Today is the birthday of John Eichler (August 20, 1829-September 3, 1915). He was born in Rothenburg, Germany and trained as a brewer there, and moved to the U.S. in 1853, settling in New York City. In 1865, he bought Kolb’s Brewery, which had been founded three years before by brothers Henry Kolb and Christian Gottlieb Kolb, renaming it the John Eichler Brewery (and later the John Eichler Brewing Co.). It weathered prohibition, but was bought by Rheingold in 1947.
This biography of Eichler is from the “History of German Immigration in the United States and Successful German-Americans,” published in 1905:
This account of the history of the John Eichler Brewery is from 100 Years of Brewing:
