery. Emil Schmidt, Kauffman’s son-in-law, was superintendent by 1877.
In 1882 the brewery was incorporated as the John Kauffman Brewing Company with a paid-in capital stock of $700,000. In 1888 the brewery building at 1622 Vine was enlarged. Note it is occupied by the Schuerman Company today. The office and family residence was at 1625-27 Vine, which was razed and replaced about 75 years ago.
John Kauffman died in 1892 and his wife Marianne Eichenlaub Kauffman took over. She was president of the corporation; Emil Schmidt, vice-president; and treasurer; Charles Rheinbold, secretary; Charles J. Kauffman, superintendent; and John R. Kauffman, brewmaster. By 1894 the brewery produced 70,000 barrels of beer. The malt house had a capacity of 150,000 bushels of barley and the brewery plant covered five acres of ground.
By 1913 John R. Kauffman was president of the company. The brewery produced ‘Gilt Edge’, ‘Columbia’ and ‘Old Lager’ beers. It closed in 1919 when Prohibition became law and never reopened.”

The brewery is also mentioned briefly in a History of the Brewery District for Cincinnati:

Industry continued to be an important factor in Over-the-Rhine’s development. The canal area was still the location of many diversified industries, including lumberyards, foundries, pork packers, tanneries, and glycerin works. The brewing industry tended to concentrate along McMicken Avenue and the Miami and Erie canal (what is now the Brewery District). By 1866 the Jackson Brewery, J. G. John & Sons Brewery, Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, and John Kauffman Brewing Company dominated the industrial use of the area. In close association on the west side of the canal were the John Hauck and Windisch-Mulhauser Brewing Companies. Between 1875 and 1900 seventeen breweries were located in Over-the-Rhine and West End.

John_Kauffman_Brewing_Company_beer_label

Beer In Ads #5197: It’s Here! Rahr’s Bock Beer

February 9, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Monday’s ad is for Rahr’s Bock Beer, which was published on February 9, 1957. This one was for Rahr Green Bay Brewing Corp., of Green Bay, Wisconsin and was founded by Henry Rahr in 1864. This ad ran in The Green Bay Press Gazette, of Green Bay, Wisconsin.

Historic Beer Birthday: David C. Kuntz

February 9, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of David C. Kuntz (February 9, 1877-October 22, 1915). He was born in Waterloo, Ontario, in Canada, and was the grandson of David Kuntz, who established the first brewery in Ontario. He was also the son of Louis Kuntz, David’s son. After the first David Kuntz died, his son Louis Kuntz took over, renaming the the business Louis Kuntz’s Park Brewery, and David C. succeeded his father. Shortly after his passing, in 1930, Canadian Breweries Limited, which had originally been “named Brewing Corporation of Ontario,” was created “by merging The Brading Breweries Limited, an Ottawa company Taylor had inherited from his grandfather, Capital Brewing of Ottawa, and Kuntz Brewery of Waterloo, Ontario.” In 1977 Carling Brewery was purchased by Labatt Breweries of London, but the Waterloo plant was closed by 1993 and all the buildings on the site had been demolished.

This is his obituary, from the Brewers Journal in 1915:

Kuntz-employees-1910s — Kuntz brewery works around 1910.

Here’s a brief mention of David C. Kuntz from Flash from the Past: What remains of the Kuntz Brewery legacy?

Louis Kuntz died, aged 39, following an appendectomy in 1891. His children were still young so brother-in-law Frank Bauer, also a brewer, took over. Then David Kuntz died in 1892. Bauer’s own 1895 passing began an almost unbelievable sequence of deaths in the brewery’s management. However, business success continued and in 1910 David Kuntz Jr., Louis’ son, took over. He also died young, 38, in 1915 so his two brothers, Herbert and William stepped in.

Beer In Ads #5196: Happy Days Are Here Again

February 8, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Sunday’s ad is for Dawson’s Bock Beer, which was published on February 8, 1940. This one was for Dawson’s Brewery, of New Bedford, Massachusetts and was founded in 1899. This ad ran in The Boston Globe, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Historic Beer Birthday: A.J. Houghton

February 8, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Andrew Jackson Houghton (February 8, 1830-September 24, 1892). He was born in Readsboro, Vermont, and moved to the Jamaica Plain area of Boston where he founded the A.J. Houghton & Co. Brewery with John A. Kohl in 1870. They bought the Christian Jutz brewery, which had been built in 1857, but moved production across the street. It was also known as the Vienna Brewery at various points of its history, before closing for good in 1918 when Prohibition went into effect.

This is a history of the brewery from 100 Years of Brewing:

This account is from Boston’s Lost Breweries:

Located at Station and Halleck Streets, it was active from 1870 to 1918. It occupies the site of the old Christian Jutz brewery built in 1857. The Vienna Brewery had originally been located across the street where it was owned by Messrs. Houghton and Cole [sic] of Maine and Vermont. They bought the Christian Jutz property and moved their main operations across the street, converting their original property to a stable to house their several transport horses. Here they produced Vienna Lager from a German recipe. The lighter German and Austrian Lager beers came into favor in the 1850’s and 60’s displacing the heavier English/Irish Ales. Besides Vienna Lager, they made Pavonia Lager Beer, Vienna Old Time Lager and Rockland Ale.

The Jamaica Plain Historical Society on the A.J. Houghton Brewery.

“A.J. Houghton & Co. “Vienna” Brewery. Located at Station and Halleck Streets, it was active from 1870 to 1918. It occupies the site of the old Christian Jutz brewery built in 1857.“The Vienna Brewery had originally been located across the street where it was owned by Messrs. Houghton and Cole of Maine and Vermont. They bought the Christian Jutz property and moved their main operations across the street, converting their original property to a stable to house their several transport horses. (This must be where Jeremiah Walsh worked.) Here they produced Vienna Lager from a German recipe. The lighter German and Austrian Lager beers came into favor in the 1850’s and 60’s displacing the heavier English/Irish Ales. Besides Vienna Lager, they made Pavonia Lager Beer, Vienna Old Time Lager and Rockland Ale.“This is the only landmark brewery in Boston, having been protected by the Boston Landmarks Commission, despite its poor condition. It had a five story main brewing building with a large cupola, an office building, three storage buildings, a coopering or barrel-making building, and a power plant. It was a beautiful building with brick used for architectural features instead of stonework or terra cotta. The sweeping arches are built of brick while the sills and parts of the arches are granite. The floor joists are supported by architectural ironwork. The exterior “X” shaped elements on the sides of the buildings are iron brick-ties that support the brick bearing-walls and were common design features at that time. They were often connected by long interior iron rods, spanning between the walls, to help hold the structure together under the floor loads of several stories.“The main brewing buildings had robust hoists and pumps to lift the grains and water up to the top floor to begin the brewing process. Gravity would then take the brew down to the various levels and processes below. This, then, was a “vertical” brewery. When pumping technology improved, the vertical process was discontinued in favor of the “horizontal” brewery with lower buildings and other efficiencies. This brewery closed when Prohibition arrived in 1919 and it never reopened on a full-scale basis.”

Historic Beer Birthday: Charles Tascher

February 8, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Charles Tascher (February 8, 1832-June 5, 1890). He was born in Stark, Ohio, but moved with his family to be raised in Indiana, where he married Elizabeth Soice in 1854. A few years later, Tascher then moved his family to Colorado, settling in Denver. Initially, along with a business partner, Frederick Zadek Salomon, he started a successful mercantile business. From that success, and the addition of Tascher’s brother-in-law, Charles Endlich, the trio founded Denver’s first brewery, Rocky Mountain Brewery, in 1859.

As Endlich’s involvement with the brewery grew and his brother-in-law became sole proprietor, Tascher withdrew from the brewery, moved to Central City, and became a miner (which was the reason he moved West). He passed away at age 58 in 1890.

As for the brewery, Philip Zang bought into it around 1868 and eventually took it over, renaming it the Philip Zang Brewery in 1870, though they continued to use the Rocky Mountain name in the trade. They closed during prohibition, of course, but only lasted one year afterwards before closing for good in 1934.

Beer In Ads #5195: It’s The Time Of Year For Pearl Bock Beer

February 7, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s ad is for Pearl Bock Beer, which was published on February 7, 1964. This one was for Pearl Brewing Co., of San Antonio, Texas and was founded in 1883. This ad ran in The San Antonio Express, also of San Antonio, Texas.

Historic Beer Birthday: George Wiedemann

February 7, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of George Wiedemann (February 7, 1833-May 25, 1890). He was born in Eisenach, Stadtkreis Eisenach, Thüringen, Germany, and “came to the United States as a young man in 1854. first finding work in the brewing industry in New York, Louisville, and Cincinnati. He moved to Newport, Kentucky in 1870, and founded the George Wiedemann Brewing Co., which became Kentucky’s largest brewery.” After his death, his sons continued to run the business. After prohibition, the brewery merged with G. Heileman Brewing Company, and in 1967 was operated as the Wiedemann Division of the G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. The brewery was closed in 1983.

This short bio is from Widemann’s Find-a-Grave page:

Businessman, Beer Magnate. Came to the United States in 1855 from Eisenach, Germany. He obtained his experience while working for a brewer in Williamsburg, New York. In 1870 he moved to Newport, Kentucky and began working for a brewer named John Butcher. In 1878 he bought out the interest of John Butcher, and two years later he purchased the Constans Brewery and built a new brewery in Newport, Kentucky, which carried his name. The George Wiedemann Brewing Comapany remained under family control, until August 1, 1967, when it was sold to the G. Heileman Brewing Company of LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

And this is from his Wikipedia page:

Wiedemann was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1833. He came to the United States as a young man in 1854. first finding work in the brewing industry in New York, Louisville, and Cincinnati.[1] He moved to Newport, Kentucky in 1870. He was the founder of the George Wiedemann Brewing Company, which became Kentucky’s largest brewery. It was located at 601 Columbia Street in Newport, Kentucky. Wiedemann beer was synonymous with Newport. Wiedemann promoted itself as “America’s only registered beer” and often used humorous radio commercials as part of its advertising campaigns.
Wiedemann married Agnes Rohman and they had six children. Newspaper accounts described Wiedemann as an honest man with a natural sociability and a dignified businessman.
On May 28, 1890, George Wiedemann became ill and died at his home at 188 East Third St in Newport. The business was continued to operate by his sons, George Jr. and Charles.
Wiedemann Brewing was merged with G. Heileman Brewing Company, in 1967 and was operated as Wiedemann Division, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. The primary brands were Wiedemann Fine Beer, Royal Amber Beer, Blatz Beer/Cream Ale and other assorted Heileman labels. The brewery was closed in 1983.
The Wiedemann name was then sold and was brewed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until 2007 when the brand was dropped.
2012, a Newport, Kentucky company, Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Company, LLC, re-established the brand and started brewing Wiedemann Special Lager as a small-batch, craft beer. The name, the recipe, logo and all intellectual rights were bought out by beer brewer and journalist Jon Newberry. In 2018 Jon and wife, Betsy purchased an old funeral home in Cincinnati and after a few years of renovating the old building it opened up not only a brewery but a taproom and restaurant.
In 2019 the Sipple Family, Covington natives, bought the home of George Wiedemann, Jr. at 401 Park Avenue. The historic home has been renovated and is now utilized as a place of business for the 2nd generation family business, Centennial Talent Strategy and Executive Search. Centennial, a family business like the Wiedemann Brewery Company, is one of the Greater Cincinnati region’s largest and most prominent firms in their industry. 401 Park Avenue is also the home of IMPACT Cowork, an executive coworking and meeting rental space, and Talent Magnet Institute, a consulting firm, with a weekly podcast recorded in the historic building.

George Wiedemann was born in Eisenach,Thüringen, Prussia. He was educated in the brewer’s art in Saxony and in 1853 at the age of 19 years, emigrated to America. Wiedemann found immediate employment in a brewery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, but it being not to his liking he remained there only three months.
Upon his release Wiedemann moved 750 miles southwest to Louisville where he had found a position in another brewery. Six months later he was hired away by Frank Eichenlaub to work in his brewery in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. The addition of John Kaufmann as partner in the Eichenlaub firm inspired the erection of a second brewery on Vine Street, over which Wiedemann was made foreman.
In 1856 Wiedemann was joined in marriage to another German emigre Agnes Rohmann. The union produced four children, including sons Charles and George Junior.
Wiedemann presided over Eichenlaub’s Vine Street Brewery until 1870, when he took his savings and bought a minority share in John Butcher’s brewery in Newport Kentucky. The business was ideally located but Butcher was modest in ambition. Ambition was a trait Weidemann had in spades, though, and the partners quickly grew the brewery from 15 barrels a day to the largest in Kentucky. When Butcher retired from the firm in 1878 Wiedemann continued as sole proprietor.
By this time Wiedemann’s sons Charles and George Jr. were employed in the firm. Their education in the business proved so thorough that when the elder Wiedemann died unexpectedly at age 57 the transition of management to his sons was seamless. George Wiedemann died on the 25th of May 1890. His sons Charles (age 32) and George Jr. (age 24) carried the business on into the 20th century.
The family brewery operated through Prohibition and two World Wars. The firm was sold in 1967 to the G. Heileman Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and closed in 1973, a little over a century after George Wiedemann persuaded John Butcher to think big.

This is from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, an article entitled “Our Rich History: George Wiedemann, Northern Kentucky’s Beer Baron and his Brewery.”

George Wiedemann (1833-1890) came to America from Germany in 1854, and after several years in the New World founded a brewery in Newport, Kentucky that became the largest south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, as well as a brewing family dynasty that lasted for four generations.
Wiedemann was born in Eisenach in Saxony-Weimar, a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. It also was the birthplace of Martin Luther. The Wartburg, where Luther translated the Bible into German, overlooks the town. It was also not far from Mühlhausen, the hometown of John A. Roebling, who like many others, immigrated due to discontent with the socio-political conditions in the German states.
In 1854 at age 21, Wiedemann, who had learned the brewing trade by means of the apprenticeship system, joined the waves of German immigration that surged after the failure of the 1848 Revolution. After arrival in New York, he quickly found work in one of New York’s forty breweries, but then moved on to Louisville, which had a growing German population.
At the time, many native-born Americans feared the arrival of the Forty-Eighters, the refugees of the 1848 Revolution, as well as the large number of Catholics. This nativist antipathy gave rise to hostilities across the country, and to a riot known as Bloody Sunday in Louisville in August 1855. Not surprisingly, Wiedemann headed for Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district.
He found a job at the brewery of Franz Eichenlaub, and worked his way up to Braumeister. Eichenlaub’s son-in-law, John Kauffman, took over the brewery, which was located on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine, and it became known as the Kauffman Brewery. Wiedemann remained there for fifteen years, gaining much valuable experience in operating a brewery.
By 1870 Over-the-Rhine had a sizable number of breweries, so starting a brewery there would have been a challenge. Fortunately, Wiedemann had a friend, Johannes Butscher, across the Ohio River in Newport who was from his hometown. So in 1870, he partnered with him to form the Butscher & Wiedemann Brewing Co., with Wiedemann working as Braumeister. In 1878, he bought out his partner, taking full control of the brewery. In 1888, he rebuilt the entire brewery complex, with all the latest refinements and inventions in brewing. Pictures show that it was a wonderful example of German-American brewing architecture, built in the style known as German Romanesque Revival.
The Wiedemann Brewery also featured a Bavarian-style Gasthaus with a Bierstube for visitors. The reception area was adorned with murals on the ceiling, and the office was state of the art with telephones and typewriters. And Wiedemann’s office was truly fitting for a beer baron. The well-known architect Samuel Hannaford designed the brewery stable that housed 150 horses, all of which were needed for the horse-drawn beer wagons.
The Wiedemann Brewery was well known for its Bavarian Lager and its Bohemian Pilsner. The latter became popular after the 1873 Vienna International Exposition, and many brewers from the U.S., including Wiedemann, introduced the brew here. This was more yellow in color than a golden Lager, more light-bodied and had a foamy head with smooth creamy flavor.

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