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Historic Beer Birthday: Simon E. Bernheimer

November 26, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Simon E. Bernheimer (November 26, 1849-July 25, 1911). He was born in New York, the son of Emmanuel Bernheimer, who founded the Constanz Brewery, with his partner August Schmid, in 1850, on East 4th Street near Avenue B, and a couple of years later, with a different partner, James Speyers, he started the Lion Brewery on Columbus Ave, between 107th and 108th Streets in Manhattan, next door to the beer garden at the Lion Park, and indeed it is sometimes referred to as the Lion Park Brewery. The business was reorganized in 1868, and his old business partner August Schmid also became a partner in the Lion Brewery, and by 1890 its official name was the Bernheimer & Schmid Brewery, though they continued to trade under the Lion Brewery name. In 1878, Simon took over the business when his father retired. In 1895, it was the sixth-largest brewery in the U.S. After 1903, it was called the Lion Brewery of New York, presumably to avoid confusion with the many other breweries with Lion in their name. Lion survived prohibition but closed for good in 1942.

This biography of Bernheimer is from “The National Cyclopedia of American Biography, Vol. 5,” published in 1894:

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This is about the brewery from Wikipedia:

Shortly after immigrating to the United States, Swiss-German August Schmid and Emanuel Bernheimer founded the Costanz Brewery at East 4th Street near Avenue B in 1850. The brewery produced a lagered beer, a favorite among German immigrants. By 1852, they built a second Costanz Brewery at Four Corners in Staten Island, home to a large German community. Five years later, Bernheimer became the partner of another German immigrant, James Speyers and founded the Lion Brewery in 1857 in Manhattan Valley.

A group of Catholic Bavarians helped build the Lion Brewery. When it was built, they held masses in the Brewery on Sunday mornings.

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At its peak, the Lion Brewery occupied about six square city blocks, from Central Park West to Amsterdam Avenue and from 107th to 109th Street. At the time Manhattan’s Upper West Side was an open area with inexpensive land housing, many public institutions and an insane asylum. There were about five to ten thousand living in shanties after being displaced by the creation of Central Park in 1859. Consequently, with the brewery and surrounding areas, the Upper West Side failed to increase its real estate value until the early twentieth century.

In 1862, a $1 tax on each barrel of beer hurt small brewers but not Lion. The anti-saloon movement in the late 19th and early 20th century encouraged Lion to clean up its own saloons. Lion Brewery got caught up in a wave of mergers and closings among some of the smaller New York Brewers in the early 1940s which continued until 1941, when the business closed. The brewery (including the canning facilities) was auctioned off on August 26, 1943. The plant was demolished in 1944 and more than 3,000 tons of steel were taken from the original brewery structure and recycled for the war effort.

After the Brewery was knocked down the lot was paved over with cinders. On Sundays, after the war, returning World War II Veterans formed a Softball League and played almost every Sunday afternoon. Home plate was located near 107th street and Columbus Avenue. Today, apartment houses occupy the Lion brewery’s former location.

Around 1860, the brewery published a pamphlet titled “Observations on Brewing and Beer: With an Analysis and Scientific Testimony Relative to the Lager Beer of the Speyers’ Lion Brewery.” The pamphlet had a short history of the different kinds of beer, and an analysis showing that their lager beer was pure. The pamphlet also included some great line drawings of the brewery complex.

And here’s another story from Rusty Cans:

In 1850 recent Swiss German immigrants August Schmid and Emanuel Bernheimer founded the Costanz Brewery at East 4th Street near Avenue B. The brewery specialized in lagered beer, a favorites among their fellow immigrants. By 1852, their success encouraged them to build a second Costanz Brewery at Four Corners in Staten Island, then home to a large German immigrant community. Eight years later, Bernheimer became the partner of another German immigrant, James Speyers, in his Lion Brewery, established in 1857.

The Lion Brewery, depicted here, occupied a site bounded by what are now Central Park West and Amsterdam Avenue and extending from 107th to 109th Streets. The background view includes Central Park, with a glimpse of the Blockhouse, a relic from the War of 1812. (The Church of the Ascension is there now, built with the brewery’s help in the 1890s). During this period Manhattan’s Upper West Side was a relatively open area offering inexpensive land and it accommodated numerous public institutions including an insane asylum. Also clustered in the neighborhood were the shanty homes of between 5-10,000 thousand people displaced by the formal opening of Central Park in 1859. The combination of shanties, public institutions, and such foul-smelling industries as breweries explains why the Upper West Side failed to develop the real estate value of other areas bordering Central Park until the early twentieth century.

Late in the life of the Lion Brewery, it became involved in a number of mergers and acquisitions, eventually becoming The Greater New York Brewery, Inc.:

Lion brewing got caught up in a wave of mergers and closing among some of the smaller New York Brewers in the early 1940s. In late 1940, the Fidelio Brewing Co., located at 1st Ave. between 29th and 30th Streets., closed. However, on November 15, 1940, it reopened business as the Greater New York Brewery, Inc. In December 1940, the Greater New York Brewery merged with the Horton Pilsener Brewing Co., which was located at Amsterdam Ave. and 128th Street. Horton Brewing President Alex White became a director of Greater New York Brewery and they continued producing previous Horton products. In January 1941, the Greater New York Brewery merged with City Brewing Corporation of Queens. In February of 1941, Horton, as part of Greater New York Brewery, closed its doors. On April 9, 1941, City Brewing Corporation, as part of Greater New York Brewery, temporarily had its license canceled because of illegal merchandising in the form of gifts to retailers. (It apparently reopened at a later date.)

In May of 1941, Greater New York Brewery, Inc. acquired the Lion Brewery. It was the only brewery of the four that merged that had facilities to package beer in flat top cans. But by February of 1942, the Lion Brewery was closed and put up for sale. There being no buyers, the brewery (including the canning facilities) was auctioned off on August 26, 1943. In 1944 over 3,000 tons of steel were taken from the original brewery structure and recycled for the war effort. In April, 1946, the Greater New York Brewery, Inc. became known as the Greater New York Industries. This entity remained in operation until 1950.

For its short lifetime the former Lion Brewery continued to produce beer in cans labeled as products of the Greater New York Brewery. The two flat tops produced are scarce, but not truly rare. However, during its short life span, the Greater New York Brewery also produced a very rare crowntainer and two rare quarts containing Lion beer and ale. There are only 3 of the Beer quarts known today and the Ale is not much more common. Another rare Lion can, a Lion Pilsner, was produced by Pilsner Brewing in New York in the 1940s, but I do not yet know this company’s relationship to the original Lion Brewing. Today, apartment houses occupy the Lion brewery’s former location.

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Historic Beer Birthday: Henry Flach

November 23, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Henry Flach (November 23, 1835-November 13, 1896). He was born in Hessen, Germany and emigrated to American when he was 16, in May of 1852. In 1880, Flach and a partner, John Henzler, bought Morris Perot’s Brewery in Philadelphia (which had opened just two years before, in 1878), who operated it as Henzler & Flach until 1885, when they changed the name to the Eagle Brewery. In 1888, Henry bought out Henzler and brought his two sons into the business, calling it Henry Flach & Sons. When Henry Flach dies in 1986, his sons sold the business the following years and the new owners called it American Brewing Company before it closed for good in 1920 because of Prohibition.

Henry Flach and his wife, Marie Rosalie Frederica Hartung.

This is his obituary from the Public Ledger on November 14, 1896:

Henry Flach, a well-known brewer of this city, died yesterday at his residence, 1500 N. 52nd St. Mr. Flach had been complaining of illness for a year past and three months ago underwent an operation, from the effects of which he, for a while, appeared to have nearly recovered.

Mr, Flach was born in Neuenhien, Hessen, Germany, November 23, 1835. He came to this country in 1851 and since resided in Philadelphia. In 1860, he opened a saloon, and in 1873 entered into a partnership and bought the brewery of Leimbach and Mohr, 32nd and Master Sts., the business being conducted under the name of Henzler and Flach until the death of Mr. Henzler in 1885. A year later Mr. Flach took his sons into partnership, the firms name being changed to Flach and Sons. He is survived by a widow, three sons and four daughters.

Mr. Flach was a Mason and was a member of the William B, Schneider Lodge, No. 419; Oriental Chapter, No 183; St. Johns Commandery No. 4; and among other organizations to which he belonged are the 34th Ward Republican Club, Philadelphia Lodge, No. 30 D. O. H.; Belmont Lodge, No.19, K of P; Philadelphia Rifle Club, the Bavarian Society, the Gambrinus Society and the Lager Beer Brewery Association.”

Henry is buried at the Northwood Cemetery in Phila., located off Broad St. a short distance from Temple University. His burial plot is shared with Philip Spaeter, who, according to Edna Godshall, was Henry’s best friend and the reason Henry named his last son Philip. Philip Spaeter worked as a cooper and made kegs for the brewers. Philip named his son, Philip Henry in honor of Henry Flach.

In a letter to Richard Flach, Muriel Flach Eldridge, granddaughter of Henry, writes that there were 33 carriages in Henry’s funeral procession.

This is Flach’s biography from Find-a-Grave:

Henry was born on Nov 23, 1835 in house #5 in Neuenhain, a small village located southwest of Kassel in northern Hesse. He was baptized in the protestant church on 1 Jan 1836 and was confirmed in 1849. His godfather was Henrich Ehl who was a teacher in Bischhausen.

His father Johannes was an innkeeper, musician, brewer, farmer, and member of the village council. Johannes died at age 44 in 1847 on Henry’s 12th birthday. Henry’s grandfather was Conrad Flach, a blacksmith from the village of Zimmersrode which is about two miles west of Neuenhain. Conrad had died 15 years before Henry’s birth. Conrad was the son of Nicholaus Flach.

On May 6, 1852, at the age of 16, Henry Flach arrived at the port of Philadelphia, Pa. He came from Bremen, Germany aboard the ship Louise Marie. The passenger list had his name spelled (Heinrich Floch) and his occupation was listed as a farmer. Henry became a citizen on September 28, 1860 and his home in Germany was listed as the “Elector of Hesse-Cassel” and his occupation in the 1860 census says he was a woodturner.He married Rosalie Hartung, who arrived in USA from Saxony, Germany in 1855.

In the Phila. census of 1860, Henry is listed as Henry (HOGG) living in the 1st ward of Phila.on June 11, 1860. His occupation is listed as a wood turner. He hailed from Hesse Cassel and wife Rosalie shows as being from Saxony. Daughter Anna (age 5) shows born in Pa. Son Henry was age 3 and also born in Pa. Son George was 1 and reported born in Delaware.

1861 At the onset of the Civil War, President Lincoln called for 72,000 soldiers to serve for 3 months. Henry joined the 1st Delaware infantry in Wilmington, DE and served his 3-month term at which time he went back to civilian life in Philadelphia. Henry’s younger brother George enlisted in Sep 1861 and was wounded at the battle of Sharpsburg aka Antietam

In 1863, Henry Flach was living at 422 Morris St. in Philadelphia. His occupation is “Lager beer”

In 1864 and 1865 Henry had a tavern at 1514 S. 4th St. in Phila.

In 1866, Henry and brother George are listed at 433 Enterprise St as machinists.

In 1867, Henry has a saloon at 1206 S. 4th St.

In 1868 and 1869, Henry is listed in Gopsills Directory as having a “saloon” at 1206 4th St.

In Nov. 1869 Henry petitioned for membership into the William B Schneider lodge as a mason and on Dec 21, 1869 Henry was initiated. On Dec 21 he was a 1st degree. On Jan. 2, 1870 he was a 2nd degree. He became a Master on Feb. 15, 1870 and passed to the Chair Dec. 12, 1871.

Eagle Brewery.

Henry (center) with his two sons.

And this short obituary is from the American Brewers Review from 1897:

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Historic Beer Birthday: Wilhelm Riedlin

November 20, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Wilhelm Ferdinand Riedlin (November 20, 1850-February 19, 1919). He was born in either Vögisheim or Mulheim, Baden, Germany, and emigrated to the United States in June of 1870. He bought into the Bavarian Brewing Co. of Covington, Kentucky in 1882, and eventually became the sole owner. Riedlin died as prohibition began, but the brewery reopened after repeal, although not until 1935, by one of Riedlin’s son-in-laws and the family retained ownership until 1959, when they sold the business to International Breweries Inc., who finally closed the brewery for good in 1966.

This short account of his life is from Find-a-Grave:

He was a very active resident of Covington, KY.

-In his early career, he was a blacksmith, a trade he brought to the US, having learned from his father.
-In 1877, he opened a grocery store, and shortly after established Tivoli Hall Saloon and Beer Garden
-He was the President and owner of the Bavarian Brewing Company by 1882. During prohibition, the Brewing Company manufactured ice and soft drinks.
-He was an active member of the City Legislature and the Covington Elks.
-The director of the Gernan National Bank and Covington Sawmill
-A member and the President of the German Pioneer Society and the Covington Turner Society
-The treasurer of the Baden Benevolent Society
-The President of the Covington Coal Company
-A major stockholder in the Ludlow Lagoon Amusement Park

In 1877, he married Matilda Emma Hoffman. The two made their home at 917 Main Street, Covington KY. Current day, this is now his historic residence, being occupied by a funeral home, the Covington Chapel.

William and Emma had nine children: Carl, Charles, Emma, William Jr, Anna Maria, Edward, Walter F, Lucia and A.K.

And this history of the brewery is from “The Encyclopedia of Northern Kentucky,” edited by Paul A. Tenkotte, James C. Claypool:

The Wikipedia page for the Bavarian Brewing Co. mentions Riedlin, of course, and his contributions to the success of the business, eventually becoming sole owner.

After the brewery was established as DeGlow & Co., new ownership interests within just a couple of years resulted in several changes to its name beginning in 1868, including DeGlow, Best & Renner. However, in 1873, it was established as the Bavarian Brewery Co. Over the next several years the brewery operated under this name, but ownership interests varied. John Meyer obtained controlling interest and the brewery operated under his name for a short time, starting in 1879. Then in 1882, a German immigrant named William Riedlin, who established a saloon and beer hall called Tivoli Hall in the Over The Rhine area of Cincinnati, entered into partnership with John Meyer. It operated as the Meyer-Riedlin Brewery before Riedlin purchased a controlling interest in the brewery from Meyer, incorporated the business under its former name and became president in 1889.

A number of changes were made to the facility during Riedlin’s tenure including the brewery’s first bottling plant built in 1892. Key bottling innovations including the crown bottle cap and pasteurization increased the shelf life of beer, enabling it to be distributed to a much wider area. Besides Bavarian Beer, the company also offered Riedlin Select Beer. By 1914 the annual beer production was 216,000 barrels, increasing from only 7,341 barrels in 1870, and it became the largest brewery in the state.

Operations expanded from the original location on Pike street to include several structures on the property between Pike Street and 12th Street. The main structure, which essentially remains today, was a four story 175 by 125 foot edifice that opened in January, 1906, serving as both the stock and wash houses. An ice house that manufactured 200,000 pounds of ice daily, and that included a couple of ponds, was adjacent to the brewery. The total land area comprised six and one-half-acres. Ice was used in the lager fermentation process before refrigeration became available and it was also sold to the public.

Beer production was abruptly halted shortly before the introduction of Prohibition in 1918. To prevent a complete closure of the brewery, arrangements were made to bottle non-alcoholic beverages under the name The William Riedlin Beverage Company. However, William Riedlin died in early 1919, several months before Prohibition was officially passed by Congress. His son, William Riedlin, Jr., died within a couple months after his father aged 37. He had previously been a Vice President of the brewery and briefly in charge of the Beverage Company. Shortly after the deaths of the father and son the brewery property was closed – for some fifteen years.

The Kenton County Public Library also has a history of the Bavarian Brewery, and Riedlin’s involvement is discussed.

Bavarian Brewery can be traced back to the year 1866 when Julius Deglow and Charles L. Best began operating a small brewery on Pike Street in Lewisburg. In 1869, the brewery officially became known as Bavarian. William Riedlin and John Meyer were the next owners of the brewery. They purchased Bavarian in 1882. Seven years later, Riedlin became the sole owner. Anton Ruh was hired as the brew master.

Under William Reidlin’s ownership, Bavarian Brewer expanded rapidly. The first bottling plant at Bavarian was built in 1892 and was replaced in 1903. This two-story structure was modern in every detail and measured 46’ x 188’. At this same time a new stable was constructed to house the many horses needed to pull delivery wagons. A new four-story warehouse followed in 1905. By 1914, Bavarian Brewery was the largest such enterprise in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. The brewery occupied a 6 ½ ace site on Pike Street and was producing 216,000 barrels of beer each year.

Bavarian continued to prosper until the era of Prohibition. In 1919 production at the plant shifted from beer to soft drinks. In 1925, the icehouse was sold to Joseph and Ferdinand Ruh who incorporated as the Kenton Ice Company. Bavarian re-opened in 1935. Over three thousand guests attended the grand opening. The officers at this time were: Murray L. Vorhees, Fred C. Faller, and Leslie S. Deglow. Three years later, William Riedlin’s four grandsons purchased the business for $55,000. Sales rose throughout the 1930s.

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Historic Beer Birthday: Eugene Hack

November 18, 2018 By Jay Brooks 3 Comments

Today is the birthday of Eugene Hack (November 18, 1840-June 12, 1916). He was born in Wurtenburg, Germany, but emigrated to Indiana and settled in Vincennes in 1868. In 1875, he and a partner, Anton Simon, bought a small brewery in Vincennes, Indiana from John Ebner, who had established in 1859. They continued to call it the Eagle Brewery, although it was also referred to as the Hack & Simon Eagle Brewery, though in 1918, its official name became the Hack & Simon Brewery, until closed by prohibition. The brewery briefly reopened after prohibition as the Old Vincennes Brewery Inc., but they appear to have never actually brewed any beer, before closing for good in 1934.

Here’s Hack’s obituary, from the Brewers Journal, Volume 47, published in 1916:

And this account is from “Vincennes in Picture and Story: History of the Old Town, Appearance of the New,” written by J.P. Hodge, and originally published in 1902.

In 1859 the Eagle Brewery was established by John Ebner on Indianapolis Avenue in Vincennes, Indiana. It operated under his management until 1875 when it was sold to Eugene Hack and Anton Simon. They kept the name and added an eagle logo identifying their flagship brand. Hack and Simon successfully operated the brewery for decades. They were producing 18,000 barrels of beer a year and maintained five wagons and twelve head of horses for their local trade. In time they established five refrigerated beer depots in towns in Indiana and Illinois. The brewery was shut down by Indiana prohibitionary laws in 1918 and apparently not reopened in 1934 after Repeal.

A brewery paperweight.

Historic Beer Birthday: Charles Buxton

November 18, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Charles Buxton (November 18, 1823-August 10, 1871). He “was an English brewer, philanthropist, writer and member of Parliament. Buxton was born in Cobham, Surrey, the third son of Sir Thomas Buxton, 1st Baronet, a notable brewer, MP and social reformer, and followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming a partner in the brewery of Truman, Hanbury, Buxton, & Co in Brick Lane, Spitalfields, London, and then an MP. He served as Liberal MP for Newport, Isle of Wight (1857–1859), Maidstone (1859–1865) and East Surrey (1865–1871). His son Sydney Buxton was also an MP and governor of South Africa.”

This is the image that comes up for Charles Buxton when you do a Google search, but I can’t confirm that it’s the same person.

Buxton’s father, Sir Thomas Fowell Buxton, 1st Baronet, usually known as just Fowell Buxton, was a partner in Truman’s Brewery, which had been around since 1666 as the Black Eagle Brewery.

The brewery on Brick Lane in London.

The original brewery was probably established by the Bucknall family, who leased the site in the seventeenth century. The site’s first associations with brewing can be traced back to 1666 when a Joseph Truman is recorded as joining William Bucknall’s Brewhouse in Brick Lane. Part of the site was located on Black Eagle Street, hence the brewery’s name. Truman appears to have acquired the lease of the brewery in 1679, upon the death of William Bucknell. Through the Truman family’s efforts – not least those of Sir Benjamin Truman (who joined the firm in 1722) – the business expanded rapidly over the following 200 years. By 1748 the Black Eagle Brewery was the third largest brewery in London, and likely the world, with 40,000 barrels produced annually.

In the mid-18th century Huguenot immigrants introduced a new beverage flavoured with hops, which proved very popular. Initially, Truman’s imported hops from Belgium, but Kent farmers were soon encouraged to grow hops to help the brewery meet growing demand.

Sir Benjamin died in March 1780 and, without a son to take on the business, it passed to his grandsons. In 1789, the brewery was taken over by Sampson Hanbury (Hanbury had been a partner since 1780; the Truman family became ‘sleeping partners’). Hanbury’s nephew, Thomas Fowell Buxton, joined the company in 1808, improved the brewing process, converted the works to steam power and, with the rapid expansion and improvement of Britain’s road and rail transport networks, the Black Eagle label soon became famous across Britain (by 1835, when Buxton took over the business upon Hanbury’s death, the brewery was producing some 200,000 barrels (32,000 m3) of porter a year).

The Brick Lane brewery – now known as Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co – took on new partners in 1816, the Pryor brothers (the company’s owners were renowned for their good treatment of their workers – providing free schooling – and for their support of abolitionism). By 1853 the brewery was the largest in the world, producing 400,000 barrels of beer each year, with a site covering six acres.

However, the company also faced competition from breweries based outside London – notably in Burton upon Trent, where the water was particularly suitable for brewing – and in 1873 the company acquired a brewery (Phillips) in Burton and began to build a major new brewery, named the Black Eagle after the original London site.

In 1888, Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co became a public company with shareholders, but the balance of production was now shifting to Burton. The Brick Lane facility remained active through a take-over by the Grand Metropolitan Group in 1971 and a merger with Watney Mann in 1972, but it was in terminal decline. It eventually closed in 1989.

Glenn Payne wrote the Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. entry for the Oxford Companion to Beer:

Truman, Hanbury, Buxton & Co. was a venerable British brewery that operated for more than 3 centuries before it closed its doors in 1988. The original brewery was built on Lolsworth Field, Spitalhope, London, by Thomas Bucknall in 1669. He was soon joined by Joseph Truman, who became brewery manager in 1694. Joseph Truman brought Joseph Truman Jr into the company in 1716 and his executor, Sir Benjamin Truman, who took ownership of the business in 1722. Two years later a new brewery, The Black Eagle, was built on nearby Brick Lane, which grew to become Britain’s second largest brewery, employing some 1,000 people. Sir Benjamin died in 1780 without a direct male heir and left the brewery to his grandsons. In the same year, Sampson Hanbury became a partner and took over control in 1789. His nephew, Thomas Fowler Buxton, joined in 1808. He improved the brewing process by adopting innovations in brewing technology brought about by the Industrial Revolution. Outside his activities in the brewery, Buxton was a renowned philanthropist, and he was elected a member of Parliament in 1818. He was associated with William Wilberforce, a leader in the fight to end the British slave trade. By the time of his death in 1845, the brewery produced about 305,000 hl of porter annually. The brewery is even mentioned in Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield (1850). Seizing upon the growing influence of Burton as a brewing center in the 19th century, the company acquired the Phillips brewery there in 1887 and 2 years later became a public company. But its fortunes declined with the shift in popular taste away from porter toward pale ale near the end of the 19th century. In 1971, the brewery was acquired by the Grand Metropolitan Group, which, in turn, was merged into Watney Mann 1 year later. Thomas, Hanbury, and Buxton ceased production in 1988 but its brewery still stands on its site in Brick Lane, London, where it has been redeveloped into a complex of residential housing, offices, restaurants, galleries, and shops.

They also later built a Black Eagle Brewery in Burton. As you’d expect, Martyn Cornell has an amazingly thorough account of Trumans, which he refers to as When Brick Lane was home to the biggest brewery in the world.

Historic Beer Birthday: Charles Liebmann

November 16, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Charles Liebmann (November 16, 1837-June 23, 1928). He was born in Schmiedelfeld, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. His father owned the Castle Schmiedelfeld, but when Charles was two, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and operated the Zum Stern Inn there, which also included a brewery. For political reasons, some of the family moved to America around 1850 to build a home, and the rest followed in 1854. Initially he ran the old Maasche Brewery, but later built a new brewery in Bushwick. Originally, it was called the Samuel Liebmann Brewery, but when his sons joined the brewery, it was called the S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. When Joseph’s father died in 1872, Charles and his brothers took over the family brewery. After prohibition ended, the brothers’ six sons re-opened the brewery as the simpler Liebmann Breweries, but in 1964 they changed the name again to Rheingold Breweries, after their most popular beer. The brewery closed in 1976.

This biography of Liebmann is translated from his German Wikipedia page:

Charles Liebmann was born in 1837. His father Samuel Liebmann was at that time owner of the estate Schloss Schmiedelfeld. In 1840, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and operated there the inn “Zum Stern” with attached brewery. There Liebmann attended the secondary school.

After the father decided for political reasons to emigrate to America, Liebmann’s brother Joseph was sent ahead in 1850 to build a new home. This settled in Williamsburg. Four years later, the rest of the family followed.

In the new home Liebmanns first operated the old Maasche Brewery. For a short time Liebmann was employed by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company as Küfer. Later, the family built a new brewery in Bushwick – the S. Liebmann Brewery.

After the death of his father Samuel Liebmann in 1872, his sons took over the management of the brewery and renamed it S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. The Liebmann brothers alternated with each other as Chief Executive Officer each year. Charles Liebmann was considered the technical director of the company. In 1903, the Liebmann brothers retired and handed over the management of the company to six of their sons.

Liebmann died in 1928 in New York.

Schmiedelfeld Castle

This short biography of Charles is from his Ancestory.com page:

When Charles Liebmann was born on November 16, 1837, in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, his father, Samuel, was 38 and his mother, Sara, was 36. He married Sophia Bendix on October 22, 1865. They had six children during their marriage. He died on June 23, 1928, in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 90, and was buried in Queens, New York.

This is from “The Originators of Rheingold Beer: From Ludwigsburg to Brooklyn – A Dynasty of German-Jewish Brewers,” by Rolf Hofmann, originally published in Aufbau, June 21, 2001:

New Yorkers over the age of fifty will remember the brand name Rheingold Beer and the company’s brilliant publicity stunt in which a bevy of attractive young women competed annually for the privilege of being elected that year’s Miss Rheingold and appearing in ads on billboards and in the subways throughout the New York area.

The beer’s evocative name with its allusion to Germany’s great river, was the culmination of a German-Jewish family enterprise that had its beginnings in 1840 in the town of Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg. One Samuel Liebmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family in the region, settled there and bought the inn and brewery “Zum Stern.” A liberal and staunch supporter of Republican ideals, Liebmann encouraged other like-minded citizens, including some soldiers from the garrison, to meet in his hospitable surroundings. The ideas fomented there contributed to the local revolution of 1848. It brought the opprobrium of the King down upon Liebmann’s enterprise, and “Zum Stern” was declared off limits to the soldiers. Soon thereafter, in 1850, Samuel Liebmann emigrated to the U.S.

The family settled in Brooklyn and Samuel, together with his three sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, opened a brewery once again at the corner of Forest and Bremen Streets. With the responsibilities divided among the family – Henry became the brewing expert, Charles. the engineer and architect, Joseph, finance manager – the company was already flourishing by the time of Samuel’s death in 1872. Success also led to a concern for the company’s Brooklyn surroundings, and the Liebmanns became involved in local welfare – focusing on housing and drainage systems.

Each of the three brothers had two sons, and when the older Liebmanns retired in 1903, the six members of the third generation took over. Other members of the family also contributed to the gradual expansion of the company. In 1895 Sadie Liebmann (Joseph’s daughter), married Samuel Simon Steiner, a trader in high quality hop, an essential ingredient for good beer. Steiner’s father had begun merchandising hop in Laupheim in 1845 and still today, S.S. Steiner, with its headquarters in New York, is one of the leading hop merchants. Under these fortuitous family circumstances, beer production grew constantly. In the early years, the brewery had produced 1000 barrels per year, by 1914 its output stood at 700,000 barrels.

The Liebmann family.

Unfortunately, political developments in the U.S. between 1914 and 1933 were extremely disadvantageous for the Liebmann brewery. The resentment against Germany and anything German during World War I led to an informal boycott of German beers. Following close upon the lean wartime years, was the implementation of Prohibition in 1920 forbidding the manufacturing and trading of alcohol. The Liebmann enterprise managed to survive by producing lemonade and a product they called “Near Beer.”

With the reinstatement of legal alcohol production under President Roosevelt in 1933, opportunities for the brewery opened up, abetted by the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler’s Germany. The pressures on Jewish businessmen there, brought Dr. Hermann Schülein, general manager of the world-renowned LšwenbrŠu brewery, to America. Schulein’s father, Joseph, had acquired two of Munich’s leading breweries at the end of the nineteenth century–Union and Münchner Kindl–and his son had managed the 1920 merger with Löwenbrau. Arriving in New York with this experience behind him, Hermann Schülein became one of the top managers of the Liebmann brewery and was instrumental in its spectacular growth after World War II.

Working with Philip Liebmann (great-grandson of Samuel), Schülein developed a dry lager beer with a European character to be marketed under the brand name “Rheingold.” According to company legend, the name was created in 1883 at a brewery dinner following a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. When the conductor took up his glass, he was so taken with the shade of the beer, that he declared it to be the color of “Rheingold.” For New Yorkers, however, the name Rheingold did not bring to mind the Nibelungen fables, but the pretty young ladies who participated in Schülein’s most brilliant marketing strategy – the selection of each year’s Miss Rheingold by the beer-drinking public of greater New York

At the height of the campaign’s success in the 1950’s and 60’s, the Liebmann Brewery had an output of beer ten times that of Löwenbrau at the same time in Munich.

For thirty years, Rheingold Beer reigned supreme in the New York area, but by 1976, as a local brewery, it could no longer compete with nationwide companies such as Anheuser & Busch, Miller, and Schlitz, and its doors were closed. Only recently, using the same brewmaster, Rheingold is once again being sold in the tri-state area.

Here’s an “Origin of Liebmann Brewery” posted by a relative on Ancestry.com:

On May 12, 1833 (Sulzbach-Laufen Archive) Samuel and his older brother Heinrich bought a castle/inn Schmiedelfeld, Sulzbach-Laufen, Schwaebisch Hall District that dated from 1739. They renovated the place and created a prosperous farm/estate and in 1837 began a brewery in the cellar. In 1840, he moved to Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart and purchased the gasthaus [guest house or inn] “Zum Stern” on Seestrasse 9 (later Zum Rebstock) which included a brewery. (source: Translation extract from Dr. Joacim Hahn’s book, History of the Jewish Community of Ludwigsburg)

After supporting a movement to oust King William I of Wurttemberg, and sensing the wavering tolerance of Jewish businessmen, Samuel sent his eldest son Joseph to the US in 1854 to scout out a location to establish a brewery.

Samuel retired in 1868 and turned the family business over to his sons Joseph, Charles, and Henry under the name S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery.

S-Liebmanns-Sons-Cards-Trade-Cards-S-Liebmanns-Sons-Brewing-Company_17585-1

Historic Beer Birthday: John H. Stahl

November 14, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of John H. Stahl (November 14, 1825-January 18, 1884). He was born in Holstein, Germany, but moved to San Francisco when he was 33, in 1858. He moved further north, and in 1870 bought the City Brewery in Walla Walla, Washington. Although he continued to operate the brewery by that name, the business was called John H. Stahl & Co. until 1905, when his son Frank Stahl took over and renamed it the Stahl Brewing and Malting Co.

Stahls-Beer-Labels-Pioneer-Brewing-Company

There’s not very much information I could find about him, not even a photograph. Gary Flynn at Brewery Gems has more about the brewery itself, in an article about Stahl’s Brewing Company ~ City Brewery and more broadly about the History of the Pioneer Brewing Company of Walla Walla, which includes the various business entities that operated the brewery over the years, from 1855 until it closed for good in 1952.

Here’s a short history of the brewery from 100 Years of Brewing:

And this short history is from “Washington Beer: A Heady History of Evergreen State Brewing,” by Michael F. Rizzo:

This is Walla Walla in 1876, about six years after John H. Stahl bought the brewery.

Historic Beer Birthday: Philip Kling

November 14, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Philip Kling (November 14, 1818-March 15, 1910). He was born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and was trained as a cooper. He came to the U.S. when he was 17, in 1836. Kling later founded the Peninsular Brewery with two partners in 1856 (at least according to “100 Years of Brewing” and at least one other source. Some sources claim it was not until 1863, but I think the date from the 1903 book is more likely correct.) Eventually, his partners either died or retired, and in 1871 he built a new brewery, which was called the Philip Kling & Co. Brewery (and later was known as Ph. Kling Brewing Co. It closed for good due to Prohibition in 1919, although in 1935 his sons bought another brewery, the Dailey Brewing Co., in Flint, Michigan, and operated it until 1947 when they must have sold it, because in that year it became the Pfeiffer Brewing Co., before closing for good in 1958.

When Kling retired in 1906, the Brewers Journal for that year published this little piece about him:

This account of Kling and his brewery is from Michigan State University Archeology Department.

Brewing began in the city of Detroit around 1830, where the industry was run by mostly British entrepreneurs making ale. Beginning around 1848, a large influx of Germans into the area brought with it a new era of brewing in the Detroit—one dominated by German lager brewers. Among these German brewers was Philip Kling, a cooper, who along with Michael Martz and Henry Weber, invested in the Peninsular Brewing Company in 1856, which was located on Jefferson Avenue, near the future site of the Belle Isle bridge. Kling gradually took greater control of the company, which was renamed Philip Kling and Company in 1868. Kling became the first president of the Detroit Brewer’s Association and by the end of the 1870s, PH Kling was one of the city’s most successful and prominent breweries. Their offerings included Pilsener, Gold Seal Export, Extra Pale Ale, and Porter.

After reverting to the name Peninsular Brewing from 1879 to 1890, the name Philip Kling Brewing Company was formally adopted. This year also marked the beginning of the great brewing dynasties, which in Detroit included the Strohs, Klings, Martzes, and Darmstaetters. However, Kling was but a middling competitor amongst the giants. The brewery was severely damaged in a fire in 1893, and a new 6-story brewhouse with increased barrel storage was constructed. After Philip’s death in 1910, his son Kurt took over operations, but business was interrupted by Prohibition in Michigan, which began in 1917. Like other breweries, the company replaced the word “brewing” in their corporate name, becoming Kling Products Company. In the attempt to keep the company running and generate income, Kurt Kling built Luna Park next to the brewery, and amusement park that included a roller coaster. However, the company was forced to close in 1921 and the building was torn down.

Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, Kling purchased Daily Brewery in Flint and resumed brewing by 1936. However, former bootleggers in Detroit still controlled distribution in Detroit, and Kling found it difficult to make his way back into the Detroit market. While the other major breweries were quick to make post-Prohibition recoveries, Kling’s Flint venture floundered and was out of business by 1942.

And this is from “Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830,” by Peter H. Blum:

Historic Beer Birthday: Samuel Liebmann

November 12, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of Samuel Bär Liebmann (November 12, 1799-November 21, 1872). He family owned a brewery in Germany but because of the German revolution, Samuel sent some of his sons to America in 1850, and he and the rest of the family soon followed. They settled in Brooklyn and initially ran the old Maasche Brewery, but later built a new brewery in Bushwick. Originally, it was called the Samuel Liebmann Brewery, but when his sons joined the brewery, it was called the S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. When Samuel died in 1872, his sons took over the family brewery. After prohibition ended, the brothers’ six sons re-opened the brewery as the simpler Liebmann Breweries, but in 1964 they changed the name again to Rheingold Breweries, after their most popular beer. The brewery closed in 1976.

Schmiedelfeld Castle

This biography of Liebmann is translated from his German Wikipedia page:

Samuel Liebmann was born in 1799 in Aufhausen, Württemberg, a district of the municipality Bopfingen [in Germany]. His parents were the merchant and religion teacher Joseph Liebmann and Berta Liebmann (nee Fröhlich). He had three brothers (Heinrich, David and Leopold) and two sisters (Johanna, Sarah) and attended elementary school in Aufhausen.

In June 1828 Liebmann married Sara Selz. When his father Joseph Liebmann died in 1832, Samuel Liebmann and his brother Heinrich left their hometown Aufhausen and bought the estate Schloss Schmiedelfeld. This they operated with economic success.

Liebmann moved to Ludwigsburg in 1840. There he acquired the inn “Zum Stern” with attached brewery, which he also successfully led. In the course of the German revolution he showed himself to be a supporter of the revolutionary movement. This meant that the royal soldiers, who belonged to this time to the regular clientele, the stop at Liebmann’s inn was prohibited by order. This ban and the failure of the German Revolution led to his decision to emigrate to America.

In 1850, he sent his son Joseph to America to build a new home there. Four years later, Samuel Liebmann followed with the rest of the family.

There, the family signed a lease for the Maasche Brewery on Meserole Street Williamsburg, which was renamed with the arrival of the family the S. Liebmann Brewery. After the lease expired, Samuel Liebmann set up a new brewery under the same name on the corner of Forest and Bremen Street in Bushwick.

Liebmann’s wife died in 1865. Three years later he retired from the brewery’s active business. Under his leadership, the company has grown steadily.

Samuel Liebmann died in 1872 at his home in Williamsburg. He is buried on the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. His sons took over the management of the brewery.

This is from “The Originators of Rheingold Beer: From Ludwigsburg to Brooklyn – A Dynasty of German-Jewish Brewers,” by Rolf Hofmann, originally published in Aufbau, June 21, 2001:

New Yorkers over the age of fifty will remember the brand name Rheingold Beer and the company’s brilliant publicity stunt in which a bevy of attractive young women competed annually for the privilege of being elected that year’s Miss Rheingold and appearing in ads on billboards and in the subways throughout the New York area.

The beer’s evocative name with its allusion to Germany’s great river, was the culmination of a German-Jewish family enterprise that had its beginnings in 1840 in the town of Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg. One Samuel Liebmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family in the region, settled there and bought the inn and brewery “Zum Stern.” A liberal and staunch supporter of Republican ideals, Liebmann encouraged other like-minded citizens, including some soldiers from the garrison, to meet in his hospitable surroundings. The ideas fomented there contributed to the local revolution of 1848. It brought the opprobrium of the King down upon Liebmann’s enterprise, and “Zum Stern” was declared off limits to the soldiers. Soon thereafter, in 1850, Samuel Liebmann emigrated to the U.S.

The family settled in Brooklyn and Samuel, together with his three sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, opened a brewery once again at the corner of Forest and Bremen Streets. With the responsibilities divided among the family – Henry became the brewing expert, Charles. the engineer and architect, Joseph, finance manager – the company was already flourishing by the time of Samuel’s death in 1872. Success also led to a concern for the company’s Brooklyn surroundings, and the Liebmanns became involved in local welfare – focusing on housing and drainage systems.

Each of the three brothers had two sons, and when the older Liebmanns retired in 1903, the six members of the third generation took over. Other members of the family also contributed to the gradual expansion of the company. In 1895 Sadie Liebmann (Joseph’s daughter), married Samuel Simon Steiner, a trader in high quality hop, an essential ingredient for good beer. Steiner’s father had begun merchandising hop in Laupheim in 1845 and still today, S.S. Steiner, with its headquarters in New York, is one of the leading hop merchants. Under these fortuitous family circumstances, beer production grew constantly. In the early years, the brewery had produced 1000 barrels per year, by 1914 its output stood at 700,000 barrels.

The Liebmann family.

Unfortunately, political developments in the U.S. between 1914 and 1933 were extremely disadvantageous for the Liebmann brewery. The resentment against Germany and anything German during World War I led to an informal boycott of German beers. Following close upon the lean wartime years, was the implementation of Prohibition in 1920 forbidding the manufacturing and trading of alcohol. The Liebmann enterprise managed to survive by producing lemonade and a product they called “Near Beer.”

With the reinstatement of legal alcohol production under President Roosevelt in 1933, opportunities for the brewery opened up, abetted by the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler’s Germany. The pressures on Jewish businessmen there, brought Dr. Hermann Schülein, general manager of the world-renowned LšwenbrŠu brewery, to America. Schulein’s father, Joseph, had acquired two of Munich’s leading breweries at the end of the nineteenth century–Union and Münchner Kindl–and his son had managed the 1920 merger with Löwenbrau. Arriving in New York with this experience behind him, Hermann Schülein became one of the top managers of the Liebmann brewery and was instrumental in its spectacular growth after World War II.

Working with Philip Liebmann (great-grandson of Samuel), Schülein developed a dry lager beer with a European character to be marketed under the brand name “Rheingold.” According to company legend, the name was created in 1883 at a brewery dinner following a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. When the conductor took up his glass, he was so taken with the shade of the beer, that he declared it to be the color of “Rheingold.” For New Yorkers, however, the name Rheingold did not bring to mind the Nibelungen fables, but the pretty young ladies who participated in Schülein’s most brilliant marketing strategy – the selection of each year’s Miss Rheingold by the beer-drinking public of greater New York

At the height of the campaign’s success in the 1950’s and 60’s, the Liebmann Brewery had an output of beer ten times that of Löwenbrau at the same time in Munich.

For thirty years, Rheingold Beer reigned supreme in the New York area, but by 1976, as a local brewery, it could no longer compete with nationwide companies such as Anheuser & Busch, Miller, and Schlitz, and its doors were closed. Only recently, using the same brewmaster, Rheingold is once again being sold in the tri-state area.

Here’s an “Origin of Liebmann Brewery” posted by a relative on Ancestry.com:

On May 12 1833 (Sulzbach-Laufen Archive) Samuel and his older brother Heinrich bought a castle/inn Schmiedelfeld, Sulzbach-Laufen, Schwaebisch Hall District that dated from 1739. They renovated the place and created a prosperous farm/estate and in 1837 began a brewery in the cellar. In 1840, he moved to Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart and purchased the gasthaus [guest house or inn] “Zum Stern” on Seestrasse 9 (later Zum Rebstock) which included a brewery. (source: Translation extract from Dr. Joacim Hahn’s book, History of the Jewish Community of Ludwigsburg)

After supporting a movement to oust King William I of Wurttemberg, and sensing the wavering tolerance of Jewish businessmen, Samuel sent his eldest son Joseph to the US in 1854 to scout out a location to establish a brewery.

Samuel retired in 1868 and turned the family business over to his sons Joseph, Charles, and Henry under the name S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery.

Historic Beer Birthday: William G. Jung

November 5, 2018 By Jay Brooks Leave a Comment

Today is the birthday of William Gustave Jung (November 5, 1886-September 17, 1947). I couldn’t find very much information about Jung, though I believe he was born in Germany. After seeking his fortune in America, he apparently worked at the Silver Creek Brewery, which also became known as the Chas. Hamm Brewing Co. in 1910. Unfortunately, Charles Hamm died of pneumonia while an American soldier in Europe in 1918. Jung, who was a brewmaster, leased the brewery from the Hamm family after Charles Hamm’s death (including making non-alcoholic drinks and soda during prohibition as the Jung Beverage Co.) until 1932, when he bought it from the family, renaming it the William G. Jung Products Co. Brewery, but a few years later shortening that to the Jung Brewing Co. It remained in business until 1958, when it closed for good.

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