Beer In Ads #5087: It’s Like Old Times Again

September 25, 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.

Thursday’s ad is for Rainier Bock Beer, which was published on September 25, 1933. This one was for the Rainier Brewing Co. of Seattle, Washington, which was originally founded in 1878, though it was mostly advertising Long John’s Tavern, which located in downtown Nevada City, California. The tagline was “It’s Like Old Times Again Down at Long John’s.” This ad ran in The Nevada County Nugget, from Nevada City, California.

Historic Beer Birthday: James Moffat

September 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of James Moffat (September 25, 1808-April 4, 1863). He was the son of John Moffat, and helped his father in founding one of the earliest breweries in Buffalo, New York in 1833. It was later called the James Moffat Brewery, and after that the Moffat & Service Brewery. His son, who took over after James died, renamed it the Henry C. Moffat Brewery in 1890, which was closed by Prohibition in 1920. It briefly reopened after repeal, in 1934, as Moffat’s Ale Brewery, but closed for good the same year.

This account of his brewery is from “100 Years of Brewing,” published over 40 years after he died:

According to John & Dave’s Buffalo Brewing History, John Moffat, along with his son James, acquired what was Buffalo’s second brewery and named it the Moffat Brewery.

Kane, Peacock and Relay brewery was short lived however and a 1909 article in the Buffalo Evening Times indicates John Moffat and his son James purchased the brewing operation around 1833. Also, the 1836 Buffalo City Directory lists Moffat as a brewer at that location. The 1839 Directory lists James Moffat & Co. as a “Brewery, Soap and Candle Factory”. The Moffat Brewery continued in operation until son James died and it was sold to Arthur Fox and became the Fox and Williams Brewery. In 1876 it was sold back to the Moffat family and continued in operation at the same location until the advent of Prohibition forced their closure in 1920. After Prohibition the Phoenix Brewery continued brewing “Moffats Pale Ale” through an agreement with the Moffat family.

And “History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County, Volume 2,” published in 1884, has this to say about Buffalo’s earliest brewers, including Moffat:

Beer Birthday: Bill Owens

September 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 87th birthday of Bill Owens, who founded one of California (and America’s) earliest brewpubs, Buffalo Bill’s, in Hayward, California. The brewpub opened in 1983, but in 1994 he sold it to his then-brewer, Geoff Harries, who still owns and operates it today. Bill also founded American Brewer magazine, which today is owned by Jamie Magee. Bill’s also an accomplished photographer, and has published several volumes of his photos, the most famous of which is Suburbia. More recently, he’s been involved in micro-distilling, in 2003 founding the American Distilling Institute. Please join me in wishing Bill a very happy birthday.

Bill and me at the Anchor Xmas Party in 2009.

ambrew-anchor-1 — Bill and Fritz Maytag at an event for Maureen Ogle’s book “Ambitious Brew” in 2006.

bill-owens-1985 — Bill at Buffalo Bill’s in 1985.

Bill-Owens — A press shot from the 1980s.

Bill-Owens-paddle — Manning the mash paddle around 1985, the year he made his first batch of Pumpkin Ale, probably the first pumpkin beer in modern times.

how-to-build-a-small-brewery — Bill Owens’ early book — more of a pamphlet really — on How to Build a Small Brewery.

Beer Birthday: Charles Finkel

September 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 82nd birthday of Charles Finkel, one of the pioneers of the better beer movement. He founded Merchant du Vin in 1978, the company responsible for importing a number of word-class beers to the U.S., including a few favorites of mind: Traquair, Ayinger, Westmalle, Rochefort and Orval. He also started the Seattle brewpub, Pike Brewing , in 1989, where Fal Allen was head brewer there from 1990-96. I first met Charlie around 1996 during a visit to Seattle. The following year, the Finkels sold both Pike Brewing and Merchant du Vin. In 2006, they bought back Pike Brewing. In Chicago for CBC a couple of years ago, I was fortunate enough to spend an evening out and about town with the Finkels, and I wrote a profile of them for Beer Connoisseur a few years back. Charlie and his late wife Rose Ann are some of my favorite people in the industry. Join me in wishing Charlie a very happy birthday.

Charlie at CBC in Chicago a few years ago, with Mark Blasingame, owner of the Map Room.

Charlie at Pints for Prostates’ Rare Beer Tasting at Wynkoop during GABF.

Charlie and Rose Ann Finkel behind their Pike Brewing booth at GABF a few years ago.

Charlie and Rose Ann Finkel with past and present Pike brewers during the 2006 CBC in Seattle.

Charles with Rose Ann, Daniel Bradford, Rick Lyke, Jim Cline then with Rogue, and Ron Jeffries from Jolly Pumpkin at GABF in 2009.

Beer In Ads #5086: Ehrhart’s Party Store Bock Beer

September 24, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is for an unknown Bock Beer, which was published on September 24, 1965. This one was not for a specific brand of bock beer, it was instead for a liquor store called Ehrhart’s Party Store. I cut out the middle of the ad, which consisted of some other ads for root beer along with information about the store and its hours. Surprisingly, sixty years after this ad ran, the store is still a going concern in Bucyrus, Ohio. This ad ran in The Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, which serves Bucyrus, Crawford County and Ohio.

Beer In Ads #5085: Celebrated Miller’s Bock Beer

September 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for Miller Bock Beer, which was published on September 23, 1903. This one was for the Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was originally founded in 1855. This ad ran in The Honolulu Star Bulletin, of Honolulu, Hawaii because the ad was really for the liquor department of the Hoffschlaeger Co., which also made whiskey. Miller apparently only made a bock from 1888-1920. I do love the remark about it being the “most nutritious in the market.” Plus, “Doctors recommend it to their patients with the greatest confidence,”

Beer Birthday: Yuseff Cherney

September 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 56th birthday of Yuseff Cherney, co-founder, former COO and head brewer of Ballast Point Brewing in San Diego. Although not too long after selling Ballast Point in later 2015 to Constellation Brands, Yuseff left the brewery, in July of 2016. For a time, he was focusing his energy on their rebranded spirits division, called Cutwater Spirits, although more recently that was sold, as well. I used to run into Yusseff in the Bay Area or at GABF, but I’m not sure we’ll see him as much in the beer world. He’s a great person and a terrific brewer. Join me in wishing Yusseff a very happy birthday.

Sierra Nevada’s Steve Dressler with Yuseff and his wife at the Chico leg of Beer Camps Across America a few years ago.

Claudia Pamparana, co-founder of Faction Brewing, Yuseff, Jeff Bagby, and his then-assistant brewer, Noah Regney, now with Hollister Brewing at the Boonville Beer Festival in 2007.

Yussef with Fal Allen (from Anderson Valley) at Prost Brewing during CBC a few years ago in Denver.

Yusseff-01 — Matt Matthew Brynildson, Earl Kight, and Yuseff at the European Beer Star Awards in Germany a few years ago.

Yusseff-03 — Yuseff with 2013’s Hop Queen. (Note: last two photos purloined from Facebook.)

Historic Beer Birthday: Lord Chesterfield

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Lord Chesterfield, whose full name was Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (September 22, 1694-March 24, 1773). He “was a British statesman, and a man of letters, and wit. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he subsequently embarked on the Grand Tour of the Continent, to complete his education as a nobleman, by exposure to the cultural legacies of Classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to become acquainted with his aristocratic counterparts and the polite society of Continental Europe.

In the course of his post-graduate tour of Europe, the death of Queen Anne (r. 1702–1714) and the accession of King George I (r. 1714–1727) opened a political career for Stanhope, and he returned to England. In the British political spectrum he was a Whig and entered government service, as a courtier to the King, through the mentorship of his relative, James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, the King’s favourite minister, who procured his appointment as Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales.

Today he’s arguably best known for two things. The first is the numerous letters written to his illegitimate son Phillip Stanhope. They consisted of 400 private correspondences written over thirty years, first published a year after Lord Chesterfield’s death as “Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman.” From that correspondence, many quotations have become well-known, such as “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” “Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked,” “Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves,” and “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” Then there’s “Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough” and “Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. Follow nature and not fashion: weigh the present enjoyment of your pleasures against the necessary consequences of them, and then let your own common sense determine your choice.”

Portrait by Jonathan Richardson from 1728.Here’s the description from the Oxford edition of Chesterfield’s collected letters:

Not originally intended for publication, the celebrated and controversial correspondences between Lord Chesterfield and his son Philip, dating from 1737, were praised in their day as a complete manual of education, and despised by Samuel Johnson for teaching “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master.” Reflecting the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Pope, Addison, and Swift, Lord Chesterfield’s Letters reveal the author’s political cynicism, his views on good breeding, and instruction to his son in etiquette and the worldly arts. The only annotated selection of this breadth available in paperback, these entertaining letters illuminate the fascinating aspects of eighteenth-century life and manners.

The second thing he’s known for today is Yuengling Brewery’s Lord Chesterfield Ale, which the brewery first brewed in 1829, the year they were founded as the Eagle Brewery.

The Lord Chesterfield Ale label in 1934. lord-chesterfield-3

Historic Beer Birthday: Alfred Werthmueller

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Alfred Vinzenz Werthmueller (September 22, 1835-?). Werthmueller was born in Germany, and with a partner, brewed the first lager in the state of Iowa. He became part of the Wertmueller & Ende Co. Brewery in 1892 and appears to have been bought out by his partner, Charles Ende, when in 1902 the name changed to the Ende Brewing Co. It started out in Burlington, Iowa as the Union Brewery in 1856, and closed in 1915.

I can find almost no information about Werthmueller or even the brewery he was a partner in for ten years. He’s referred to as a brewer in USBA convention minutes, and for the Ninth Convention was still in Iowa, but during the Tenth Convention he’s listed as a representative of G. Bosch & Co. I can’t find any information about G. Bosch & Co., although there was a Bosch Brewery in Michigan from 1874 to 1973. But it was founded by a Joseph Bosch, so it may have been a different company. But that’s all I could find, and nothing about his later life or where he ended up.

burlington-1889 — Burlington, Iowa in 1889.

Here’s an account of the brewery from “100 Years of Brewing:”

Historic Beer Birthday: Clarence C. Geminn

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Clarence C. Geminn (September 22, 1915-April 21, 2006). He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and his German immigrant grandfather worked in a brewery and his father became a brewer at the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis, and Clarence apprenticed there, too, before getting his beer education at the Siebel Institute. After his graduation in 1951, he was hired by Genesee Brewing in Rochester, New York, and in 1959 became their Brewmaster. The following year at Genesee he developed the recipe for Genesee Cream Ale, which not only became their best-selling beer, it was also for a time the best-selling beer in America, all the more amazing because it was distributed primarily in the Northeast. Tom Acitelli has a nice history of the beer he wrote for All About Beer entitled “How Cream Ale Rose: The Birth of Genesee’s Signature.” In 1995, he retired after 36 years as brewmaster.

This is his obituary that’s been posted at his Find-a-Grave page:

It’s a trade that is often passed through the family, and it’s not unusual to hear that the son of a brewmaster has married the daughter of a brewmaster of another brewery. Keeps it in the family. Clarence Geminn, who’s of German descent, was brewmaster of Genesee Brewery from 1959 to 1978, one of only four brewmasters at Genesee since it started brewing in 1933. Born in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, his father was a brewmaster and his grandfather a brewery worker. In 1934, Geminn started work as an apprentice brewer at the same brewery where his father worked, the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis. Later, he went to the Siebel Institute, now in Chicago, and took a nine-month course to obtain a brewmaster’s diploma.
“It’s sort of a finishing school after you’ve had the practical training,” Geminn said. In 1951 he left Star-Peerless for Genesee. “You could see the handwriting on the wall. That little brewery wasn’t going to make it.” Geminn knew about Genesee because he met William Hoot at Siebel. Hoot is now president of Genesee and Wehle’s cousin. THE ROLE of the brewmaster has changed, Geminn said. Operations such as bottling are outside the realm of the brewmaster, and there are positions above the brewmaster, such as vice president of production, the position Geminn now holds. When Geminn worked in St. Louis, all the trappings of a brewmaster’s power were evident. “In the old days, the brewmaster had a residence on the property. He had free rent and free light. The brewmasters had their own formulas and they were very secretive. That’s where they got their power. “The owner must have known what was going on, but sometimes he didn’t. There were some tricks of the trade, like how you add the yeast and how to blend to achieve a uniform product that was the brewmaster’s secret.” – But even when Geminn came to Genesee in 1951, not all the traditions were gone. Asked if the brewery workers tipped their hats to him, Giminn smiled and said: “Yes, I had that happen to me. Nobody would come into my office until they took their hat off, and the foremen would practically click their heels.”