Monday’s ad is for American Brewing Co.’s Bock Beer, from 1890. The St. Louis brewery has a goat that’s as proud as a peacock, balancing on a beer barrel, with a glass of bock in one paw. He’s also licking his lips and has quite the pair hanging low. Plus, I really love the bines of hops wrapped around his head. That’s one handsome goat!
Today in 1955, US Patent 2698994 A was issued, an invention of Walter M. Hansen, for his “Beer Can Opener.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention relates to a can opening device and more particularly to a high speed opener of the performating type.
The conventional practice of storing liquids for customer consumption in cans has presented a problem for operators of restaurants and taverns who necessarily handle a large volume of canned liquids in this form such as beer and fruit juices. The usual practice is to punch a hole in the tops of the cans through which the content is poured into the customers glass. Prior to this time such a can punching operation has not only proved dangerous and laborious but also time consuming in that seldom was the punch conveniently located and its use required two hands, one hand to hold the can while the other hand was used to do the punching. Injuries are likely to occur in case of slippage of the can from the hand of the opener.
It is therefore among the objects and purposes of this invention to provide a high speed can opener requiring only a straight thrust by one hand of the operator used to grasp the can wherein a pivoted cutting blade is brought into cutting engagement with the top of the can.
Today in 1876, US Patent 172085 A was issued, an invention of Thomas J. Byrne, for his “Improvement in Devices for Drawing Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to improvements in that class of devices employed for forcing air into barrels, kegs,vand other similar vessels in order to produce sufficient pressure within the same to cause liquid contained therein to flow readily therefrom when the spigot or tap is open, the nature of which will be hereinafter fully explained by reference to the drawings, in which Figure 1 represents a horizontal section of an ice-box, with a barrel or keg contained therein, with my invention applied thereto. Fig. 2 represents a sectional view of the air pump. Fig. 3 shows a vertical section of the plug, and parts connected therewith. shows a detached view of parts.
Sunday’s ad is for Bock Beer, again probably from around 1890s or thereabouts. In this one, a woman dressed as a Roman goddess is riding a goat through a field of barley and hops. She’s holding on to the handlebars with just one hand so she doesn’t spill the beer held in her other. So far so good, though I’d give her better odds if she wasn’t riding sidesaddle. But I guess at the time that wouldn’t be considered ladylike, or even goddesslike.
My most recent “Beer in Ads” post was for a Bock by the Frank Fehr Brewing Co. of Louisville, Kentucky, which was in business from 1890 to 1964, and even earlier as the Otto Brewery. In researching the brewery, I found some amazing promotional photos for the Frank Fehr Brewing Co. at the University of Louisville Digital Collection. If a brewery tried this today, the prohibitionist groups would go seriously apoplectic. Fehr’s actually used a teddy bear, which they referred to as a “Beer Bear” or Fehr’s Bear” in their marketing.
This M.R. Kopmeyer Co. photo of Fehr’s bottle of beer is from July of 1959.
And here’s another one of a Teddy beer with Fehr’s beer bottles from August of 1959.
“Frank Fehr Brewing Co. Int photos of Jack Schnatter and Fehrs beer at Kroger store at Shelbyville Road Plaza,” taken August 28, 1959.
And here’s a close-up of Jack Schnatter and the teddy bear at the same visit to Krogers.
I can just imagine the hue and cry today if any beer brand tried using a teddy bear as a part of their marketing. You know they’d be accused of “targeting” children, a frequent charge leveled by modern prohibitionists and yet in what I imagine was a conservative southern town in the late fifties people seemed to take it all in stride. What does that say about the people running prohibitionist organizations in the 21st century that they can’t tell the difference between targeting and having fun, between knowing what appeals to all people and not just children.
I confess Fehr’s was not a beer brand I was familiar with. I suspect it was only available, even in its heyday, in and around the Louisville area. So there it’s probably well known. They certainly had some great slogans, the one I see the most is pretty awesome. It’s always Fehr weather.”
I guess we know from that how Frank Fehr’s name was pronounced. They used it it a variety of marketing materials, from coasters …
to crowns …
to trays.
Another play on the name was “Be ‘Fehr’ to Yourself” — Drink — Fehr’s Kentucky Beer.”
It’s certainly popular enough in the Louisville area that some people are trying to bring back the brand, and have a website and Facebook page up, though there was more movement and even some local news coverage two years ago.
Today in 1939, US Patent 2143565 A was issued, an invention of Raymond G. Minea, for his “Beer Stabilizer Coil Control.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
My invention relates to an improvement in regulator valves, particularly adapted for use in dispensing beer, ale, or the like; and to a dispensing apparatus for controlling the flow of the beer or other liquid through the valve.
Saturday’s ad is for Frank Fehr Brewing Co.’s Bock Beer, probably from the 1890s. The brewery was located in Louisville, Kentucky, but started out as the Otto Brewery. Its name changed to Frank Fehr in 1890, and remained that name until it closed in 1964. It’s a twofer, with not one, but two, goats standing over a barrel of their bock, with “Try Our” on the head and “Bock Beer” just below.
Today in 1940, US Patent 2186835 A was issued, an invention of John J. Mccauley, for his “Foam Removing Utensil and Strainer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
This invention is an improved foam removing utensil and strainer and is intended especially for use as a bartenders implement as will hereinafter be more fully set out.
There’s been a fair amount of talk lately about the number of U.S. breweries hitting a milestone number, and that there are now more breweries in America that at anytime in our history. And that’s great and all, but as Jeff Alworth recently suggested, we should Quit Counting Breweries. And although he meant as the only way to measure growth and improvement in the state of beer, it’s a fair point, although it does, I believe, offer some idea of the bigger picture. Plus, I think we’re all just a little bit fascinated with numbers — things we can quantify — so I doubt anyone will ditch the metric of number of breweries anytime soon.
But if you think we have a lot of breweries, Europe is even more on fire. Sure, they had a head start, and didn’t have that pesky prohibition to slow them down (except in a few places). And while they may have been slower to the movement, or whatever it should be called, of new, usually smaller, breweries opening it’s well and truly now a global phenomenon. As of 2015, according to The Brewers of Europe Beer Statistics, there are over 7,000 breweries in Europe.
The comparison to the U.S. number is helped along by the fact that they’re pretty close in area: 3.931 million square miles for Europe and the U.S. with 3.806 million square miles. Though in terms of people, Europe has more than twice the population of America, 742.5 million vs. 318.9 million in the U.S. But here’s the number of breweries in Europe, broken down by country.
Most of the countries have seen big growth, although a few are close to static, meaning they either stayed exactly the same or have shown only modest growth. Very few have dropped below their 2009 number. Really, it’s only Turkey although Poland was rising steadily, only to dip a little in 2014 over 2013.
Last week, Ron Pattinson at Shut Up About Barclay Perkins looked at this data (h/t to him for bringing it to my attention) and noticed a few other patterns.
The one exception? Germany. The number of breweries hasn’t changed significantly in the last few years. Which has left it lagging far behind. For the first time since the 19th century, it doesn’t have the most breweries in Europe. The UK caught up in 2012 and has since powered ahead. If you’d told me 10 years ago that there would be over 1,500 breweries in the UK, I’d have felt your bumps.
The effect has been to drastically reduce Germany’s share of the breweries in Europe. From over a third in 2009 it fell to less than a quarter in 2014. While the UK’s share has risen for just under 20% to almost 25%.
Paricularly striking is the growth in countries that aren’t traditionally beer drinking. In Italy, France and Greece the number of breweries doubled. While in Portugal the increase is fivefold. In Spain almost sevenfold.
Earlier today, Ron posted a new analysis that he put together, assembling another table that showed the changes in the number of European breweries by nation from 1956-2014. He used a dozen sources, plus his own, to compile it. Here’s what he found:
Only four countries had fewer breweries in 2014 than in 1956: Belgium, Denmark, Germany and Luxemburg. For Denmark it’s a tiny difference – just five breweries – and Luxemburg is an odd case, being so small. Which leaves just Belgium and Germany, both of which have about a third of the breweries they did 60 years ago. I have to admit, it makes the situation in Germany look much worse than the 2009 to 2014 figures.
And here’s that list:
I can’t help but come back to the population vs. brewery number ratio. It’s seems that per capita may have to more to do with how many breweries can be supported by a population after all. I’m sure it’s more complicated, of course, with history, culture and other factors playing a role, as well. Looking at the ratios, there’s a European brewery for every 104,710 people whereas in the U.S. there’s a brewery for every 77,171 people. So currently, we’re slightly more concentrated in these terms. Who’s got numbers on the rest of the world?
Today in 1872, US Patent 122592 A was issued, an invention of Morton Andre Foubert, for his “Improvement in Apparatus for Cooling Beer.” There’s no Abstract, although in the description it includes this summary:
The cooling-vessel a is made of a vertical cylinder containing double heads and numerous vertical pipes of small size and placed close together, the pipes opening at their ends through the inner heads, so that the cooling water supplied from the tank I) will run, by the pipe 0, through these tubes and pass up by the elevated pipe (I to the vat e, where the warmed water can be reserved for use in other operations. The beer is supplied by the pipe f and runs from the vat 9 into the upper part of the cooler a, passing gradually downward and running away, by the pipe h, to the refrigerator 7c. The pipes c fare provided with cocks that should have divisions or degrees marked upon them so that they can be opened the proper amount in order that the cooling-water may be supplied in the proper proportion to effect the cooling of the beer that runs through the ap paratus to the required temperature, and I remark that all portions of this apparatus that come in contact with the beer should be tinned to prevent any injury to the same from the copper or other metal made use of for the vessels and pipes. Within the refrigerator it there is a vertical group of pipes, 1, opening at their upper and lower ends into the chambers m, the lower one being connected with the pipe h and the upper one with delivery-pipe n, that leads to any suitable receptacle. The refrigerator is may contain water or ice, as required, and a pipe and cook at 8 may be provided to draw off the beer, if it is not desired to pass all of it through the apparatus, or for emptying the vessel a and pipes l. The pipe and cook at t can be used for admitting steam or hot water for cleansing the vessels a lo, and the pipe and cook a serves as a blow-off for the vessel a.
I claim as my invention The cooler a, constructed as specified. and combined with the vertical group of pipes Z in the refrigerator k, the parts being constructed and connected, as and for the purposes set forth.
