Today is the 70th birthday — the Big 7-O — of Dave Keene. Dave, of course, owns the best beer bar in San Francisco, the Toronado, which has been around for over 30 years. Dave is one of the great figures in the San Francisco beer scene and also one of my favorite Washoe partners, and we’ve had some monumental games and vanquished many fine players — you know who you are! Join me in wishing Dave a very happy birthday.
Today is the birthday of August J. Lang (August 12, 1865-December 16, 1955). Born in Baden, Germany, Lang and his brothers Otto, Adolph, Leonhard, and Wilhelm, bought the Red Lion Brewing Co., located on corner of Baker & Geary Streets in San Francisco, and renamed it the August Lang Brewing Association. Brothers Otto and Adolph also established a business together called Lang Bros. Bottling Works, also in San Francisco, located at 1406 Polk Street. Around 1880 (accounts vary), they became associated with the Fredericksburg Brewery in San Jose, eventually owning it, as well. Unfortunately, by the beginning of prohibition, all of the Lang’s breweries had closed.
Here’s a biography of August J. Lang, from “Auld Lang Syne,” written by Boyd R. Land, his grandson, as reprinted in Brewery Gems:
THE LANGS – From Gamburg to San Francisco
“Established in the San Francisco Bay Area since the mid-1800’s, members of Lang Family are descendants of a long line of innkeepers from the town of Gamburg, in Baden, Germany.
In 1824 Franz Joseph Lang married Rosina Kramer, daughter of another Gamburg innkeeper. In 1846, Franz Joseph received title to the Stork Inn from the town of Gamburg. He and Rosina then operated two inns, the Green Tree Inn and the Stork Inn next door.
In about 1845, Franz Joseph and Rosina visited the United States for about two years. They returned to Gamburg enthused by the opportunities they had seen in the United States, and encouraged their sons to migrate. Peter Adam, the oldest son, remained in Gamburg to run the inn and butcher business, but the couple’s two younger sons migrated to the United States in the mid-1800’s. These two sons, known as Johann and Lorenzo in Germany, established themselves in San Francisco as George Lang and Louis Lang, and paved the way for future Langs to come.
In 1854, Peter Adam, the brother remaining in Gamburg, married Juliana Martin. Over the years, they had six sons who eventually traveled to the San Francisco Bay Area. Five of the six sons settled there: Otto Johann (born 1855, migrated 1973); Adolf Bernhard (born 1857, migrated 1876); Leonhard Sebastian (born 1861, migrated 1876); August Josef (born 1865, migrated 1882); Wilhelm Josef (born 1869, migrated 1880).
The two uncles, George and Louis Lang, who had migrated earlier, welcomed the nephews and helped the youth get started. In 1869 George and Louis established a foreign wine and liquor import business called Lang & Co., located at 8 Morton Street.
By the time the second generation of Langs from Gamburg arrived in San Francisco, both George and Louis Lang had substantial businesses in which the young nephews could find employment.
The early 1880’s brought major changes to the young Langs. In 1880, Otto and Adolph established a business together called Lang Bros., importers of Philadelphia Beer, located at 1406 Polk Street. They lived next door to their business at 1408½ Polk.
In 1882, they brought brother August Josef to San Francisco. On July 22, 1882, at the age of seventeen, he sailed from Bremen on the “Elbe” and landed in New York. He arrived in San Francisco on August 7, 1882 to join his brothers.
August moved in with his brothers on Polk Street, and as his siblings before him, he started working for his Uncle George. He began as a bottler with George’s, Lang & Co. Then in 1884 he worked for a brief period as a butcher, but in 1886, August returned to work with Otto and Adolph at Lang Bros.
Leonhard first appears in the San Francisco City Directories in 1883 as a baker, living with his brothers on Polk Street. Then in 1887 he joined his brothers August and Otto in their company, Lang Bros., while Adolph left the family business to form, over the next several years, a series of separate partnerships in the beer bottling business.
Throughout their history, the Lang family businesses underwent several splits and mergers: a brother would go independent for a while, then rejoin the family business.
In 1890, the brothers formed the Fredericksburg Bottling Company, located at 1510-12 Ellis Street. Otto was president; Adolph, vice-president; Leonhard, the foreman; and August, the manager. Over the ensuing years, the brothers rotated titles and responsibilities several times.
In 1892 Wilhelm, the youngest brother at the age of twenty-three, was manager of the Lang Brother’s Oakland branch. In 1898 he left the family business and became manager of the Oakland Pioneer Soda Water Company, at 221 Eighth Street.
In 1899, Adolph split off from his brothers and started a firm called National Bottling Company. He owned and operated this company in San Francisco for the remainder of his career. Lang Bros. had moved several times in the 1880’s, from the Polk Street location to 1318 Scott Street near O’Farrell Street in 1883, and then in 1890 to 1510-12 Ellis Street near Fillmore, where it remained until 1906. After the Great Earthquake and Fire of 1906, August bought out Otto and Leonhard to form August Lang & Co., which owned and operated the Fredericksburg Bottling Company. He relocated the bottling operations to 18th and Alabama Streets, with a branch at the corner of Geary and Baker.
In 1887 August married Mary Decker. He was twenty-two years old, and she was twenty. Over the years they had five children, all born in San Francisco: August Jr. (Guss), born May 29, 1890; Rudolph Decker (Rudy Sr.), born September 30, 1892; William Oscar, (Bill), born February 9, 1896; Richard, born in March 1888, and died in 1906 at the age of eighteen of a ruptured appendix; and Myrtle Bertha, born March 19, 1898.
In March of 1900, August obtained a passport and returned to Gamburg to visit his doctor, who happened to have never traveled beyond German borders. The doctor advised August to leave San Francisco and move to Marin, where the weather was better. In 1902 August and Mary moved the family across the bay to San Rafael. Then August built a house on Laurel Grove Avenue in Ross. The family was living on Laurel Grove Avenue at the time of the 1906 Earthquake. August Sr. would commute to San Francisco, first by train, then by ferry from Sausalito.
Both Guss and Rudy followed their father into the beer industry. In 1911, at the age of twenty-one, Guss was manager of the Red Lion Ale and Porter Brewing Company. The next year he joined his father in the August J. Lang Brewing Association, as did his brother, Rudy. But the brother’s careers in the beer industry did not last long.
August Lang and his sons must have recognized that the beer industry as they knew it was finished. In 1913 August Sr. started Lang Realty and Company, and his sons gained employment in the real estate business. Guss joined the firm of Edwards Brewster & McCann as a salesman. This firm was located in the 10 Mills Building, 220 Montgomery Street with a branch at 5298 Mission Street. Rudy started work with another real estate firm, Oscar Heyman & Bros. William worked in a partnership called Lang & Hecker.
In 1914, Fredericksburg Bottling Company was no longer listed as a business in the San Francisco City Directory.”
Here’s the first part of his obituary, from the Daily Independent Journal, from December 17, 1955:
And here’s the second part of his obituary, from the Daily Independent Journal, from December 17, 1955:
Here’s a description of the Fredericksburg Bottling Company from 1899.
Today is the birthday of Steve Shapiro Steve, who is half of the duo behind Beer by Bart, along with his wife Gail Williams. Steve’s originally from New York, but has been in the Bay Area rooting for the San Francisco Giants longer than I’ve been here. Steve was a player in local politics for many years, but for nearly twenty years he’s been writing about beer online, along with writing for the Celebrator Beer News and other publications. Over the past decade or more, we’ve become great friends with Steve and Gail and have happily hung out on several continents. Join me in wishing Steve a very happy birthday.
Today is the 45th birthday of Patrick Rue, founder of The Bruery in Orange County, California. I first became aware of Patrick when he started writing his blog about the travails of opening a brewery. We began corresponding, becoming friends and eventually meeting in person. I’ve since written several articles about Patrick and the Bruery as he’s become very successful in a very short period of time, and later sold the brewery. He and his family moved to Napa, where he’s opened a winery, Erosion, to which they’ve added a beer hall and started brewing, as well. More recently, he’s become a part owner of Moonlight Brewing. Join me in wishing Patrick a very happy birthday.
Today is the birthday of Paul Sangster, who was the brewmaster of Rip Current Brewing in San Marcos, California and a co-founder with his partner Guy Shobe. By a strange coincidence, Guy’s sister is our neighbor across the street at the home we bought over ten years ago and his niece is one of my daughter’s best friends. So I’ve met Paul and Guy a couple of time now, and it was great seeing them win big at the 2015 GABF. A few years ago, we judged together on the final day of GABF judging. Paul is a longtime San Diego homebrewer and won numerous awards before leaving his career in 2014 to turn pro. Unfortunately, they made the hard decision to close the brewery in December of 2023. I’m not sure what Paul’s up to these days, but hopefully he’s still brewing somewhere even if only in his garage.
Today is the 76th birthday of Dave Suurballe. Dave was a fixture in the San Francisco homebrewing and brewing community, being the president of his homebrew club and the former GM of the Toronado. Recently he was working at the Pi Bar, and then he returned once more at the Toronado to help out Dave Keene there. Unfortunately, he’s now again retired, but I want to continue to raise a toast each year on his birthday for no better reason then I know it annoys him. That’s just the kind of friend I am. Dave is one of my favorite people — and a kindred curmudgeon. So make sure you join me in wishing Dave a very happy birthday.
Today is my friend Rod DeWitt’s 68th birthday. Rod is the Director of Plant Engineering & Process Control at Anderson Valley Brewing Co. in Boonville. Rod also played drums in the Rolling Boil Blues Band. Join me is wishing Rod a very happy birthday.
Today is the 54th birthday of Steve Donohue, former brewmaster at Firehouse Grill & Brewery in Sunnyvale, California. Steve is an unsung brewer who deserves more accolades and fame. After Firehouse, He spent some time brewing at Hermitage Brewing while working on opening his own place. Steve’s brewery, Santa Clara Valley Brewing finally did open and, not surprisingly, seemed to be going gangbusters, but unfortunately he closed during the pandemic. Join me in wishing Steve a very happy birthday.
Note: Last two photos purloined from Facebook, taken by Arie Litman.
Today is the birthday of Armin Louis Neubert (August 2, 1864-July 3, 1946). He was born in Wolkenstein, Saxony, Germany. His father died when he was five, and he grew up with an uncle, who allowed him to train as a brewer while attending school. After a stint in the German-Saxon Army, he moved with his uncle to the United States. After helping his uncle set up his American business, he moved from city to city working for prominent breweries for several years before finally settling in Minnesota, spending twenty years as the head brewer of the Minneapolis Brewing Co., though his official title was “Production Superintendent.” The year after he took the job, he introduced the popular “Grain Belt Beer.”
In 1900, the Minneapolis Brewing Co. bought the Black Hills Brewing Co. in Central City, South Dakota. A new brewery was built, designed by Armin Neubert and he was also named vice-president when the business was reorganized.
When Neubert retired from the Minneapolis Brewing Co. in 1914, he moved his family to Central City, which he’d become fond of during his numerous visits there over the years, and continued to work at Black Hills. Unfortunately, the brewery closed at the beginning of 1917 when the state voted to start prohibition two years before the national prohibition, though it stayed in business by switching to soft drinks and near-beer. But it was a pain in the ass, and Armin apparently was disheartened by what had happened to the industry he loved and the brewery was closed in 1927, and sold the next year. “After that, he moved to a ranch he’d bought near Great Falls, Montana and became a wheat farmer. But after a few years he turned the ranch over to his son and retired to Santa Cruz,” California.
Apparently, a new Black Hills Brewing Co. is in the works, though it gives the original founding date as 1878.
But after prohibition ended in 1933, Neubert was lured back into the brewery industry and was asked to get involved in reopening the old Salinas Brewery, in California.
Armin was to receive equity in the new company as payment for his engineering work, and his son, Armin K., who had an engineering degree, was included in the deal. The Salinas Brewing & Ice Company was opened and soon gaining recognition for its excellent “Monterey Beer.” Armin, Sr. was brewmaster, and Armin, Jr. was the treasurer of the firm.
Eventually, Neubert ended up owning the Salinas Brewery outright, with his son, who’d been involved since the beginning, as president.
Then in February of 1937, Rettenmayer met with an untimely death, followed in November by the death of a prime stockholder and director of the company, Dr. Wm. Fehliman. This resulted in the restructuring of the company in 1938, and the Neubert family gaining sole control. The company’s name was changed to the Monterey Brewing Co., with Armin, Jr., president.
There’s surprisingly very little information about Neubert, and no pictures I could find, and almost everything here is from the website Brewery Gems. They also have a much fuller biography of Armin Neubert.
Here’s a short obituary from the Santa Cruz Sentinnel in 1946:
And here’s a report on Neubert’s funeral:
Today is also the 63rd birthday of William Sysak, better known to the beer community as Dr. Bill. Dr. Bill’s massive tastings are the stuff of legends, and he later transported them — albeit on a smaller scale — to working at Stone Brewing’s World Bistro & Gardens. He has impeccable taste, be it in beer, wine, whiskey, cigars, what have you, and is one of the most fun people to taste with. He was working with Stone Brewing for a time, but then started his own brewery, co-founding Wild Barrel Brewing, in San Marcos, California, which lasted for a number of years before closing in 2023. Join me in wishing Bill a very happy birthday.
