Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

Socialize

Historic Beer Birthday: John Frederick Wiessner Sr. 

By

Today is the birthday of John Frederick Wiessner (December 14, 1831-January 1, 1871). He was born in Bavaria, but emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Baltimore, Maryland. He founded the John F. Wiessner Brewery in 1863, renaming it the John F. Wiessner & Sons Brewing Co. after his sons joined he business in 1888. It remained that name until closed by prohibition in 1920. It reopened after repeal in 1933 as the American Brewery, and went through a variety of name changes until closing for good in 1973.

Here’s a newspaper story about his will after he passed away.

Baltimore History Bits has a short history of the brewery, and cartoonist from California, Chendi Xu, created a short comic about the history of Wiessner’s brewery, although she claims he went to Bavaria to learn brewing and came back from there rather than New York. There’s also a pdf online with a history of the brewery from a breweriana perspective by David Hagberg.

The brewery building is still standing, though it’s been through a lot, according to Wikipedia:

The American Brewery, located in the Broadway East, Baltimore community, is an historic former brewery located at 1701 North Gay Street in northeast Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Formerly abandoned and left to decay for four decades, it has been recently repaired, renovated / restored and beautified. It is currently the headquarters of Humanim Inc., a regional social services agency.

Historic Beer Birthday: Jim Parker

By

mountain-tap dimmers ibs aha-new wolf-tongue oregon-brewers-guild ba oaks-bottom green-dragon-or rogue kulshan fort-george stout-tanks waypost baerlic asher-david
Today would have been the 65th birthday of Jim Parker, who had been a fixture in the national, Colorado, Oregon, and Washington beer scenes for over 25 years. He founded the Mountain Tap Tavern in 1992, in Colorado, and also worked for the IBS (formerly part of the Brewers Association), was director of the American Homebrewers Association, editor-in-chief of Zymurgy and New Brewer, Executive Director of the Oregon Brewers Guild, as well as starting and working at many different breweries. Jim was also the first person I know to put Tot-chos on a menu, and for that alone he gets into heaven in my book. Jim was a terrific person and very passionate about beer. In November of 2018, Jim suffered a severe stroke and passed away in February of the following year. Please join me in raising a toast to Jim’s memory.

jim-parker-and-me
Jim and me over ten years ago at the Full Sail Smoker during OBF.
jim-parker-stacking
Late night adventures in New Orleans, when the Craft Brewers Conference was there in 2003, stacking burger boxes at a local fast food joint.
jim-parker-oaks-t
At a different Full Sail Smoker, talking with Dave Hopwood, whose birthday is also today.

Beer Birthday: Colby Chandler

By

Today is the 58th birthday of Colby Chandler, who until the pandemic was the brewer at Ballast Point Brewing for over twenty years. When he moved from Hawaii to San Diego in the early 1990s, he began homebrewing and eventually took a job with the Home Brew Mart and then eventually with its sister business, Ballast Point Brewing when he went full time, running the Linda Vista location for 16 years and helping to open the first Ballast Point restaurant in Little Italy. Chandler was also President of the San Diego Brewers Guild for six years, and before leaving Ballast Point was their Vice President/VIP Brewer/Ambassador and Historian. Home Brew Mart recently reopened, but I don’t know if Colby is still with them. I don’t recall when I first met Colby, but I believe it may have been at the first CBC in San Diego around 2004 or some other beer event. But he was always a great spokesperson for craft beer, and especially for San Diego. Join me in wishing Colby a very happy birthday.

Arne Johnson playing disc golf with Colby.
Doing a collaboration brew with AleSmith in 2017.
Colby with Jenna Silva and Yuseff Cherney at CBC in 2015.
With Amy Margolis and Pete Slosberg.
Selfie at Anchor Brewing.

NOTE: All photos purloined from Facebook.

Beer In Ads #5140: Buckeye Bock Beer Has Been Put To Sleep…

By

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. 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.

Friday’s ad is for Buckeye Bock Beer, which was published on December 12, 1955. The brewery was The Buckeye Brewing Co. of Toledo, Ohio, which was originally founded around 1873. This ad ran in The Bay City Times, of Bay City, Michigan.

Historic Beer Birthday: Anton Zahm

By

haberle-new
Today is the birthday of Anton Zahm (December 12, 1841-January 9 or February 8, 1901). He was born in Knebelburg, in the Rhenish Palatinate, in what today is Germany. When he was 25, in 1866, and initially settled in Toledo, Ohio, where he had a brewery with a partner, Finlay & Zahm. I’m not sure what happened to it, but in 1881, he relocated to Syracuse, New York, to take a job as president of the Haberle Brewing Co., where he remained for the remainder of his life. A little over a decade later, Haberle merged with another local brewery, Crystal Springs Brewery, and they changed the name to the Haberle-Crystal Spring Brewing Co. (and also did business as Haberle Brewery) until 1920, when it was closed by prohibition. It reopened in 1933 as the Haberle Congress Brewing Co., and it remained in business until 1961, when it closed for good. After the merger, Zahm became vice-president and also was a director of the company. I’m not sure what his ownership interest was, but he must have had a substantial portion of the brewery. I couldn’t find any photos of Zahm.

Haberle_Brewery
This is Zahm’s obituary from the American Brewers’ Review:

anton-zahm-obit
haberle-brewing-postcard

And this account is about the brewery, from 100 Years of Brewing:

haberle-100yrs-1
haberle-letterhead-1905-2
haberle-100yrs-2
Haberle-syracuse
crystal-spring-tray
Haberle-national-brewing_1910_syracuse

Beer Birthday: Greg Koch

By

Today is around the 60ish or so birthday of Greg Koch, though it’s not actually his birthday today. I mean, it’s possible it is but the odds are against it. I tried to get it out of him, but I still don’t know the actual date, and I’m only guessing at the year. So because I love celebrating everybody’s birthdays, this will be Greg’s until id and when I get a better date. Greg started at Ohio State, but moved westward to pursue a career in music, and ended up starting a business renting rehearsal space for musicians, which is where he met his partner in the beer business, Steve Wagner. Greg, of course, was the co-founder of Stone Brewing Co. of San Diego, though specifically Escondido for the production brewery, at least. I first met Greg when the original brewery was in San Marcos and we’ve always gotten along quite well and become good friends over the years. Join me in wishing Greg a maybe very happy birthday, though the maybe part is simply because this is either his birthday or unbirthday. Either way, cheers!

At the Napa grand opening in May of 2018.
Me, with the Alstroms, Joe Tucker and Greg in San Diego in 2012.
Kite & Key co-owner Jim Kirk and me with Sam Calagione, Bill Covaleski & Greg Koch during Philly Beer Week in 2010.
With Greg Payne at GABF in 2009.
With Carol and Ed Stoudt at the Wynkoop in 2009.
A favorite. While I was on stage giving a presentation at the California Beer Summit in 2018, flanked by Richard Norgrove Sr. and Jr., all three giving me a finger, but since Greg was in the middle, that’s the finger I got from him.

Beer In Ads #5139: Pickwick Bock Beer Is Here

By

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. 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 Pickwick Bock Beer, which was published on December 11, 1953. The brewery was the Haffenreffer Brewery of Boston, Massachusetts, which was originally founded in 1870. It was located in the Jamaica Plain area of Boston, and today the site of the brewery is where the Boston Beer Co. operates one of its breweries. This ad ran in The Boston Globe, of Boston, Massachusetts.

Historic Beer Birthday: William Peter Jr.

By

william-peter-circle
Today is the birthday of William Peter Jr. (December 11, 1860-January 7, 1937). His father, William Peter Sr., founded the William Peter Brewing Company of Union City, New Jersey. When the brewery was incorporated in 1890, Junior was thirty. He became a shareholder and was also vice-president at that time. Presumably, when his father died in 1918, William Peter Jr. became president and soldiered on until his own death in 1937. After that, the brewery remained in business until 1949, when it was sold to George Ehret and renamed the George Ehret Brewery, but only remained open for one more year, closing for good in 1950. Unfortunately, I can’t find very much information about William Peter Jr. directly, not even a portrait.

will-peter-and-family
William Peter Jr. with his father and one of his three wives, taken in 1910.
Here’s a biography of William Peter Jr. from “Schlegel’s American Families of German Ancestry,” by Carl Schlegel:

william-peter-jr-bio-1
william-peter-jr-bio-2

wm-peter-lager-biew
The brewery workers with William Peter in the center of the first row, with (I think) his son to the right (his left).

1930s-WILLIAM-PETER-BREWING-CO-UNION-CITY-NEW

Beer In Ads #5138: Our Alarm Is Set For March 17th

By

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. 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.

Wednesday’s ad is for Old Crown Bock Beer, which was published on December 10, 1945. This ad was for the Centlivre Brewing Corp. of Fort Wayne, Indiana, which was originally founded as the French Brewery in 1862. This ad ran in The Chronicle Tribune, from Marion, Indiana.

Beer Birthday: Paul Holgate

By

holgate
Today is the 58th birthday of Paul Holgate, who’s the co-founder of the Holgate Brewhouse is Melbourne, Australia. I met Paul in Melbourne a few years ago, when I was there to judge at the Australia International Beer Awards. Getting to know Paul was great fun, and, like me, he’s an old-timer in beer terms. Join me in wishing Paul a very happy birthday.

paul-holgate
Paul’s profile photo on Facebook, from 2017.
paul-holgate-cheers
From the brewery website.