Friday’s ad is for Carling Black Label from 1962. “People Like It” appears to be part of a campaign from the time period, using similar layouts. The first has a bowl of corn chips.
The second has a similar layout, but has a bowl of peanuts instead. And both still reference the iconic “mabel, Black Label.”
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ales from 1953. It’s set on a rooftop bowling alley. It reminds me of the book from a few years ago, Bowling Alone, about how society’s more fractured now and has lost its sense of community. The bowlers in the ad certainly look like they’re having a good time.
Biblical Archeology Review has an interesting article in their September/October issue entitled Did the Ancient Israelites Drink Beer?. The author makes some of the same points I’ve often made — but with more authority — that because of mistranslations and bias, beer is mostly absent from the Bible despite the fact that it’s everywhere else in mankind’s early history. The article’s takeaway is a resounding yes, they did drink beer, and lots of it. Not surprising, but great to see that fact getting more scholarly attention.
Wednesday’s ad is for Redhook, when they were still brewing in Seattle, Washington. I’ve always loved the old-time postcard art showing the original brewery on Phinney Avenue. The building now houses a chocolate company and is across the street from Brouwer’s Belgian Cafe.
Tuesday’s ad is for Barclay’s London Lager. I love the simplicity of the ad, with few colors and using a lot of white negative space to great effect.
Monday’s ad is unusual insofar as its for a beer brewed in a village that no longer exists. Adelshoffen used to be in the Lower Rhine region of Germany. The most famous beer they made was Adelscott, which was launched in 1982. Heineken acquired the brewery through Fischer in 1996 and closed the brewery in 2000.
Today’s featured artwork is thoroughly modern, but on an old-time subject. It’s about the mansion built by Washington D.C. beer mogul Christian Heurich, who was born today in 1825. It’s a twenty-page independent comic book with a story by Matt Dembicki and art by Andew Cohen. Entitled The Brewmaster’s Castle, the story takes place March 7, 1945 as an 102-year old Heurich takes a bittersweet final stroll through the mansion he built between 1892-94. Here’s page 1:
The actual building still stands, known today as the Christian Heurich House Museum it’s billed as “Washington’s Most Intact Late-Victorian House” and described as follows:
One of Washington’s best-kept secrets, The Brewmaster’s Castle is the most intact late-Victorian home in the country, and a Landmark on the National Register of Historic Places.
Built in 1892-1894 of poured concrete and reinforced steel by German immigrant, local brewer and philanthropist, Christian Heurich (HI-rick), it is also the city’s first fireproof home.
Heurich was Washington’s second largest landowner, the largest private employer in the nation’s capital, and as the world’s oldest brewer, ran his brewery until his death at 102.
A visit to The Brewmaster’s Castle is a visit back in time to the late-19th Century, when the Heurich family was in residence in Washington’s premier residential neighborhood.
Here’s what the mansion looks like today.
But back to the comic book. Here, Christian Heurich strolls through his mansion.
And near the end of the story, Heurich begins turning out the lights.
The original Christian Heurich Brewery opened in 1873 but was closed in 1956 by Christian Heurich, Jr., who took over the brewery after his father died in 1945. Where the brewery stood is now the site of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 1986, Christian Heurich, Jr.’s son Gary Heurich started Olde Heurich Brewing, an early D.C. microbrewery that lasted twenty years, closing in 2006.
You can buy your own copy of the comic book for only $5 (plus $1 shipping) directly from the author. You can pay him directly via PayPal using his e-mail address of mattdembicki (@) gmail (.) com. He’s “hoping [they] might get some funds soon to print a larger run and get greater distribution. You can help. Support the arts and brewing history (not to mention independent comics) — all worthy causes IMHO — by buying this unique hand-crafted comic directly from the artist. Below is the cover.
RustyCans.com has more on Heurich’s history.
First there was Greg Koch’s I Am A Craft Brewer, a short video he used to finish his keynote speech at the Craft Brewers Conference a few years ago. That was followed up by I Am A Homebrewer and I Am A Canadian Craft Brewer. New Brew Thursday has just premiered the latest one, this time from the perspective of the consumer, in I Am A Craft Beer Drinker, though to be fair many of the people in the video also work in the industry in some capacity as well as being passionate consumers. Dr. Bill features prominently in the video, which makes sense on several levels, not least of which is he’s a member of New Brew Thursday, and now an employee of Stone Brewing. Enjoy.
Our 34th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features an auto mechanic not needing a jack at all, instead lifting the car off the ground with one hand to work underneath it, thanks to the “Guinness for Strength” he just enjoyed.
Friday’s ad is a striking ad for the Swiss Lowenbrau in Zurich. There’s not much to say about it, it pretty much speaks for itself. It’s simple, only two colors; the red lion, holding and wrapped in the black flag. Timeless.
