Tuesday’s ad is from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. It looks like it most likely was published in a trade magazine of some type rather than a consumer periodical. But I especially love the logo as if it were the sun, coming down from the heavens.
So you’ve probably noticed that one of the latest internet memes is the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to raise awareness and money for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, better known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The idea involves “dumping a bucket of ice water on someone’s head to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and encourage donations to research.” Also, the “challenge dares nominated participants to be filmed having a bucket of ice water poured on their heads and challenging others to do the same.” I was challenged by my friend and colleague, Tom Dalldorf, publisher of the Celebrator Beer News, who also tapped Stephen Beaumont and Tom McCormick, executive director of the California Craft Brewers Association. So here’s my video, with my son Porter, who decided he wanted to join me.
You can find out more about how to donate at the ALS Association or the MDA.
I also challenged three friends:
Now it’s their turn. No thanks necessary.
Monday’s ad is from the United States Brewers Association, from the late 1950s. This was well after the “Beer Belongs” series, and even after the unnumbered ones the followed the “Home Life in America” series. It’s also by the United States Brewers Association instead of the United States Brewers Foundation, as earlier ones had been. As a result, I believe it’s most likely after 1956. I love the look on the woman’s face. She’s having a good time with her glass of beer by candlelight. Those glasses look more like wine glasses, though, don’t they?
Sunday’s ad is later one from the United States Brewers Association — and associated industries — from the 1970s. This was part of the “Pitch In!” anti-littering campaign undertaken by Anheuser-Busch and other major brewers during the heyday of Ecology. This one may have been around the bicentennial in 1976, given the Statue of Liberty and the flag-waving.
Saturday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1961. This was part of the “Beer Belongs” series, but after the numbered “Home Life in America” run. This one shows a pair of female golfers either after a round of golf, or taking a break during, stopping on the side of the course to enjoy a frosty beverage while they tally their scores. I assume they’re done with their round, but then why didn’t they first turn in their cart and head to the clubhouse for their beer and accounting?
I flew down to San Diego this afternoon, a quick trip to speak at the Beer Bloggers Conference tomorrow. Tonight, Lagunitas threw a party for the attendees after a dinner at Karl Strauss Brewing. One of the fun things they did for the brewhaha was a green screen couch ride for the Couch Trippin’ contest.
Here’s me, along with Emily Sauter, from Pints and Panels, and Fred Abercrombie, with Lagunitas (and he also blogs at Ünnecessary Ümlaut), riding a sofa roller coaster through the Lagunitas bottling line.
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Friday’s ad is still another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, also from 1959. This was part of the “Beer Belongs” series, but after the numbered “Home Life in America” run. After a man manages to grill to steaks to perfection — “Good for you! — boy does his wife look happy. I mean, really happy. Too happy.
Thursday’s ad is yet another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, also from 1959. This was part of the “Beer Belongs” series, but after the numbered “Home Life in America” run. After a couple gets up on water skis — “Good for you! — is apparently yelled to them by the man waving from the boat. Shouldn’t he be driving the boat?
Last month during a routine inspection, a Cedar Rapids, Iowa bridge inspector found a suspicious looking hole in the ground. At first, he thought it might be a “potentially hazardous sinkhole near an Interstate 380 access ramp,” but as he, and others looked closer, it may actually be a 150-year old beer cave, part of the Christian Magnus Eagle Brewery and Bottling Works. According to a local newspaper report in 1977, “excavators had unexpectedly pierced a beer cave during construction of this stretch of I-380 when they were digging to lay a culvert north of Eighth Street” so it’s seems that’s the likeliest explanation.
Apparently, a archaeologist and an architectural historian,among others, are investigating, and are keeping an open mind that it could be any number of things. A local historian, on the hand, appears quite certain it’s the beer caves, and in the local newspaper, The Gazette, appears ready to go record with his belief that they’re beer caves:
Cedar Rapids historian Mark Stoffer Hunter is a bit more certain of the findings.
“They are the Magnus beer caves. That’s exactly what they are,” Hunter said after hearing of the discovery. “This is very exciting as an historian.”
The brewery was constructed by Jacob Wetzel in 1859.
Wetzel hired an old world brewer from Germany named Christian Magnus as his brewmaster and foreman, according to The Gazette’s Time Machine. Beer caves were essential to Magnus’ vision for the beer cooling and aging process. The brewery was a five-story complex overlooking Cedar Lake, but the back ran into a hill where the caves were located.
The brewery had five cellars that could hold 2,000 barrels, two ice houses that held up to 2,300 tons of ice, and a capacity to produce 60 barrels of beer in 12 hours.
Magnus bought out Wetzel in 1868, and at the height of production, the Christian Magnus Eagle Brewery and Bottling Works put out 25,000 barrels of 4.5 percent beer in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Hunter said the brewery was possibly best known for Eagle Brewing, a popular beer with a logo of an eagle perched on a beer keg with its wings stretched wide and a man tapping the keg.
The brewery closed because of prohibition in 1915, although it operated for several more years producing soft drinks, among other items, before entirely shutting down in the 1920 and being demolished in 1937, Hunter said.
Hunter said in later years homeless people would use the caves, and they were later boarded up. However, children would break through the boards with “skull and cross bone — do not enter warning” to explore.
A neighborhood then was built on top of the beer caves, before being torn down for I-380, he said.
The brewery from a lithograph done around 1875.
And here’s a photograph of the brewery, believed to be from 1870, from another piece in the Gazette about the Original Breweries.
Cedar Rapids, city of. Historical Views. Little caption information available. Photo appears to show a view of the Magnus Brewery (center), looking southwest over Cedar Lake. The brewery was located near present day Quaker Oats plant. The original Eagle Brewery was established in 1859 by Christian Magnus at the corner of Ely and Van Buren, modern D Avenue (D Ave.) and Eighth Street (Eighth St) NE in Cedar Rapids. The brewery produced beer and ale in a structure made from Anamosa stone and was considered one of the best breweries in Iowa. An immigrant from Germany, Magnus originally started a brewery for Jacob Wetzel in Cedar Rapids in 1859. In 1868, Magnus bought out his former employer and continued the European tradition of aging his beer in cold cellars beneath the brewery. When prohibition threatened his local brewing empire, Magnus invested his earning in such ventures as the Magnus Hotel, a longtime downtown landmark which fell to urban renewal during the 1970s.
Wednesday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, this time from 1959. This was part of the “Beer Belongs” series, but after the numbered “Home Life in America” run. After a great jump on your horse — “Good for you! — they suggest having a “good glass of beer” in celebration. “Nothing, you know, is so rewarding,” they add.
