Beer In Ads #5024: Now Ready! Gettleman’s Bock Beer

July 14, 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.

Monday’s ad is for Gettelman’s Bock Beer, which was published on July 14, 1939. This one was for the A. Gettelman Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was originally founded in 1855. This ad ran in The Journal Times, of Racine, Wisconsin.

Historic Beer Birthday: Joseph Schmid

July 14, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Joseph Schmid (July 14, 1814-December 18, 1881). He was born in Hausen, Hohenzollern, but grew up in Constantz, where he learned to brew. He started a brewery in Germany, but sold it and came to American when he was 42, in 1856.

He initially settled in Illinois where he started the Atlantic Brewery in Rock Island, but a decade later when he joined the Lion Brewery, which was also known as the Bernheimer & Schmid Brewery. There was also an August Schmid involved in that business, and it’s unclear the relationship between the two Schmids. The brewery survived prohibition but closed for good in 1941.

This short biography of Joseph Schmid is from the Western Brewer reprinting his obituary 25 years after the fact. The piece mentions the “Lim Brewery” but I’m convinced that’s a typo and should read “Lion Brewery.”

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Another account appears to clear up some of the confusion regarding Joseph and August, from the Columbia University Libraries:

A locus for both business and pleasure in Morningside Heights, the Lion Brewery began operations in 1850 and continued until its demolition in 1944. During that time, especially in the late 19th-century, it rose to be a community focal point. It originated with a farm—stretching from Tenth Avenue to Central Park, and 106th Street to 110th Street—belonging to Joseph Schmid (sometimes spelled “Schmidt”) on which he built a brewery in the 1820s, operating as Schmidt & Speyer. Soon, a change of partners brought a change in name to Bernheimer & Schmidt, for Schmid’s new partner, former brewery worker Emanuel Bernheimer. The two renamed it the Lion Brewery in 1850; within thirty years it was generating profits estimated between $1,500,00 and $2,225,000. Real estate speculation doomed the partners, however, and by May 1879, the year after the newspapers’ estimate of their wealth, their combined net worth had fallen to $500,000. They dissolved their partnership and each man transferred his share of the business to his better-educated son: Joseph Schmid transferred his holdings to his son August, and Emanuel Bernheimer to his son Simon. August and Simon applied their education to the management of the business, and by 1888 the plant alone was valued at $1,5000,000.

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And this account of some litigation reported by the American Brewers’ Review shed further light on the ownership question of the Schmids.

Lion-Pilsener-Beer-Labels-Metropolis-Brewery-Inc

Historic Beer Birthday: John Oland

July 14, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John James Dunn Oland (July 14, 1819-October 28, 1870). He most likely not be remembered had it not been for his talented wife, Susannah Woodhouse Culverwell Oland, who was a brewer and responsible for the October Ale that launched what would become Moosehead Breweries. John was born in Somerset England and married Susannah in Bristol, in 1842. Oland tried a variety of jobs, all of them unsuccessful, and even filed bankruptcy in 1844. Hoping to turn his fortune, he emigrated to Canada in 1862, and his wife and family followed in 1865. The family settled in Nova Scotia, and in 1867 Susannah’s October Ale won her enough renown that friends encouraged her to make it on a commercial scale.

So they opened the Turtle Grove Brewery, named for the area where it was situated in Halifax Harbour. Because of the prevailing gender inequality of the era, the business was incorporated with John as the manager, but despite having no official ownership, Susannah oversaw all aspects of running the business. Three years later, John died in a riding accident, although the death certificate lists “liver complaint” as the cause of death.

After his death, Susannah lost control of the brewery, which was renamed the Army & Navy Brewery, but continued to work there. After eight years, she bought the brewery and renamed it S. Oland, Sons and Company, and trained her sons to take over, but she continued to work at the brewery until her death in 1885. The brewery is still owned by the Oland family. You can read the rest of the brewery’s story at the Canadian Encyclopedia.

Beer In Ads #5023: Falken Schaffhauser Bock

July 13, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Sunday’s poster is for Falken Schaffhauser Bock Beer, and was published in 1934. This one was made for the Bierbrauerei Falken Schaffhausen, or Falcon Brewery, of Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The brewery was founded in 1799, and is still in business today, and is “considered the only independent brewery in the Schaffhausen region,” and is Switzerland’s 5th largest brewery. This one is for their Schaffhauser Bock and shows a very thirsty man who apparently shimmied up the town maypole to grab one of the bottles of beer tied to the wreath at the top. It was created by Swiss artist Arnold Oechslin.

Historic Beer Birthday: William Everard

July 13, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of William Everard (July 13, 1821-December 28, 1892). Everard co-founded what would become known as the Everards Brewery, which is still a going concern today, and is still run by an Everard, who is fifth generation from William.

Here is William Everard’s short biography from the brewery website:

William Everard was born on 13th July 1821 in a country where the Industrial Revolution was still in its infancy, and farming remained the largest single occupation. William married Mary Ann Bilson on27th March 1847, they had three children- one of which was Thomas William who would eventually continue his fathers work at the brewery.
On the fifth October 1849, William entered into partnership with Thomas Hull, a local maltster. They leased the existing brewery of Messrs Wilmot and Co. on Southgate Street, Leicester. The brewery became well established during William’s forty two years in charge.
As a successful and responsible Victorian citizen, William took public service seriously and devoted a larage amount of time to several public bodies. He joined the Leicester Highways Board on its constituition, and served for twenty years as its chairman. He was an energetic supporter of the Conservative Party, arranging meetings and political gatherings at his house, eventually becoming chairman of the Harborough Division.
Continuing to operate his farm as well as run his business, William also became prominent in local agricultural affairs as a member of the Chamber of Agriculture and Leicestershire Agricultural Society, founded in 1833.

New_Everards_brewery_Southgate_St_Leicester_showing_steam_traction_engines_1875 (1) — The brewery, around 1875.

And here’s the basic brewery history from Wikipedia:

The company began as Hull and Everard in 1849 when William Everard, a farmer from Narborough Wood House and brewer Thomas Hull leased the Southgate Street Brewery of Wilmot and Co from the retiring proprietors. Although Hull continued as a maltster, Everard was the driving force behind the business which he managed until his death in 1892.

The business expanded as the company progressively acquired outlets, with over 100 pubs by the late 1880s. In 1875 the company moved to a new state of the art tower brewery designed by William’s nephew architect John Breedon Everard. The brewery, on the corner of Southgate St and Castle St extracted very pure water from wells 300 feet deep beneath the premises and steam engines played a significant part in the mechanisation.

After the death of William, control passed to his son Thomas. The historic centre of the UK brewing industry remained some 40 miles away at Burton-upon-Trent, which by the 1890s produced one tenth of Britain’s beer. Everard’s leased the Bridge Brewery on Umplett Green island in 1895 but its 10,000 barrels per year capacity proved insufficient. It was replaced with the newer Trent brewery in Dale St which became available after going into liquidation in 1898. The Southgate brewery remained the distribution centre to the Leicestershire pubs with beer arriving by rail from Burton. The Trent brewery was purchased outright in 1901. It was renamed the Tiger Brewery around 1970.

At some point their Tiger Best Bitter became their flagship beer, and I remember really enjoying during my first CAMRA festival in the early 1990s. It was a regional festival in Peterborough, which happened to be going on in later summer at the end of my wife’s summer semester at the University of Durham. So we took the train up to Peterborough from London to attend the festival, and it was great fun. I had many fine beer that night, but for whatever reason I clearly recall liking this one.

Beer Birthday: Tim Clifford

July 13, 2025 By Jay Brooks

sante-adairius
Today is the 53rd birthday of Tim Clifford, brewmaster and co-owner of Sante Adairius Rustic Ales, in Capitola, California, which is near Santa Cruz. Tim’s a longtime homebrewer and worked for Williams Brewing and also 7 Bridges for many years, and continued to be on the board of the Santa Cruz co-op. Although originally a history major, Tim’s passion went off in a different direction, happily, and he opened Sante Adairius in 2011, making some incredible and unique beers. Join me in wishing Tim a very happy birthday.

Me and Tim enjoying some hop tea, while picking hops at Moonlight Brewing’s hopyard in 2007.

Friedman-1 — Jessie Friedman and Tim at the SF Beer Week opening gala in 2014.

Beer In Ads #5022: Falken Schaffhauser Bock Maypole

July 12, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s poster is for Falken Schaffhauser Bock Beer, and was published in 1935. This one was made for the Bierbrauerei Falken Schaffhausen, or Falcon Brewery, of Schaffhausen, Switzerland. The brewery was founded in 1799, and is still in business today, and is “considered the only independent brewery in the Schaffhausen region,” and is Switzerland’s 5th largest brewery. This one is for their Schaffhauser Bock and shows a very thirsty man who apparently shimmied up the town maypole to grab one of the bottles of beer tied to the wreath at the top. It was created by Swiss artist Arnold Oechslin.

Historic Beer Birthday: Harry A. Poth

July 11, 2025 By Jay Brooks

poths
Today is the birthday of Harry A. Poth (July 11, 1881-November 16, 1931). He was born in Pennsylvania, and attended the William Penn Charter School until 1898, after which he graduated from the Pennsylvania Military Academy in 1902. He then attended the Wallerstein Brewing Institution, becoming a brewer at the Fred A. Poth Brewery, which by 1875 was the largest brewery in the U.S., and which his grandfather, Frederick August Poth founded in 1870. It was incorporated in 1893, when his sons were working with him, including Harry’s father Frederick A. Poth, and it was renamed the F. A. Poth & Sons Brewery. Harry, of course, was one of the “Sons” in the name. His younger brother, Frederick J. Poth, seems to have focused on the management side of the business, while Harry was the brewer. It reopened after prohibition briefly as the Poth Brewing Co. Inc., but closed for good three years later, in 1936.

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The Poth brewery, from an illustration done in the early 1890s.

I couldn’t find any photographs of him, which isn’t too surprising given I couldn’t find any of his father and only one of his brother, Frederick J. Poth. Sadly, I could find almost nothing else about him, either.

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The Poth & Sons Brewery around 1900.

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Historic Beer Birthday: John Gardiner

July 11, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Gardiner (July 11, 1825-July 5, 1903). Gardiner was born in upstate New York, in Albany, where he learned brewing from his father. He moved to Philadelphia when he was 24, in 1849, and worked for Massey’s Brewery before buying the James Smyth Brewery in 1874, renaming it John Gardiner & Co. Brewery. In 1883, Gardiner renamed it again, this time the Continental Brewing Co., which remained its name until it closed at the start of prohibition in 1920.

He appears to have married an Anna E. Snyder, and not Caroline Schmidt (as I’d earlier believed). According to one commenting relative, it was Gardiner’s son, John Jr., who in 1866, married one of brewery owner Christian Schmidt’s daughters, Caroline, and according to a history of Schmidt’s Brewery, he began working for his father-in-law’s brewery at that time. But it’s unclear if there is any relationship to Gardiner’s purchase of the Continental Brewery. Unfortunately, Find-a-Grave’s listing for both John Gardiner and Anna do not list a son named John Francis Gardiner Jr., but instead a John L. Gardiner Jr., a daughter, Mary, and another son, George.

Here’s how Gardiner and his family are mentioned in the history of Schmidt’s Brewery:

For generations the name of Gardiner had been well known in brewing circles. The family owned the Continental Brewing Co. in Philadelphia. John Gardiner married a daughter of Christian Schmidt. John Gardiner Jr., and Edward A. Gardiner, sons of John Gardiner, joined Schmidt’s to add new luster, in, respectively, sales and finance., to the family management team.
During the entire period of relegalization- including the peak year of 1955- and through to 1958, John Gardiner Jr., a grandson of the founder, was sales and advertising manager for the brewery. Mr. Gardiner, now a vice president, saw sales rise under his management from 106,000 in 1934 to almost 2 million in 1955.
Edward A. Gardiner, his brother, now chairman of the board, was responsible for the financial arrangements which made possible the various expansions of the brewery in the 1930’s, 40’s and early 50’s. It was Mr. Gardiner’s raising of the funds to accommodate the expansion of the company in 1947 and 1948 which kept the brewery abreast of modern changes and in a position to meet the difficult competitive challenge of the postwar years.

He’s an obituary from Gardiner from Find-a-Grave:

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