Sunday’s ad is for Busch Bavarian Beer, from 1965. The ad says you get everything in your beer — imported hops, slow-cold aging (whatever that is) and natural carbonation — everything, that is, except an egg. Which is weird, because who thought you should get an egg in your beer?
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.
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.”
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.
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!
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.
Saturday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch, from 1892. Apparently shortly after the competition of a new brewhouse in St. Louis, they celebrated by sponsoring “pen and sunlight sketches of Omaha and environs” with this ad. One curious feature of the otherwise simple image ad, is this line. “No Corn or Corn Preparations are used in the manufacture of Anheuser-Busch beer. It is, therefore, the highest-priced by the most wholesome and really the least expensive for its superior quality.” Funny they didn’t mention rice.
Friday’s ad is for the Bavarian Brewery, a.k.a. E. Anheuser & Co., from 1860. This, of course, was the brewery that would later be called Anheuser-Busch, but sixteen years before they’d start making Budweiser. Even then, it was a fairly large enterprise, with “bottling for export a specialty.”
Wednesday’s ad is another one for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” also from 1908. Malt-Nutrine was promoted not as a non-alcoholic beer, but as a “pure malt tonic” and sold by druggists and grocers. “The Health of the Farmer” that the ad is touting comes from Malt-Nutrine containing “the combined juices of germinated barley and selected Saazer Hops.” Is that all? Hell, no. “Every bottle is charged with the strength and glory of the golden grain. Its aroma is the fragrance of the clinging hop vine and its living vigor is the cream of ripened barley. It infuses life into the blood — sustains all the vital powers and to the feeble, aged and run down it is a veritable restorer of recreative and soothing potency.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch’s “Malt-Nutrine,” from 1908. Malt-Nutrine was promoted not as a non-alcoholic beer, but as a “pure malt tonic” and sold by druggists and grocers. “The Bloom of Health” that the ad refers to apparently only “blossoms” if you have enough “life-giving blood.” Luckily, Malt-Nutrine is “a blood and strength maker.” Here’s the best bit: “Every drop of it is alive with the health-bringing juices of barley and the vigorous tonic powers of imported Saazer Hops.” You’ll feel good enough to play golf or plow a field.
