Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1492: Faust Beer

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Thursday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch’s “Faust Beer,” from 1915. While you may be familiar with the Faust that Anheuser-Busch put out in 1995, part of a trio of “American Originals” released that year, along with Muenchener and Black and Tan, the original Faust was first brewed in 1885. They were still brewing it at least thirty years later, when this ad is from. Despite the imagery of the Faust of German legend who made a deal with the devil, that’s not who the beer was named for, but for Tony Faust, the Oyster King of St. Louis, a restaurant owner and drinking buddy of Adolphus Busch.

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Beer In Ads #1491: Barley Brings Health And Vigor

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Wednesday’s ad is still another one for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” this one from 1911. This is another ad for A-B’s non-alcoholic health drink, marketed with snake-oil salesman enthusiasm. “Barley Brings Health and Vigor” continues that tradition but works only “when ably malted and fermented with the tonic properties of Saazer Hop as in Anheuser-Busch’s Malt-Nutrine.” But I especially love this testimonial. “Thousands of delicate women will testify to its food and tonic qualities.”

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Beer In Ads #1490: Bountiful Harvests

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Tuesday’s ad is yet another one for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” this one from 1908. This is another ad for A-B’s non-alcoholic health drink, marketed with snake-oil salesman enthusiasm. “Bountiful Harvests” continues that tradition and takes “the living essence waving barley fields, blended and fermented with the tonic juices of Saazer Hops” which apparently “seethes in every bottle” of “this liquid-food,” containing “no artificial compound — but comes direct from nature’s laboratory.” Impressive stuff.

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Beer In Ads #1489: The Daughters Of The Farm

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Monday’s ad is another one for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” this one from 1911. This is another ad for A-B’s non-alcoholic health drink, marketed with snake-oil salesman enthusiasm. “The Daughters of the Farm” continues that tradition with claims that everyone living in rural America are “splendid examples of health and vigor” while the urban among us are “often deprived of outdoor exercise and invigorating country air.” Oh, the humanity!

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Beer In Ads #1488: Life-Giving American Barley

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Sunday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” from 1909. This is another ad for A-B’s non-alcoholic health drink, marketed with snake-oil salesman enthusiasm. “Life-Giving American Barley contains more blood-making properties than any other growth of the soil.” But wait there’s more. “Every drop of Anheuser-Busch’s Malt-Nutrine fairly bubbles and seethes with the life of mother nature’s electrifying earth — the creamy nutriment of ripened barley — the aromatic tonic of Bohemian hops — the vivifying breezes of country air — the warmth of the sun and the blessings of the gentle rains — all instilled into a living liquid food.” Damn, who wouldn’t want to drink that.

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Beer In Ads #1487: Is It Art? No It’s Guinness!

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Saturday’s ad is for Guinness, an ad in the design stages that never was used, but was created in late 1944, sometime after the death of the artist that inspired it, Piet Mondrian , who died February 1, 1944. Mondrian was also born today in 1899, which is why I chose this ad for today. This is one of the “lost Guinness ads” that Martyn Cornell wrote about last year in More great lost Guinness art: new evidence for the genius of Gilroy. The Gilroy he’s referring to is artist John Gilroy, who created most of the iconic characters Guinness used in their advertising, such as the Toucan, the Zookeeper and all of the rest. This one is part of a large stash that mysteriously disappeared in 1971 and then reappeared in America decades later just in time to net whoever absconded with the art millions of dollars. As part of the “lost” unused pieces, Gilroy created a series of ads paying homage to great art masterpieces by Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Picasso, Vermeer and others. This one is a beautifully conceived work that is at once recognizable as being in the style of Mondrian but also cleverly works into the design a pint of stout. It’s shame the series was never finished or green lit.

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Beer In Ads #1486: Honored In Its Home Town And Famed The World Over

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Friday’s ad is still another one for Budweiser, again from 1916. This is one is part of a series from the same year, with the two from the previous days being the three I know about. This one has the headline “Honored in Its Home Town and Famed the World Over.” The copy mentions that the “Saazer Hop Flavor” was “exclusive,” which seems very strange. And for that matter, when did we stop calling them “Saazer” and drop the “-er?” Like all of the ads, it ends with “Budweiser Means Moderation.”

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Beer In Ads #1485: The Better The Hops The Better The Beer Flavor

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Thursday’s ad is for another one for Budweiser, also from 1916. It seems like this is part of a series from the same year. This one has the great headline “The Better the Hops the Better the Beer Flavor.” Like yesterday’s ad, the parting shot is “Budweiser Means Moderation,” which was part of a strategy to convince people that beer should be spared that the brewing industry adopted far too late to stop the 18th Amendment from being ratified, establishing prohibition in 1920. Needless to say, it was too little, too late, but it’s a cool ad.

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Beer In Ads #1484: Every Glass A Handful Of Health

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Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1916. There’s some great copy on this ad, beginning with “Every Glass a Handful of Health.” According to the ad, “Each drop of Budweiser is alive and sparkling with the vital energy of Northern Barley and the tonic vigor of Saazer Hops.” Apparently it’s also the “unchallenged sovereign of bottled beers,” which must have been a precursor to A-B declaring themselves the king of beers.

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