Historic Beer Birthday: Daniel Jung

February 11, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Daniel Jung (February 11, 1822-December 2, 1877). A member of one of several Jung families in brewing, Daniel was born in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, but settled in the Cincinnati area of Ohio, where he founded a brewery that eventually would bear his name.

Daniel-Jung-portrait

When it was first opened in 1857, along with partner Peter Weyand, it was called the Western Brewery (some sources say 1854). In 1879, they added a third investor, and it became the Weyand, Jung & Heilman Brewery. It 1885, with Jung apparently sole owner, it is renamed the Jung Brewing Co., which it remained until 1908, when it went back to being the Western Brewery, before closing due to prohibition in 1919.

Jung-letterhead

But I’ve been unable to find much about Jung personally, about his life. The only obituary I uncovered was in German, and was a scan, meaning I couldn’t just copy it into Google Translate. I know he came to New York from Germany in his early 20s, but returned home for a number of years, before returning via New Orleans and making his way to Cincinnati, where he stayed for the rest of his life.

I do really love their branding, though. They marketed their beers under the name “Red Brand Beer,” with a bright red heart. So many labels of this time period are dull and similar, while this one really seems to stand out. I’d love to see more of their labels and artwork, but unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be much out there lurking on the interwebs. Even their slogan is pretty awesome. “Creates & Sustains Life.”

Jung-tray

Here’s yet another account of his brewery history.

In 1857, Peter Weyand and Daniel Jung established the Western Brewery on Freeman and Bank Streets in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1879, Weyand and Jung partnered with Max Hellman and operated the brewery until 1885. In 1885, following the deaths of Peter Weyand and Daniel Jung, the brewery was renamed the Jung Brewing Company. The Jung Brewing Company operated from 1885 to 1890. In 1890, the brewery was sold and merged with Cincinnati Breweries Company.

A Jung Brewery glass from 1895.

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A label from their Old Lager.

Beer In Ads #4877: White Bock

February 10, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. Bock, of course, 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.

Monday’s ad for “Bock” depicts a well-dressed lady in a fetching hat somewhere in a forest setting. She’s holding a sprig of hops as a white goat is coming up from behind her trying to eat the hops. I presume that’s why the poster is titled: “White Bock.” In the background, a group of men are pouring themselves a beer from a wooden cask. The lithograph was created in 1889. The lithographer was H. Schile & Co. of 295 Bowery in New York City. Henry Jerome Schile was born in Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1851, settling in Manhattan, which is where he opened his own print company.

Historic Beer Birthday: Jacob Hammel

February 10, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Jacob Hammel (February 10, 1827-July 9, 1901). He was born in Rheinfalz, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1849, when he was 22. He initially settled in Ohio, but moved to Lebanon, Illinois where he started the Illinois Brewing Co. For health reasons, his son William moved to Sirocco, New Mexico, and his brother Gustav joined him and they founded Hammel Bros. & Co. But their father Jacob joined them when he was older, around 1888, and they renamed it the Illinois Brewing Co.

This obituary is from the American Brewers Journal five years after his death in 1901, in their “Five Years Ago” page in the 1906 edition.

This description of Hammel and his breweries’ histories

According to an oral history interview of Clarence Hammel by Helen Sickles, his grandfather Jakob Hammel emigrated from Bavaria ca. 1848 in company with (Eberhard) Anheuser and briefly considered forming a partnership with him in St. Louis, Missouri. The two men were evading conscription into the army before the War of 1849. They separated, and Anheuser established E. Anheuser & Co. (later Anheuser-Busch) in 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri, while Hammel set up the Illinois Brewing Co. (also called Illinois Brewery Co.) ca. 1870 in Lebanon, Illinois. Jakob’s son, William Hammel, was born in 1857 and migrated as a young adult to Socorro in 1882. Like many other newcomers he traveled west on a doctor’s recommendation to find a cleaner and healthier environment. He set up a warehouse and imported beer from Illinois until 1886 when he bought property from Pedro Montoya and started a brewery housed in adobe buildings. In 1904 the Illinois Brewery Co. moved into a new stone building which is now known as the Hammel Museum. The product was a lager beer with the label, Export, later changed to Select. The brewmaster was Francis Eppele.
In 1919 the Volstead Act (18th Amendment) put an end to the brewing operation, and the company continued for almost half a century as an ice house and bottling plant. The company had a very early franchise for Pepsi-Cola to which it added Orange Crush, Dr. Pepper, and Grapette. The growing number of home electric refrigerators eventually reduced the demand for ice to an unprofitable level and the business closed in 1969. Ownership was transferred to the Socorro County Historical Society.

Hammel-Brewery-1902-04 — The New Mexico brewery around 1902-04.

And this is from “100 Years of Brewing.”

Historic Beer Birthday: John Kauffman

February 10, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Kauffman (February 10, 1839-January 15, 1886). Kauffman was born in Lorraine, France. He was part of the group that bought the Franklin Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1856. By 1859, it was called the John Kaufman & Co. Brewery, and it became the fourth largest brewery in Cincinnati. Eventually, he remained as the sole owner, and in 1882 renamed it the John Kauffman Brewing Co. It was closed by prohibition, and never reopened, although it was used as the Husman Potato Chip factory, so at least it was put to good use.

There’s an entry for the John Kauffman Brewery in the “History of Cincinnati and Hamilton County, Ohio,” published in 1894:

John-Kauffman-photo

Cincinnati Brewing History has this account of the brewery’s history, taken from Cincinnati Breweries, by Robert J. Wimberg, from 1989:

“In 1856 John Kauffman, George F. Eichenlaub, and Rudolf Rheinbold purchased the Franklin Brewery on Lebanon Road near the Deer Creek from Kauffman’s aunt. Her husband, John Kauffman, estabished the brewery in 1844. He died in 1845. In 1859 under the name Kauffman and Company, they began to build a new brewery on Vine Street and soon left the Deer Creek location. The first structure on Vine was completed in 1860.
In 1871 the Kauffman Brewery was the city’s fourth largest with sales amounting to $30,930. It was located on both the west and east sides of Vine north of Liberty and south of Green Street.
In 1860 Kauffman also bought the Schneider grist mill on Walnut Street near Hamilton Road (McMicken Avenue), but leased it out before long to another company.
In its first year on Vine Street, the brewery produced only about 1000 barrels. By 1877 the number grew to 50,000 barrels of beer. Kauffman’s beer was sold in Nashville, Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
In 1865 Eichenlaub retired from the business and he was followed by Rheinbold in 1877. John Kauffman then took over the leadership by himself. After his oldest son Johnn studied brewing in Augsburg, Germany, he went to work at the family brewery. Emil Schmidt, Kauffman’s son-in-law, was superintendent by 1877.
In 1882 the brewery was incorporated as the John Kauffman Brewing Company with a paid-in capital stock of $700,000. In 1888 the brewery building at 1622 Vine was enlarged. Note it is occupied by the Schuerman Company today. The office and family residence was at 1625-27 Vine, which was razed and replaced about 75 years ago.
John Kauffman died in 1892 and his wife Marianne Eichenlaub Kauffman took over. She was president of the corporation; Emil Schmidt, vice-president; and treasurer; Charles Rheinbold, secretary; Charles J. Kauffman, superintendent; and John R. Kauffman, brewmaster. By 1894 the brewery produced 70,000 barrels of beer. The malt house had a capacity of 150,000 bushels of barley and the brewery plant covered five acres of ground.
By 1913 John R. Kauffman was president of the company. The brewery produced ‘Gilt Edge’, ‘Columbia’ and ‘Old Lager’ beers. It closed in 1919 when Prohibition became law and never reopened.”

John-Kauffman-Brewery-poster

The brewery is also mentioned briefly in a History of the Brewery District for Cincinnati:

Industry continued to be an important factor in Over-the-Rhine’s development. The canal area was still the location of many diversified industries, including lumberyards, foundries, pork packers, tanneries, and glycerin works. The brewing industry tended to concentrate along McMicken Avenue and the Miami and Erie canal (what is now the Brewery District). By 1866 the Jackson Brewery, J. G. John & Sons Brewery, Christian Moerlein Brewing Company, and John Kauffman Brewing Company dominated the industrial use of the area. In close association on the west side of the canal were the John Hauck and Windisch-Mulhauser Brewing Companies. Between 1875 and 1900 seventeen breweries were located in Over-the-Rhine and West End.

Kauffman-brewery-letterhead

John_Kauffman_Brewing_Company_beer_label

Beer In Ads #4876: Monster Bock

February 9, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Sunday’s ad for “Bock” reminded me of a warped, beer-focused Godzilla movie, with a ginormous goat drinking a beer while towering over a large wooden cask of bock beer, turning on the spigot and spraying the townspeople below. It’s a strange scene that gets even weirder when you look closer. Many of the men are wearing uniforms and a few are brandishing nightsticks and guns. A man in a suit at the bottom toward the left is holding a crumpled piece of paper with the word “Spotter” visible on it. Right under the goat’s tail, a man is receding into the background, seemingly making his getaway up some mountainous terrain, carrying a suitcase and what looks like a bag of money under one arm. Below that is a sign which reads: “TO ? ? ? ?” Below the goat’s left leg, you can see two more men praying. It’s definitely an odd message to send, whatever that might be. The lithograph was created in 1875. The lithographer who designed it was named Rothengatter and the poster was printed and published by Vossnack & Thran, of 75 Chatham St., New York.

Historic Beer Birthday: David C. Kuntz

February 9, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of David C. Kuntz (February 9, 1877-October 22, 1915). He was born in Waterloo, Ontario, in Canada, and was the grandson of David Kuntz, who established the first brewery in Ontario. He was also the son of Louis Kuntz, David’s son. After the first David Kuntz died, his son Louis Kuntz took over, renaming the the business Louis Kuntz’s Park Brewery, and David C. succeeded his father. Shortly after his passing, in 1930, Canadian Breweries Limited, which had originally been “named Brewing Corporation of Ontario,” was created “by merging The Brading Breweries Limited, an Ottawa company Taylor had inherited from his grandfather, Capital Brewing of Ottawa, and Kuntz Brewery of Waterloo, Ontario.” In 1977 Carling Brewery was purchased by Labatt Breweries of London, but the Waterloo plant was closed by 1993 and all the buildings on the site had been demolished.

This is his obituary, from the Brewers Journal in 1915:

Kuntz-employees-1910s
Kuntz brewery works around 1910.

Here’s a brief mention of David C. Kuntz from Flash from the Past: What remains of the Kuntz Brewery legacy?

Louis Kuntz died, aged 39, following an appendectomy in 1891. His children were still young so brother-in-law Frank Bauer, also a brewer, took over. Then David Kuntz died in 1892. Bauer’s own 1895 passing began an almost unbelievable sequence of deaths in the brewery’s management. However, business success continued and in 1910 David Kuntz Jr., Louis’ son, took over. He also died young, 38, in 1915 so his two brothers, Herbert and William stepped in.

Kuntz-Brewery-postcard-lg

Historic Beer Birthday: Joe Allen

February 9, 2025 By Jay Brooks

anchor-new
Today is the birthday of Joe Allen (February 9, 1888-April 24, 1976). Allen’s parents were Irish and came to America, settling in Minnesota, in 1883. At some point, Joe made his way to San Francisco and was working as a brewer at the Anchor Brewery when it reopened after the end of prohibition in 1933 at 1610 Harrison Street. Unfortunately, less than a year later, in February of 1934, the brewery burned to the ground. Owner Joe Kraus then partnered with his brewmaster, Joe Allen, and they re-built the brewery in an old brick building at 398 Kansas Street, by 1st Street.

Joe-Allen-1-29-52

Here, I’ll let Anchor Brewery’s website take up the story from The Era of Mass Production.

Kraus and Allen valiantly and lovingly kept Anchor afloat until Kraus’s death in 1952. By late 1959, America’s—even San Francisco’s—new-found “taste” for mass-produced, heavily marketed lighter beers had taken its toll on Anchor’s already declining sales. In July of that year, at the age of 71, Joe Allen shut Anchor down for what would, thankfully, be a brief period.

Joe-Allen-6-26-59

Again, Anchor Brewing picks up the story, Surviving Another Challenge from 1960.

Lawrence Steese bought and re-opened Anchor in 1960 at yet another nearby location, retaining Joe Allen to carry Anchor’s craft brewing tradition forward. But one of Anchor’s oldest accounts, the Crystal Palace Market had already closed its doors. And Steese had an increasingly difficult time convincing loyal Bay Area establishments to continue serving Anchor Steam. By 1965, Steese—like Allen six years before—was ready to shut Anchor down.

The next year, 1961, the brewery moved to 541 8th Street, where it remained until 1977. Of course, in 1965, another owner invested in the brewery, eventually buying out the remaining partners. That, you probably already know, was Fritz Maytag. There’s not much I could find on Allen’s life before and after he worked at, and then owned, the Anchor Brewery, not even the year of his death. If anyone has any more information, please leave a comment below or contact me directly.

Beer In Ads #4875: Yuengling Modern Bock

February 8, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s ad for “Bock” is for a modern version of Bock from Yuengling Brewery, which I picked primarily because I wanted something from Pennsylvania, and definitely did not want something from anywhere in Missouri. I believe this done as a limited release in 2009, and presumably the art was done in-house. But they did a good job of having look both modern and a little retro, too.

Historic Beer Birthday: Andrew MacElhone

February 8, 2025 By Jay Brooks

harrys-ny-bar
Today is the birthday of famed bartender Andrew MacElhone (February 8, 1923-September 16, 1996) whose father opened the famous Harry’s New York Bar in Paris, France in 1911.

It was originally founded by American jockey Tod Sloan, who so wanted to create the atmosphere of a New York saloon that he actually bought one in New York, had it dismantled, shipped to Paris and rebuilt it where it stands to day at 5 rue Daunou (Sank Roo Doe Noo). It’s original name was simply the New York Bar when it opened on Thanksgiving Day in 1911. Sloan initially hired a Scottish bartender from Dundee named Harry MacElhone to run it, who twelve years later bought the bar in 1923 and added his first name to it. Shortly after opening, it began attracting American expatriates and celebrities, including such “Lost Generation” writers as F Scott Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Ernest Hemingway. George Gershwin supposedly wrote “An American In Paris” there, and it has been visited by many movie stars over the years, from Humphrey Bogart to Clint Eastwood. In the book Casino Royale, Ian Fleming’s character Bond said it the best place in Paris to get a “solid drink.” It’s also where the Bloody Mary was first conceived, as well as the White Lady and the Sidecar.

Andrew started working in the bar in 1939, when he was 16, and never left. He took over for his father Harry MacElhone in 1958 and continued to run the bar for 31 years, until 1989. He’s also credited with creating the Blue Lagoon cocktail in the 1960s, when Blue Curaçao was first available in bottles.

harrys-nybar
Harry’s New York Bar in Paris.

Bistro Double IPA Winners 2025

February 8, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Earlier today, the 25th annual, silver anniversary, Double IPA Festival was held at the Bistro in Hayward, California. I got there early for judging again this year, and spent the morning holed up in the basement, where we judged Double IPAs for most of the morning, before choosing our top three favorites.

After it being pretty wet and rainy rhis past week, we were treated to a sunny day in beautiful downtown Hayward, if a little chilly, for the festival.

At 2:00 pm., owner Vic Kralj announced the winners:

Double IPAs

1st Place: Onslaught, by Ghosttown Brewing, from Oakland, California.
2nd Place: Terrace Hill, by Central Coast Brewing, from San Luis Obispo, California
3rd Place: Greener Grass, by Narrative Fermentations, in San Jose, California

People’s Choice Awards

Double IPA: Looking for Gophers, by Faction Brewing, from Alameda, California, although in a close race this year, second place by a nose was Triple Cuff, by Wondrous Brewing, in Emeryville, California.

The judging table in the basement from the other end.

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