Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #4354: Who Will Win The Rheingold 1956 Crown?

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Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this two ad, or promotional photo, from the Fall of 1955, the six finalists for Miss Rheingold 1956 are pictured in the same dress with a crown floating above them as they gaze up at it longingly. I’m not sure which is which, but the six are Carol Toby, Hillie Merritt, Myrna Fahey, Maggie Pierce, Jeryl Johnson, and Gretchen Foster. It’s more than a little cheesy.

Beer In Ads #4353: Vote Now! Elect Miss Rheingold 1956!

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Wednesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In these two ads, from the Fall of 1955, the voting has opened to choose the next Miss Rheingold for 1956 and features the six finalists: Carol Toby, Hillie Merritt, Myrna Fahey, Maggie Pierce, Jeryl Johnson, and Gretchen Foster. And voting will remain open until September 30. These particular ads are for Rheingold distributor Angellotti Bros., which was located in Oneonta, New York.

Bear Republic Merges With Drake’s Brewing

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They’ve been working behind the scenes for some time now, but as of today most of the details have been worked out, so they’re making it official. Rich Norgrove, along with his wife Tami Norgrove, owners of Bear Republic Brewing of Cloverdale are partnering with John Martin and Roy Kirkorian of Drake’s Brewing, headquartered in San Leandro, to effectively merge the two breweries. In official terms, today they “jointly announced the sale and purchase of certain assets of Bear Republic to Artisan Brewers LLC” (which is Drake’s Brewing’s official business name).

What that means in practical terms is that “Racer 5 is shifting gears once again, beginning a new collaborative partnership with The Drake’s Brewing Co. The iconic West Coast IPA, once at the forefront of the California craft beer boom, is merging lanes to accommodate industry-wide challenges, while keeping a firm ‘pedal to the metal,’ moving forward.” The deal means Drake’s will acquire “all of Bear Republic Brewing Company’s recipes, formulas, and intellectual property, and will allow The Drake’s Brewing Company to continue producing the Bear Republic lineup of beers, including its Racer 5 IPA, as well as their other brands, plus new beers in the coming months. The long-time industry friends are aligned in their vision, bringing Bear Republic Brewing Company into new markets, new communities and new opportunities moving forward.

“We have always admired Drake’s Brewing Company’s passion for craft beer, their community as well as their commitment to quality,” said Bear Republic Brewing Company’s CEO Richard Norgrove. “Joining forces with Drake’s will allow us to bring our beers to even more customers, and we’re excited to be a part of the Drake’s family.” Throughout the merger, Norgrove will continue to be a shepherd of the brand, helping to represent the family-owned brewery in the manufacturing, production and sales of BRBC’s recipes.

So it’s not a straight sale, as is often the case, but instead, as Norgrove explains it, it’s more like “not coming in and buying the car, but buying the engine and driver.” Norgrove, as well as his longtime brewmaster, Peter Kruger, will continue to work with the Bear Republic brand. It will continue to be brewed in Cloverdale, but brewing will be transitioning over the coming months to San Leandro.

I spoke to both Martin and Norgrove this afternoon, and they stressed that this deal “makes them both stronger.” Bear Republic’s best-selling beer, accounting for 92-percent of sales, is Racer 5, so that, along with new favorite, Racer 7 (a 7-percent hazy IPA), will be the primary focus during the transition period. Naturally, the two have known one another for decades in the Bay Area brewing community and have even shared some of the same brewers who have worked for both companies. So as Martin described it, there are “so many cool things from a synergistic point of view.” They also share distributors in some key markets, which will help make the transition smoother. The good news here for beer overs is that Bear Republic beer will continue to be brewed in the Bay Area and may lead to it being even easier to find. The two have already started talking about future satellite locations, starting in Sonoma County, similar to Drake’s Dealership in Oakland and The Barn in West Sacramento.

From right to left: Rich Norgrove, Tami Norgrove, John Martin, Laura Norgrove, and Paul Marshall at Judy Ashworth’s place for a beer tasting recently.

About the two companies.

Drake’s originally was founded as Lind Brewing in 1989 by Roger Lind. He sold the brewery to a local coffee company in 1998 and they changed the name to Drake’s, which had been a name used for many of the beers. In 2008, John Martin and Roy Kirkorian bought the brewery. Martin, along with his brother Reid Martin, also started Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley, one of the earliest brewpubs in the country when it opened in 1986. After taking the reins, Martin and Kirkorian opened Drake’s Barrel House in 2011, its brewery tasting room and a few years later, in 2016, opened Drake’s Dealership, a beer garden and restaurant in downtown Oakland at the site of a former Dodge automobile dealership. In 2018, they opened another satellite location in West Sacramento known as The Barn.

Me with John Martin at Triple Rock Brewery in Berkeley a few years ago.

Bear Republic Brewing was founded in 1995 by Ricardo and Tami Norgrove, along with his parents, Richard and Sandy Norgrove. By 1999, they’d won a gold medal at GABF for their Racer 5 IPA, one of the first popular West Coast-style IPAs. The original brewpub was located in downtown Healdsburg, but in 2005 they built a much larger production brewery in Cloverdale. In 2006, they won big at GABF, winning Small Brewing Company and Small Brewing Company Brewer of the Year. In 2017, they opened a second brewpub in Rohnert Park, and in 2019 due to issues with the landlord closed the Healdsburg location. But Covid hit them hard, as it did most breweries, and this led to them closing the Rohnert Park location, as well, focusing instead on their package beer and distribution.

Me and Rich Norgrove at the original brewpub several years ago.

Beer In Ads #4352: Vote Now_Elect Miss Rheingold 1956

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Tuesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this ad, from the Fall of 1955, the voting has opened to choose the next Miss Rheingold for 1956 and features the six finalists: Carol Toby, Hillie Merritt, Myrna Fahey, Maggie Pierce, Jeryl Johnson, and Gretchen Foster. And voting will remain open until September 30.

And below is the same ad in black and white as it ran in the newspaper:

And here’s a slightly different version of the ad, laid out for a half-page.

Beer In Ads #4351: Soon, You Can Vote For Miss Rheingold 1956

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Monday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this newspaper item, from May of 1955, Rheingold is announcing that “Soon, you can vote for Miss Rheingold 1956” and showing the previous sixteen Miss Rheingold winners.

Beer In Ads #4350: Miss Rheingold 1956 Finalists Find Pot O’Gold In Contest

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Sunday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this newspaper item, from October 1, 1955, the story is about how voting has begun for the six finalists hoping to become Miss Rheingold 1956. The previous year, 250,000 people voted to pick Miss Rheingold, making it the second biggest vote in the U.S., with only the presidential election having more votes cast.

Beer In Ads #4349: Miss Rheingold 1956 Finalists Pay Visit To S.B.

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Saturday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this newspaper item, from August 21, 1955, the six finalists hoping to become Miss Rheingold 1956 or on a tour of Rheingold markets trying to drum up votes for themselves, but also publicity for the brewery. In this visit, they’re heading to San Bernadino, which was a newer market for Rheingold in the mid-1950s.

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2023

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Earlier today, the 23rd annual Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California, and after a virtual fest two years, and a modified outdoor festival last year, this year it was back to a much more typical festival, complete with people and sunshine off and on. I got there early for judging again this year, and we were back in the basement again — which was oddly comforting. We judged 87 Double IPAs for most of the morning and part of the afternoon, before choosing our favorites

Beginning the judging process.

After emerging from the darkness into the light, it was nice to see the shining, at least from time to time.

Beautiful downtown Hayward.

At 2:00 p.m., Vic and Cynthia gathered everybody together to announce this year’s winners.

Double IPAs

People’s Choice Awards

It was also great running into loads of old friends.

Beer In Ads #4348: Miss Rheingold 1956 Finalists Announced

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Friday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this newspaper item, from August 12, 1955, they’re announcing the six finalists hoping to become Miss Rheingold 1956.

And this article from a couple of days later goes into greater depth about the contest.

Beer In Ads #4347: Vying For Miss Rheingold 1956

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Thursday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1955. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this newspaper item, from May 9, 1955, they’re showing some of the women at the all-day event where hundreds of aspiring models are vying to be Miss Rheingold 1956.