Today is the 57th birthday of Tyler Brown, founder of Barley Brown’s Brew in Baker City, Oregon. I first met Tyler somewhere in Portland, some years ago, and his beers are amazing. Most recently, other GABF, I saw him at Belmont Station, and I thought I had a picture of him wearing the Belmont Crown. Alas, I could not find it. Join me in wishing Tyler a very happy birthday.
Tyler at me at GABF a few years ago.
Tyler in the UK doing a collaboration beer with Banks’s Brewery in Wolverhampton.
Today is the birthday of Anton Simon (November 2, 1848-March 27, 1927). He was born in Alsace, France, but moved to Vincennes, Indiana when he was fourteen, in 1862. After working in a series of jobs, in 1875, he and a partner, Eugene Hack, bought a small brewery in Vincennes, Indiana from John Ebner, who had established in 1859. They continued to call it the Eagle Brewery, although it was also referred to as the Hack & Simon Eagle Brewery, though in 1918, its official name became the Hack & Simon Brewery, until closed by prohibition. The brewery briefly reopened after prohibition as the Old Vincennes Brewery Inc., but they appear to have never actually brewed any beer, before closing for good in 1934.
Today is the birthday of Theodore Hollencamp (November 2, 1834-June 21, 1902). He was born in Hanover, Germany.
Early Years in America: Theodore Hollencamp Sr. was born in November, 1834 in Hanover, Germany. He was the son of Henry H. and Kate (Gerling) Hollencamp.
At the age of 20 he came to America. For thirteen years, he resided in Cincinnati where he learned the brewery business. Eventually, he moved to Xenia where he continued in the brewery business with an uncle.
In 1870, he married Miss Anna Tepe in Cincinnati. She, likewise, was born in Hanover, Germany. It is interesting to note they knew each other while growing up in Hanover, but at that time there was no thought of marriage. They had six children, Anna, Elizabeth (Fr. Charles’s mother), Lena, Katie, Theodore (our “Co-Founder”), and Benjamin.
Brewery Business: The Xenia uncle died in 1871, and Theodore Sr. moved his family to Dayton where he worked in a brewery. In 1885, he and a John Aleschleger established a partnership, which was known as the Dayton Ale Brewery. This partnership was short-lived, and, two years later, Mr. Aleschleger’s position was assumed by a Henry Kramer. Eventually in July, 1885, he bought out this partner and became the sole owner of the brewery. Thus began the Hollencamp Brewing Co.
The plant was located at the corner of Brown and Hickory. Chiefly, ale and porter were produced, and the annual production was about 5,000 barrels, consumed mostly in Dayton.
An early article on Theodore Hollencamp Sr. described the family as “members of Emmanuel Catholic Church and standing well in the esteem of the community”. The article went further in describing Theodore Sr. as “having achieved a creditable success in business, having begun his life in Cincinnati without a dollar, and being now one of the solid capitalists of Dayton. He is broad-minded and open hearted, ever ready to give assistance to the needy and to aid all enterprises for the public good.” He was known as a staunch Democrat, but he never ran for public office.
On June 21, 1901 he passed away at the age of 66. All six of his children were living at the time of his death. Anna Tepe Hollencamp, his wife, lived until January 21, 1907 and was 64 at the time of her death.
His son, Theodore Jr., who we have lovingly called our “Co-Founder” when writing about this reunion, assumed the presidency of The Hollencamp Brewing Co. upon the death of his father in 1901. He was only 19.
And here’s another short biography:
And this short biography is from Breweries of Dayton – A toast to brewers from the Gem City: 1810-1961:
Theodore was born to Henry H. and Kate (Gerling) Hollencamp in Hanover, Germany on November 2, 1834 At the age of twenty-four he came to the United States and lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, working at any odd jobs he could find, until he finally found a position in the brewery industry, and set out to learn the trade. After thirteen years he moved to Xenia, Ohio where he worked with his uncle in the brewery business. When his uncle passed away in 1871 Theodore decided to move on to Dayton.
In 1885 Theodore, along with his partner John F. Oehlschlager, established the Dayton Ale Brewery.
Theodore married Anna Tepe on November 22, 1870 in Cincinnati. They had six children. Theodore was a member of the Emanuel Catholic Church of Dayton, as well as a great supporter of the St. Joseph’s Orphanage.
Theodore passed away on June 21, 1902, leaving his wife to carry on the brewery business.
Dayton Ale Brewery Theodore Hollencamp and John F. Oehlschlager opened the Dayton Ale Brewery in 1885 at 816 South Brown Street, on the location of the old Ohio Brewery. The two-story plant had a 10,000-barrel capacity, which needed a fifteen horsepower engine to supply the enormus amount of power to run the equipment. There was also a separate bottling plant where they bottled their own products of ale and porter. Oehlschlager sold his share to Henry Kramer in 1888, using the profits to open the Gem City Ale House, a beer distributing center for Cincinnati Brewing Company and Xenia and Morrow Ales. Kramer stayed on for seven years before selling his shares of the business to his partner, Theodore Hollencamp. Kramer used the money to begin his own street sprinkling business. Theodore ran the business on his own until his death in 1902. His wife, Anna, took over that same year, changing the name of the company to Hollencamp Ale Brewing Company. The output of the plant was exclusively ale and porter, with the brewery producing about 5,000 barrels year.
Hollencamp & Kramer Brewery
HoIlencamp Ale Brewing CompanyFrom 1907 until prohibition the brewery was run by Theodore Hollencamp, Jr. The brewery stayed in business during prohibition by making soft drinks, cereal beverages (near beer) and ice.
Today is the birthday of Henry Schupp (November 1, 1868-September 27, 1936). Schupp was born in Germany, and helped found the Bellingham Bay Brewery, which was owned by Leopold F. Schmidt, who’s best known for owning the Olympia Brewery. After its completion in 1902, Schupp was the secretary, manager and brewmaster of the brewery. He had worked for Schmidt in several other capacities prior to that, including at Olympia Brewery and in the hotel business.
This account of Schupp is from the “History of Whatcom County,” by Lottie Roeder Roth, published in 1926:
Depending upon his own resources for advancement, Henry Schupp has achieved noteworthy success as a hotel operator and belongs to that select company of aggressive, farsighted business men who have made Bellingham what it is today, one of the most enterprising and prosperous cities in the state. He is a native of Germany but has lived in the United States since young manhood and is thoroughly American in thought, spirit and interest. He was educated in the public schools of his native country and in the night schools of Cincinnati, Ohio, and in 1889 he sought his fortune in the mines of Montana. He was also connected with the hotel business in that state. In 1900 he came to Washington. He spent two years in Olympia, associated with Leopold F. Schmidt, and in 1902 arrived in Bellingham. He at once entered prominently into the business life of the city, and with Mr. L. F. Schmidt built the Bellingham Brewery, which proved a successful venture. He is now secretary, treasurer and manager of Hotel Leopold, of which F. M. Kenny is vice president. It was opened May 25, 1913, and was named in honor of Leopold F. Schmidt, president of the company controlling the business. The building was erected in 1912 and 1913 by the Byron Hotel Company and the business was founded by Captain Byron, who constructed the Byron Hotel in 1906.
Hotel Leopold is centrally located and its furnishings, accommodations and service are modern and up-to-date in every respect. It is the largest hotel in northwestern Washington, containing two hundred rooms, one hundred of which are provided with private baths, and there are twenty-five sample rooms. The hotel is noted for the excellence of its cuisine and the main dining room has accommodations for two hundred guests. The tulip room will seat two hundred and fifty persons, and the hotel is thus able to accommodate some five hundred diners. Hotel Henry, under the same management, was established by Mr. Schupp at Bellingham in 1923 and has also found favor with the traveling public. It contains one hundred rooms and fifty baths and is the newest and most progressive hotel on Puget Sound. It reflects an atmosphere of refinement but not exclusiveness, for here “you can come as you are.” The hostelry is comfortable, homelike and unequaled in many ways. This is the only hotel known to serve its guests in their rooms with a complimentary breakfast, consisting of a pot of coffee, toast, marmalade, butter and cream, the the polite request: “Don’t tip the boy.” That Mr. schupp has thoroughly grasped the art of modern hotel keeping is indicated by the high degree of efficiency maintained in the operation of the business, which reflects his foresight, capacity for detail and administrative power. He puts forth every effort to promote the comfort and well being of those who are his guests, and an ever increasing clientele is evidence of the prestige enjoyed by Hotel Leopold and Henry.
In 1888 Mr. Schupp married Miss Katherine Sengenberger, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and they have three adopted children: Katherine, who is the wife of Briggs Burpee, of Bellingham; Henry, a student in the State College, where he is taking a course in civil engineering; and Margaret, a high school student. Mr. Schupp is a stanch republican and a citizen who loses no opportunity to exploit the many resources and attractions of his community and state. He is a director of the Bellingham Chamber of Commerce and served for several years on the board of park commissioners. He is a member of the Rotary and Country Clubs and the Washington Hotel Men’s Association. He is also connected with the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks, the Fraternal Order of Eagles and the United Commercial Travelers. Mr. Schupp has a wife acquaintance among the tourists who visit this region each season in large numbers, attracted by its scenic grandeur. He is a gentleman of courteous bearing, genial nature and much personal magnetism, exceptionally well fitted for the business in which he is engaged, and numbers his friends by the thousands. His success is the merited reward of a life of well directed industry and his labors have been of signal service to Bellingham, in which he is highly esteemed.
And here’s his obituary, published in The Bellingham Herald, September 28, 1936:
Henry Schupp, one of Bellingham’s most civic-minded citizens, whom many regarded as an ideal hotel host, died early Monday morning at his home, 6 Garden Terrace. He had been in ill health several years, suffering from heart disease. Recently he had been taking short walks almost daily and he was seen by friends Sunday strolling along High street. For many years, and until his retirement a few years ago from active participation in the hotel business. Mr. Schupp was one of Washington’s most widely known and popular hotel men. He was 67 years of age and had lived at Bellingham thirty-four years. His business and other affiliations were numerous and probably no one has been more active in behalf of Bellingham than Mr. Schupp. He was a charter member of the Rotary club and at his death held membership in Elks lodge No. 194 and the Chamber of Commerce.
Mr. Schupp is survived by his widow, Mrs. Katherine Schupp; two daughters, Katherine McIntee, Waldport, Oregon, and Margaret K. Rogers, Bellingham; one son, Henry E. Schupp; one half-sister, Mrs. Julius Kappel, and a cousin, Henry Meissner, all of Bellingham.
A man who always had a smile, and at heart a community booster, Mr. Schupp’s interests, business and social, were diversified. He for years managed the Hotel Leopold and was one of the moving spirits behind the erection of the $500,000 New Leopold, which was opened in November, 1929. He was one of the most active members of the Chamber of Commerce. In 1924 he headed the Tulip Festival association. He represented the Chamber as director of the Puget Sounders, which he was instrumental, with others, in organizing. Among other positions he held was director of the Pacific Highway association; director of the Mount Baker Development company, which built the Mount Baker lodge, and he was president of the Puget Sound Hotels. At his death he held part interest in the Henry hotel. When the New Hotel Leopold was opened, Mr. Schupp was managing director of the Leopold and the Henry. He was familiar with the hotel business long before he came to Bellingham. His introduction to it came when he was a boy, when his father, Carl Frederick Schupp, operated the Green Tree Tavern at Lollar, Germany, where Mr. Schupp was born in November, 1868.
Henry Schupp left Germany for American when 14 years of age. For a time he lived in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he attended night school. Later he removed to Montana, but before he did so he married on November 22, 1888, Katherine Sengenberger. In 1890 Mr. Schupp located at Basin, Montana, a silver mining camp, where life was rough and free and guns were conspicuous. At Basin, Mr. Schupp and his friend, Leopold Schmidt, who died many years ago, established the Merchants hotel. It was made of logs and had two stories. The partners operated a lodging house for overflows. While Mr. Schupp was at Basin, he and Mr. Schmidt, then living in Butte, formed a partnership to build a waterworks system at Basin.
After ten years at Basin, Schupp came to Puget Sound. Settling at Olympia, he became secretary-treasurer of the Olympia Brewing Company. Nine years later he became secretary-treasurer of the Byron hotel in Bellingham. Four years later the Leopold was opened and he became its manager. Mr. Schupp’s hotel interests gradually expanded until, when the New Leopold was opened, with one of the biggest banquets Bellingham has ever known, he was general manager of a chain of hotels that operated in five cities. He also was president of the New Washington Hotel company, Seattle. Mr. Schupp’s creed, as a hotel man, was: “Hail, guest! If friend, we welcome thee. If stranger, same no longer be. If foe, our love shall conquer thee.” Neatly framed, this creed hung in Mr. Schupp’s office throughout his hotel career in Bellingham.
Both can be found at Brewery Gems, who also has a lengthy page about the Bellingham Bay Brewery itself.
Today is the birthday of Arthur Guinness, 1st Baron Ardilaun (November 1, 1840–January 20, 1915). He was the great-grandson of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803), and the “eldest son of Benjamin Lee Guinness, 1st Baronet, and elder brother of Edward Guinness, 1st Earl of Iveagh. He was educated at Eton and Trinity College Dublin, and in 1868 succeeded his father as second Baronet.”
In 1868 Guinness was elected Conservative Member of Parliament for the City of Dublin, a seat he held for only a year. His election was voided because of his election agent’s unlawful efforts, which the court found were unknown to him. He was re-elected at the next election in 1874.
A supporter of Disraeli’s “one nation” conservatism, his politics were typical of “constructive unionism”, the belief that the union between Ireland and Britain should be more beneficial to the people of Ireland after centuries of difficulties. In 1872 he was a sponsor of the “Irish Exhibition” at Earlsfort Terrace in Dublin, which was arranged to promote Irish trade. Correcting a mistake about the exhibition in the Freeman’s Journal led to a death threat from a religious extremist, which he did not report to the police. In the 1890s he supported the Irish Unionist Alliance.
After withdrawing from the Guinness company in 1876, when he sold his half-share to his brother Edward for £600,000, he was in 1880 raised to the peerage as Baron Ardilaun, of Ashford in the County of Galway. His home there was at Ashford Castle on Lough Corrib, and his title derived from the Gaelic Ard Oileáin, a ‘high island’ on the lake.
Owning 33,000 acres recently bought by his father or himself in Counties Galway and Mayo, Ardilaun was placed in a difficult and unusual position during the Land War of the 1880s. Tenant farmers had started a rent strike against absentee landlords who cared little about their estates. In contrast, Ardilaun lived at Ashford for much of the year, and invested heavily in his lands, but was forced to sell land from the 1880s and saw two of his bailiffs killed in what became known as the Lough Mask Murders. His attempt to preserve the landscape at Muckross, Killarney from 1899 for aesthetic reasons was under challenge as soon as 1905. With the Digby family he was a joint owner of the Aran Islands that were compulsorily purchased by the Congested Districts Board in 1916.
Ardilaun was, like many in the Guinness family, a generous philanthropist, devoting himself to a number of public causes, including the restoration of Marsh’s Library in Dublin and the extension of the city’s Coombe Women’s Hospital. In buying and keeping intact the estate around Muckross House in 1899, he assisted the movement to preserve the lake and mountain landscape around Killarney, now a major tourist destination. From 1875 he was a sponsor of the “Dublin Artizan’s Dwellings Company”, which built cottages for poor Dubliners at reasonable rents, and was the forerunner of the Iveagh Trust later set up by his brother Edward.
In his best-known achievement, he also bought, landscaped, and gave to the capital, the central public park of St Stephen’s Green, where his statue commissioned by the city can be seen opposite the Royal College of Surgeons. To do so he sponsored a Private bill that was passed as the Saint Stephen’s Green (Dublin) Act 1877, and after the landscaping it was formally opened to the public on 27 July 1880. It has been maintained since then by the Commissioners of Public Works in Ireland (now the Office of Public Works)
An intermission in Ardilaun’s philanthropy provoked Yeats’s powerful poem “To a Wealthy Man….”
He was also President of the Royal Dublin Society from 1892 to 1913.
Ulysses by James Joyce includes several references to Ardilaun, as Joyce considered him to be a prime Irish example of Victorian conventional respectability. The porter brewed by the “cunning brothers” – he and his brother Lord Iveagh – was: “a crystal cup full of the foamy ebon ale which the noble twin brothers Bungiveagh and Bungardilaun brew ever in their divine alevats, cunning as the sons of deathless Leda. For they garner the succulent berries of the hop and mass and sift and bruise and brew them and they mix therewith sour juices and bring the must to the sacred fire and cease not night or day from their toil, those cunning brothers, lords of the vat.” “Bung” referred to the stopper in a wooden barrel of beer. In the “Nighttown” section, the breasts of a girl who is undressing are “Two ardilauns”, meaning “two high islands”, a play on the Gaelic meaning of the word.
In 1871 Lord Ardilaun married Olivia Hedges-White, daughter of the Earl of Bantry whose family home is Bantry House in County Cork; this was a happy but childless marriage. He died on January 20, 1915 at his home at St Anne’s, Raheny, and was buried at All Saints Church, Raheny, whose construction he had sponsored. Those present at the funeral included representatives of the Royal Dublin Society, of which Lord Ardilaun was president for many years, the Royal Horticultural Society of Ireland, the Irish Unionist Alliance, and the Primrose League. His barony became extinct at his death, but the baronetcy devolved upon his nephew Algernon. On his widow’s death St. Anne’s passed to Algernon’s cousin Rev. Benjamin Plunket former Bishop of Meath, who sold most of the estate to Dublin Corporation in the 1937, keeping Sybil Hill as his residence. The corporation has preserved much of the estate as one of Dublin’s most important public parks, though the house itself burnt down in 1943, with the remaining lands used for housing.
Today is the birthday of Edmund Fitzgerald (November 1, 1847-1911). He was born in Ireland. In 1866, he acquired the Troy, New York brewery that was founded in 1852 which was first known as Lundy & Ingram Brewery, but went through several name changes before it was changed to the Fitzgerald Bros. Brewery when Edmund and his brothers John and Michael joined the business. Michael left the business in 1870, but Edmund and John soldiered on and the family business, although they stopped brewing in 1963, continues to this day in New York. The brewery survived prohibition and continued brewing afterwards until 1963, when the family shut down the brewery and became a Pepsi bottler and distributor, among other products, and for 25 years was a Coors distributor. Today the company is known as Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. – Glens Falls Bottler and Beverage Distributor. There isn’t much biographical information about Edmund Fitzgerald.
This account of the brewery is from “The City of Troy and Its Vicinity,” by Arthur James Weise, published in 1886:
This is the history presented on the current company’s website:
Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. was founded in 1857 in Troy, New York. It is currently in its 6th generation of ownership.
The Company started out distributing various liqueurs, gins, whiskeys and brandies. A decade later, it began brewing it’s own brand of beer, Fitzgerald Beer and Ale. During the next 150+ years, the Company continued to adapt and change based upon the needs of it’s customers.
In 1961, Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. purchased the Pepsi Bottler located on Dix Avenue in Glens Falls and continues to operate out of this location.
In 1986, as Coors Brewing Company expanded east of the Mississippi River for the first time, Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. was awarded the distribution rights in the Albany Capital District for all Coors brands, which it serviced for 25 years until 2011.
In 1996 Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. acquired two Full-Line Vending businesses to expand its services into Full-Line Vending. After 18 years, in April 2014 Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. divested its Full-Line Vending business.
Today, Fitzgerald Brothers Beverages, Inc. continues to provide a full portfolio of beverages to nearly 1,750 customers in Warren, Washington and northern Saratoga counties.
And this is the history of the brewery ownership, since it’s a bit complicated:
James Lundy, North River Brewery 1852-1853
Lundy & Ingram Brewery 1853-1855
Lundy & Kennedy Brewery 1855-1857
Lundy, Dunn & Co. Brewery 1857-1859
Dunn & Kennedy Brewery 1859-1866
Fitzgerald Bros. Brewery 1866-1899
Fitzgerald Bros. Brewing Co. 1899-1920
Brewery operations shut down by National Prohibition in 1920
Issued U-Permit No. NY-U-221 allowing the operation of a brewery 1933
Fitzgerald Bros. Brewing Co. 1933-1963
Today is the birthday of Benjamin Lee Guinness, 1st Baronet (November 1, 1798–May 19, 1868). He was the grandson of Arthur Guinness (1725–1803), “who had bought the St. James’s Gate Brewery in 1759. He joined his father in the business in his late teens, without attending university, and from 1839 he took sole control within the family. From 1855, when his father died, Guinness had become the richest man in Ireland, having built up a huge export trade and by continually enlarging his brewery.”
In 1851 he was elected the first Lord Mayor of Dublin under the reformed corporation.
In 1863 he was made an honorary LL.D. (Doctor of Laws) by Trinity College Dublin, and on 15 April 1867 was created a baronet by patent, in addition to which, on 18 May 1867, by royal licence, he had a grant of supporters to his family arms.
Guinness was elected to the House of Commons in 1865 as a Conservative representative for Dublin City, serving until his death. His party’s leader was Lord Derby. Previously he had supported the Liberal Lord Palmerston, but in the 1860s the Liberals proposed higher taxation on drinks such as beer. Before 1865 the Irish Conservative Party did not entirely support British conservative policy, but did so after the Irish Church Act 1869. The government’s most notable reform was the Reform Act 1867 that expanded the franchise.
From 1860 to 1865, he undertook at his own expense, and without hiring an architect, the restoration of the city’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, an enterprise that cost him over £150,000. In 1865 the building was restored to the dean and chapter, and reopened for services on 24 February. The citizens of Dublin and the dean and chapter of St. Patrick’s presented him with addresses on 31 December 1865, expressive of their gratitude for what he had done for the city. The addresses were in two volumes, which were afterwards exhibited at the Paris Exhibition.
In recognition of his generosity, he was made a baronet in 1867. He was one of the ecclesiastical commissioners for Ireland, a governor of Simpson’s Hospital, and vice-chairman of the Dublin Exhibition Palace. He died the following year at his Park Lane London home. At the time of his death he was engaged in the restoration of Archbishop Marsh’s public library, a building which adjoins St. Patrick’s Cathedral, which was finished by his son Arthur.
He showed his practical interest in Irish archæology by carefully preserving the antiquarian remains existing on his large estates around Ashford Castle in County Galway, which he bought in 1855. Nearby Cong Abbey was well-known, and the famous Cross of Cong had been moved to a Dublin museum in 1839.
On 24 February 1837 he married his first cousin Elizabeth Guinness, third daughter of Edward Guinness of Dublin, and they had three sons and a daughter, living at Beaumont House, Beaumont, in north County Dublin. In 1856 he bought what is now Iveagh House at 80 St Stephen’s Green. Ashford Castle was described in William Wilde’s book on Lough Corrib in the 1860s.
He was succeeded in the baronetcy by his eldest son, Arthur, who took over the brewery with his brother, the third son, Edward. His second son Benjamin (1842–1900) married Henrietta, daughter of the 3rd Earl of Howth; they moved to England where he was a Captain in the Royal Horse Guards. His daughter Anne (1839–1889) married William, Lord Plunket in 1863. The present-day Guinness Baronets descend from his second son Benjamin.
He was buried in Mount Jerome Cemetery, Dublin, in the family vault, on 27 May. His personalty was sworn under £1,100,000 on 8 August 1868. A bronze statue of him by John Foley was erected by the Cathedral Chapter in St. Patrick’s churchyard, on the south side of the cathedral, in September 1875, which was restored in 2006.
Today is the birthday of Petrus Van Roy (November 1, 1830-December 27, 1908). He was born in Denderbelle, a small village in the province of East Flanders, Belgium, and in 1866 he founded the Brouwerij Van Roy on his farm. It was later known as the Brouwerij Het Anker Wieze.
After Petrus dies, the brewery “was continued from 1907 by his son Raymond, who later became mayor in Wieze and died in 1951. Raymond had further expanded the brewery, but during World War I all the necessary copper was stolen.
During the Second World War, the beer was contract brewed and in 1952, Petrus’ grandsons Jan and Willy Van Roy launched the Wieze Pils.
From 1956 to 1986, the Van Roy Brewery organized the Wieze Oktoberfeesten, a sixteen-day party based on the German model.
The Van Roy Brewery, which once employed 370 employees, went bankrupt for the first time in 1994. A new company was founded and the brewery continued under the name Wieze Het Anker and employed 50 employees. Nevertheless, production fell from 120,000 hectoliters to 30,000 hectoliters. This was partly due to the loss of a number of contracts with supermarkets. In 1997, the brewery was declared bankrupt again.
In 1999, the developer Matexi Group bought the buildings and land. In 2001 the buildings were demolished. In 2008 it was decided to divide the vacant land into 58 building lots, after the site had been converted into a residential zone.
Now there is a new Brouwerij Wieze located in Wieze which has taken over the old logo as well as the registered trademarks for the Benelux, which appears to have been started by members of the Van Roy family.
Today is the birthday of Ferdinand Rodenbach (November 1, 1714-November, 17 1783). He was a military surgeon and a co-founder of Brouwerij Rodenbach, along with his brothers. His younger brother Pedro Rodenbach was a military officer and fought in the Battle of Waterloo. When he left the army in 1818, he married a brewer’s daughter, Regina Wauters, who was from Mechelen in Belgium. After Pedro’s father died, he and his brothers, Alexander, Ferdinand and Constantijn, bought a brewery in Roeselare, which is where Ferdinand had settled after being held as a prisoner of war in France. When their agreed-upon partnership ended after fifteen years, Pedro and Regina bought them out. It was originally called Brasserie et Malterie Saint-Georges, but later became known as Brouwerij Rodenbach.
And this is the history currently on the brewery website:
Ferdinand RODENBACH was a soldier, civilian physician and burgher. He was married to Johanna VANDENBOSSCHE and they had 4 children. The RODENBACH family coat of arms indicates its noble origins, originating from Odenwald in HESSEN. The RODENBACHs of Roeselare originate from the town of ANDERNACH AM RHEIN. After being a French prisoner of war in Lille, Ferdinand left the Austrian army at the age of 35 and settled in Roeselare. He is known to have published several medical volumes in German.
Today is the birthday of Andrew Henrich (October 31, 1856-May 2, 1910). He was born in Wisconsin, and was the first of his brothers to move to the Seattle, Washington area, but his brothers Alvin, Julius and Louis soon joined him. He bought the Bay View Brewery in Seattle, and later his brother Alvin bought the North Pacific Brewery (also known as the old Slorah brewery), and renamed it the Alvin Hemrich Brewing Co. in 1897. Two of his brothers soon joined him in the enterprise, and it was renamed again, this time to Hemrich Brothers Brewing Company. They did well enough that he began buying out other area breweries. When prohibition closed the brewery, they were ready, having retooled their plants for near-beer and also having divested into some other businesses.
Andrew Hemrich received an elementary education at Alma, which was continued in the practical duties of life, as at the age of ten years, he began work in his father’s brewery, and three years later was sent to La Crosse, as an apprentice to learn the brewing business. This was followed by two years in breweries in Milwaukee, one year at Denver, Colorado, and one year at Eureka, Nevada. In 1876, with two companions, all well mounted, he made a trip of 1,700 miles through the Yankee Fork mining district of Idaho, but the claims being all covered and the country being in constant danger from the attacks of hostile tribes of Indians, the party continued to Butte, Montana, then but a small mining settlement. In 1877 at Glendale, thirty-five miles from Butte, Mr. Hemrich partnered with Frank Gilig in starting a small brewery, selling their product at $21 per barrel. This he continued for eighteen months, then sold out and engaged in mining, in which a short experience exhausted his accumulated savings. He then gave up mining and going to Bozeman resumed his trade as foreman of a small brewery and there remained until February, 1883, when he came to Seattle and forming a co-partnership with John Kopp started a small steam beer brewery with an annual capacity of 2,500 barrels. This was the nucleus of the present Bay View brewery.
In 1884 Mr. Kopp sold out his interest to the father of our subject, John Hemrich, and in 1885, the latter’s brother-in-law; Fred Kirschner, entered the firm, then known as Hemrich & Co. With the growing demand the capacity of the brewery was increased from time to time up to 1887, when the brewery was rebuilt and with improved machinery the firm engaged in the manufacture of lager beer, with a capacity of 80,000 barrels per year. The product was sold throughout the Northwest. In April, 1891, the business was incorporated as the Bay View Brewing Company, with a capital stock of $300,000, and so continued up to the spring of 1893, when the company consolidated with the Albert Braun Brewing Company, and the Claussen-Sweeney Brewing Company, under the incorporate name of Seattle Brewing & Malting Company, with a capital stock of $1,000,000, Mr. Hemrich continuing as president. In 1892 our subject was one of the organizers and incorporators of the Victoria Brewing & Ice Company, of which he is vice-president. He has also extensive mining interests in the Cascade mountains, twenty miles east of Snoqualmie Falls. The claims cover 6,000 x 600 feet on one ledge, and 4,500 x 600 feet on a parallel ledge, gold-bearing, running from $5 to $105 per ton. Mr. Hemrich is also president of the Eureka Coal Company, and owns valuable improved and unimproved property in the city of Seattle.
He was married in Seattle, in 1885, to Miss Amelia Hucke, of Essen, Germany. They have four children: John, Alvin, Ernest and Katherine.
And this account of Andrew is from “A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle and County of King, Washington,” published in 1903:
With a deep and abiding interest in the city of Seattle, in its progress and improvement, Andrew Hemrich has done much for its advancement, laboring earnestly along lines that have contributed to its material upbuilding. He is therefore known as one of its valued citizens. He is furthermore prominent in business affairs and a recognized leader in the ranks of the Republican party, on whose ticket he was elected to the office of state senator in 1898, so that he is now serving.
Mr. Hemrich was born in Alma, Wisconsin, October 31, 1856, and is a son of John and Catherine (Koeppel) Hemrich, both of whom were natives of Germany, the father having been born in Baden, while the mother’s birth occurred in Bavaria. In youth they came to American and the father traveled across the country in a covered wagon from Rochester, New York, to Iowa, stopping for a while at Mount Vernon, Indiana, thus making his way to Keokuk, Iowa, where he engaged in the brewing business. He followed that pursuit until 1852, when he loaded his brewery appliances and fixtures upon a barge which was towed to Alma, Wisconsin. There he again established a brewery, which he successfully conducted for thirty years. In 1884 he came to Seattle, where his son Andrew had previously located, and joined him in the organization and incorporation of the Bay View Brewing Company, which was conducted under the firm name until 1893, when it became the Bay View branch of the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company. About 1891 John Hemrich retired from active business life, enjoying a well-merited rest until called to his final home in 1897. His wife still survives him and resides at the old home in Bay View. He was a very active and energetic business man, reliable in all his trade transactions and his industry and capable management brought to him splendid success. In politics he was a Democrat and during the war of the rebellion served as sheriff of Buffalo county, Wisconsin. To him and his wife were born ten children: Edwin, who died at the age of six years; George, who passed away at the age of eighteen; Louise, who became the wife of John Lick, and died at the age of twenty-four; Matilda, who married John Lick, and died at the age of twenty-nine years; Andrew, whose name introduces this review; John, who is living retired; Emma, the widow of Frederick Kirschner; William, who is connected with the Bay View Brewery; Alvin and Louis, who are members of the firm of Hemrich Brothers.
During his boyhood days Andrew Hemrich pursued his education in the common schools, which he attended until fourteen years of age. He then left home and went to the wild mining regions of the west, spending about ten or twelve years on the prairies of Colorado, Nevada, Idaho and Montana. He was there engaged in mining and was also connected with brewing interests, establishing a brewery at Glendale, Montana, which he conducted for several years. He then sold his plant there and accepted a position as manager superintendent of the Bozeman Brewing Company of Bozeman, Montana. He occupied that position for two years and upon resigning he came to Seattle in accordance with plans perfected to establish a brewery business in company with John Kopp.
Mr. Hemrich arrived in this city February 18, 1883, and has since been one of its residents, active in its business affairs and a recognized leader in political circles. The same year he established a business at Bay View under the firm name of Kopp & Hemrich, which business was conducted for two years, at the end of which time he was joined by his father, John Hemrich, and his brother-in-law, Frederick Kirschner, in the organization and incorporation of the Bay View Brewing Company, which was conducted under that style until 1893. The business was then merged into the Seattle Brewing and Malting Company, whose trade has grown from a modest beginning to mammoth proportions, and it is now the largest establishment of the kind on the coast. In addition to the plant at Bay View, there has been a colossal new brick structure erected at Georgetown. It required three years in its construction and has just been completed. It now has a capacity of three hundred thousand barrels per year. The brand “Rainier” is as famous on the coast as the Pabst and Schlitz brews are in the middle and eastern section of the country. Mr. Hemrich was chosen president on the organization of the new company and still serves in that capacity. He has excellent business ability and executive force, his plans are readily and substantially formed and he is determined in their execution and carries forth to a successful conclusion whatever he commences, brooking no obstacles that can be overcome by persistent, honorable and earnest effort.
Mr. Hemrich has long been deeply interested in important measures for the improvement and upbuilding of Seattle. He was one of the organizers and is vice-president of the Seattle and Lake Washington Water-way Company, and many other interests of importance owe their successful existence to his wise counsel and active co-operation. No movement or measure calculated to prove of benefit to the city solicits his aid in vain, for he had ever been a generous contributor to every interest for the general good. In political affairs, too, he is well known, and has labored earnestly and effectively for the improvement and growth of the Republican party, of which he has long been a stalwart and earnest supporter. He was elected in 1898 on that ticket to the office of state senator and is still occupying this position. He has given due consideration to all matters which have come up for action and has left the impress of his individuality upon the legislation enacted during his term.
In November, 1884, Mr. Hemrich was united in marriage to Miss Maria Hucke, a native of Germany, and to them have been born five children: John, Alvin, Ernest, Katie G. and Charles. The family have a fine residence at Bay View, which was erected by Mr. Hemrich in 1892. He has been and is distinctively a man of affairs and one who has wielded wide influence. A strong mentality, an invincible courage and a most determined individuality have so entered into his makeup as to render him a natural leader of men and director of things.
