Historic Beer Birthday: Michael Sieben

January 3, 2026 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of Michael Sieben (January 3, 1835-September 5, 1925). He was born in Ebersheim, Germany, but came to America when he was 25, in 1860. In 1865, he bought the James L. Hoerber Brewery, running it until 1875, when he built a new brewery which he named the Michael Sieben Brewery. Twenty years later he sold that brewery to the Excelsior Brewing Co., but promptly built another brewery, selling that one to United Breweries Co. in 1898, though he remained its manager of the Sieben’s Branch. A brewery bearing his name continued on in Chicago until prohibition, was briefly open during it, and re-opened afterwards in 1933 as Sieben’s Brewery Co., which remained in business until 1967.

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This biography of Sieben is from “The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago, edited by Albert Nelson Marquis, and published in 1911:

In 1934, the newly reopened Sieben’s Brewery issued a press release celebrating its 100th anniversary of its founder, Michael Sieben:

The one hundreth birthday anniversary of Michael Sieben, the founder of the brewery which is now known all over the world, is celebrated these days by the Chicago Sieben Brewery Company, 1470 Larrabee Street. For the festive occasion an especially tasteful beer, the Sieben Centennial beer, was put on the market. It was made after a receipt known to the family for seventy years.
Michael Sieben was born on January 3, 1835, in Ebersheim, near Mainz, Germany, and died in Chicago September 5, 1925, at the age of ninety years. He learned the honorable art of beer brewing in Mainz, Germany, and as brewer’s and cooper’s assistant he journeyed through Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. For two years he worked at Lyons, Maney, and Dijon until the wanderlust urged him to go to the unknown land on the other side of the big pond.
Michael Sieben came in the year 1860 to America. During the succeeding five years, he worked as malster and brewer’s assistant, then as master brewer, and later as manager in Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Boston. In the year 1865, he returned to Chicago and founded here the Sieben brewery in the then Griswold Street. In the year 1876, the brewery moved to Larrabee Street, south of Blackhawk Street, at which place it is still operating today.
From the marriage of Michael Sieben and his wife Ida, nee Fausch, came seven children, of whom two sons, William and Bernard, are in charge of the brewery today.

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This account of the brewery is from “100 Years of Brewing,” published in 1903:

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Around 2006, a group of investor’s tried to bring back the Sieben’s beer brand, but the last time the website was updated was 2009, so I don’t think they were successful in the long run. And in fact, the home page states that it’s “off the market.” But this account of Sieben is from their website:

Michael Sieben immigrated to the United States in 1860 from Ebersheim, Germany a village southwest of Mainz. In 1865 Michael founded the Michael SiebenBrewery, located on Pacific Avenue near Clark and Polk Streets in Chicago. That street is now the section of La Salle St. south of Congress Parkway. In 1871, the brewery was narrowly missed by the Great Chicago Fire due to a change in wind direction. In 1876 the brewery was relocated to 1466 Larrabee Street, just a short walk from where the Larrabee-Ogden station of the Chicago “L” Transit System would be built in 1900.
In 1896 Michael Sieben built a larger brewery on Clybourn Avenue, not far from the Larrabee Street location. In 1898 it was merged into the United Breweries Company. By 1903, Michael Sieben was back in the original Larrabee Street location and changed the name of his company to the Sieben´s Brewery Company. Michael Sieben´s wish was that the brewery bearing his name not be owned by anyone outside the Sieben family, perhaps due to the short alliance he had with United Breweries Company that this wish came into effect.
During the years of Prohibition 1920-1933 the Sieben family was out of the beer business. The years of Prohibition gave brewers few choices, some started to produce soda and/or near beer (a nonalcoholic beer) or just closed forever. Some brewers however, were faced with a couple of other choices, sell or lease their brewery. The Sieben´s were faced with this choice and decided to lease out the brewery to an entity which was supposed to be engaged in producing a nonalcoholic beer. This new company was called the George Frank Brewery and is said to be owned in partnership by Dion O´Banion (head of the north side gang) and Johnny Torrio (head of the south side gang). The story goes, that O´Banion calls up Torrio and said that he is tired of the bootleg business and wants to retire to his place in Colorado. O´Banion offered to sell Torrio, his share of the brewery for $500,000.00, Torrio agreed. Dion O´Banion was aware of the penalties for prohibition convictions.
The first, a mere slap on the hand. The second, put you away for nine months and O´Banion knew that Torrio had one conviction against him. Dion O´Banion also had information that the Chicago Police Department was to raid the brewery the day of the meeting. On May 19, 1924 the two men met at the Sieben´s Brewery. Johnny Torrio, handed Dion O´Banion a case with $500,000.00 in cash and in came the police and arrested everyone in sight.
This is where the common historical account differs from what family members who were there observed. The Sieben family member story is as follows, despite what was reported in the newspapers at the time. The transfer of funds either happened at another time or in another place. The raid happened about a week after this transaction. Also, O´Banion had no idea when a raid would take place, he only knew that the police officer he was paying off to inform him of when the next inspection was going to happen was no longer in a position to tell him. Elliot Ness had figured the cop for a “dirty” cop and had him transferred to where we don´t know, just out of the picture.
The normal operation with the gangsters was to at all times have two gangsters on the premises to run things. One would work in the office and the other was one of the bartenders. When the raid DID happen, the gangster/bartender, ran back through the brewery and kicked out the operating engineer that was running the steam engine that was used for refrigeration. He then grabbed a pair of overalls and dirtied his face with coal dust and sat at the controls of the steam engine so it looked like he was just an “engineer” worker and not a gangster. The gangster in the office came out and saw that there was a police officer standing guard in the street in front of the brewery. He got Leonard Sieben (who was 8 years old at the time) and told him to go out front and stand next to the officer and act like he was pulling a handkerchief out of his sleeve when the officer looked the other way. That was the signal for the gangster to slip out the front door and down the street, unseen. When the rest of the police surrounded the building and came in to conduct the raid, they ran right past the “engineer” who then just walked out the back door.
No gangsters were arrested at that time, they must have been rounded up later and this fact was hidden in an apparently elaborate deception so that the public could not find out. One might suspect that Elliot Ness had to score some kind of hit to garner some public or political support at a time when it was widely known that Prohibition was not working. The court records make no mention of Torrio, O´banion or old Scarface himself. The only names mentioned are “a Mr. Sieben, who owns the Realty” and George Frank who was the lease operator.
No matter which version you want to believe, this is what led to the infamous “handshake murder” of O´Banion at his north side State Street flower shop. It was also what sparked off the north and south side gang wars, including the St. Valentine´s DayMassacre in 1929.
In 1933 Prohibition came to an end and the Sieben family reopened the brewery, bier stube and garden. For the next three and a half decades, Sieben´s Brewery Company would brew the fine beers for which it was known. In the 1950´s and 1960´s the beer business was changing and Sieben´s was finding it hard to keep up. Faced with the competition of mass produced beers, the Sieben´s Brewery and associated bier stube closed in 1967. The bottling house caught fire in 1968 and was heavily damaged. In 1969 all of the Sieben´s Brewery Company buildings were torn down.
In the 1980´s the name Sieben Brewery was resurrected by group of entrepreneurs not related to the Sieben family. The “new Sieben´s” was a brew pub in the River North Area of Chicago. The brew pub did not package and distribute their products, nor did they ever brew or have the original Sieben´s Brewery recipes.
In 2006 the Sieben´s family is back in the brewing business. Richard Sieben is a fourth generation family brewer and along with long time homebrewing friend Elliot Hamilton are, “Carrying on a Great Family Brewing Tradition.” Sieben´s brings back the original “Real Lager Beer” that was brewed at the original brewery. The Sieben´s name has been around since the time when Chicago was a big beer brewing town. That´s why we like to think and say that we´re also “Carrying on Chicago´s Great Brewing Tradition.”
Sieben’s beer, after a two year run on the market has been temporarily withdrawn from distribution. Not having our own brewery, while saving a bundle of money in infrastructure, costs us in flexibility. Our Wisconsin based brewery is ready and willing to produce more beer but until we are able to secure a dependable distributor who has our product featured in their portfolio, we must take time off to rethink our strategy.

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This postcard of the Sieben Bier Strude is from 1937.

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Historic Beer Birthday: Peter Schoenhofen

January 2, 2026 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Peter Schoenhofen (January 2, 1827-January 2, 1893). He owned a brewery in Chicago that was called the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Co.

Portrait from “100 Years of Brewing,” originally published in 1901.

And here’s another portrait that included this text: “German-born Peter Schoenhofer (1827-1893) came penniless to America in 1851 and took jobs in various breweries around Chicago. Eventually he and a partner, Matheus Gottfried, opened a brewery. Schoenhofen bought out Gottfried in 1867 and the company became the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Company. Ads bragged that the beer’s clean taste came from the artesian spring located under the brewery. Their Edelweiss brand was the best known.”

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Here’s an entry about Schoenhofen from the Encyclopedia of Chicago:

Peter Schoenhofen, a Prussian immigrant, was in Chicago working in the brewing trade by the 1850s. In 1861, he started a partnership with Matheus Gottfried; they were soon operating a brewery at Canalport Avenue and 18th Street where, during the early 1860s, they made about 600 barrels of lager beer a year. In 1867, Schoenhofen bought out his partner, and the company became the Peter Schoenhofen Brewing Co. By 1868, annual output had increased to about 10,000 barrels. During the 1890s, when the business was owned by the City Contract Co. of London, England, annual output reached 180,000 barrels. Around 1900, the Schoenhofen family regained control of the company, which employed about 500 people at its brewery on West 12th Street by 1910. During this time, the company was also known as the National Brewing Co. The company’s “Edelweiss” brand of beer was a big seller. Operations shut down during Prohibition, but by 1933, after the national ban on alcohol production was lifted, the company was back in business as the Schoenhofen-Edelweiss Co. After being purchased by the Atlas Brewing Co. in the late 1940s, Schoenhofen became part of Dewery’s Ltd. of South Bend, Indiana, in 1951, and thereafter assumed the Dewery’s name. By the beginning of the 1970s, there was nothing left of its Chicago operations, although Dewery’s reintroduced the famous Edelweiss brand in 1972 after nearly a decade-long hiatus.

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Forgotten Chicago has a nice photo gallery about the Schoenhofen Brewery and what remains of it today, saying that what is left “of the Schoenhofen Brewery are still the most impressive pre-Prohibition era brewery structures in Chicago. Buildings were first erected at 18th and Canalport in 1862 when the brewery relocated here from 12th and Jefferson. The last buildings were built in 1912, and the brewery remained in business until 1924, a casualty of prohibition.”

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The area where the brewery operated are today known as the Schoenhofen Brewery Historic District.

I love their ad copy: “A case of good judgment,” which they used extensively. And this beer was a “secret brew,” whatever that means.

Historic Beer Birthday: Gottfried Piel

December 31, 2025 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of Gottfried Piel (December 31, 1852-May 1, 1935) who along with his brothers Michael and Wilhelm Piel founded Piel Bros. Beer in New York, more commonly known as Piels Beer in 1883. Gottfried Piel was more on the business side among his brothers, whereas his older brother Michael was the brewer.

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Here’s a short biography of Piel from a website highlighting his highly collectible personal corkscrew:

Gottfried Piel was the founder of the Piel Brothers Brewing Company of Brooklyn, New York. Piel left his home in Dusseldorf, Germany in 1882 at the age of 29 to emigrate to the United States. In 1883 he convinced his brothers Michael and Wilhelm to join him in the purchase of the Landzer Brewery.
Piel’s first year beer production was 850 barrels and in ensuing years, Piel Bros. continue to grow rapidly. It became a Brooklyn tradition and, although the brewery closed after some rough years in the 1960s and 1970s, the brand name is still in use. The Piel name was purchased by the Schaefer Brewing Company in 1973.
Gottfried Piel died in 1935 and his corkscrew was left to his daughter Sophia, widow of Pinckney and wife of Peter William Dawson. The corkscrew passed to Peter William Dawson upon the death of Sophia. In 1980 Dawson died and the corkscrew passed to his nephew Jim Lowry. Jim Lowry sold the corkscrew to Don Bull.

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This is a description of Gottfried from Beer of Broadway Fame: The Piel Family and Their Brooklyn Brewery by Alfred W. McCoy:

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And here’s a biography of his brother Michael from the Cyclopedia of American Biography, edited to keep the portions where Gottfried is mentioned:

PIEL, Michael, brewer, b. in Stoffeln, Düsseldorf am Rhein, Germany, 29 March, 1849; d. at Lake Parlin, Me., 12 June, 1915, son of Heinrich Hubert and Gertrud (Gispé) Piel. He was descended from an old Rhenish stock of farmers of singular attachment, whose members successively aimed to expand their patrimony of tillable lands. To the original and extensive Stoffeln Farm his father and uncles added the great Mörsenbroich-Düsseldorf tillages, which now border the residential section of the Lower Rhenish financial capitol. Michael was born in an environment of industry, thrift, and enterprise. His early youth was devoted to the farm at Mörsenbroich-Düsseldorf. At the age of eighteen, he began his military service in the Kaiser Alexander II Regiment of the Imperial Guards at Berlin. The Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71 broke out just as he had completed this duty. As he was not, therefore, subject to the call of the Fatherland, his family sought to hold him back. He promptly volunteered, however, and served throughout the war, participating with his regiment in several engagements, the battle of Gravelotte and the siege of Paris. The impressions on the country boy of his years of service at Berlin, which had already begun to modernize its industries, lingered and served constantly to stimulate his natural gifts of invention. While for several years after the war, true to the family tradition, he worked at Mörsenbroich with his elder brother, he continually sought expression for his native talents. The arduous discipline of farm-labor from sun-up to sun-down, — valuable preparation though it was for the early trials of his later life career — could not check his inventive spirit. Gradually, making the most of his opportunities on the farm, his successes won him away from the family calling. In the creation of new rose-cultures and, particularly, in the perfection of a new and highly productive breed of bees, for both of which, after but two years of experimentation, he was voted the government’s highest awards, he found the encouragement he needed for the growing determination to carve out his own future. It was, however, his invention of a centrifuge for the extraction of honey, awarded special governmental recognition and immediately adopted into general use, that decided him. As the protégé of a machine manufacturer, he visited the industrial centers of the progressive Rhineland and soon chose the ancient German industry of brewing as the one offering the best opportunity for his talent of applying machinery to natural processes. He found a fertile field. The new science of modern refrigeration had just come into practice, and the suggestions which it offered in his chosen field fascinated him. He began his novitiate in the old-style subterranean cellars at the breweries of Dortmund, Westphalia. In 1883, his apprenticeship ended, he welcomed the call of a younger brother, Gottfried, then already established as an export merchant in New York, to found with him in East New York, at its present site, a typically German brewery, to be conceived on modern and scientific principles. The brothers, as a partnership, secured title to a small old-style brewing plant, then in disuse, and found the problem to convert it to newer ideas a fight against tremendous odds. At the outset, Michael was its brewer, superintendent, and engineer, his accumulated experience fitting him admirably for the multiplicity of his duties. In the early days of the converted plant, Michael found that his hours were from four o’clock in the morning till ten at night. At last, in 1888, the ability of his brother as the financial head of the firm and the excellence of his own products assured success and the long struggle was won. The country which had offered him his opportunity for success he gladly and promptly adopted as his own, being admitted to citizenship in 1888. The enterprise prospered and the partnership became a corporation in 1898, with an established business of national reputation.

Beer In Ads #5155: Bock Beer Festival Parade

December 29, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads for awhile. Bock, of course, may have originated in Germany, in the town of Einbeck. Because many 19th century American breweries were founded by German immigrants, they offered a bock at certain times of the year, be it Spring, Easter, Lent, Christmas, or what have you. In a sense they were some of the first seasonal beers. “The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers in the 17th century. Due to their Bavarian accent, citizens of Munich pronounced ‘Einbeck’ as ‘ein Bock’ (a billy goat), and thus the beer became known as ‘Bock.’ A goat often appears on bottle labels.” And presumably because they were special releases, many breweries went all out promoting them with beautiful artwork on posters and other advertising.

Monday’s poster is for Bock Beer, which was created probably in the mid-1800s. The title of the oil sketch is “Bockbierfestzug” or “Bock Beer Festival Parade.” The artist was Anton Muttenthaler, who was originally born in Höchstädt an der Donau (Höchstädt on the Danube) in 1820 and died in Leipzig in 1870. The work is in the Munich City Museum.

Historic Beer Birthday: John A. White

December 27, 2025 By Jay Brooks

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Today is the birthday of John A. White (December 27, 1839-December 17, 1916). He was born and educated in Hesse-Cassell, Germany, but came to the United States in 1856, when he was sixteen. When the Civil War began, he joined up and served with distinction for four years, participating in the battles of Gettysburg, Chancellorsville and Bull Run. After the war, he returned to baking, but a year later relocated to Pittsfield, Massachusetts and bought the M. Benson Brewery, along with Jacob Gimlich, which they called Gimlich & White, and which later became known as the Berkshire Brewing Association. It was closed by Prohibition in 1918, and never reopened after repeal.

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Here’s White’s obituary from the American Brewers’ Review:

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White and his wife Rachel Gimlich on their wedding day. She was the sister of White’s brewery business partner, Jacob Gimlich.

This is a short history of the brewery from 100 Years of Brewing:

Here’s a story of the brewery from the website iBerkshires.com:

One can only wonder what John White and Jacob Gimlich would have thought as federal officers poured 15,000 gallons of locally crafted beer into the sewer on an early May morning in 1922.
Gimlich and his brother-in-law White had first purchased a small brewery on Columbus Street in 1868 from Michael Benson. First called simply “Jacob Gimlich & John White,” the business began at an output of just six barrels a day, but would grow to be a major manufacturer in the West Side Pittsfield neighborhood.
Both men had immigrated to the country from Germany in their youth, and both served tours in the Civil War. Gimlich worked briefly for the Taconic Woolen Mills before going into the beer business with his sister Rachel’s husband.
By 1880, operating as Gimlich, White & Co., the brewers erected a much larger facility in a five-story brick building measuring 40 by 80 feet. The expanded plant employed from 15 to 20 men and was shipping about 16,000 barrels a year.
Gimlich and White built houses directly across the road from their plant on John Street, and as their fortunes grew became increasingly prominent members of the community. Gimlich in particular became enmeshed in a variety of financial and civic affairs. From 1884-1885, he served as the city’s representative in the Legislature, and was one of the organizers and directors of City Savings Bank. Gimlich likewise served on the board of the Berkshire Loan and Trust Co. and of the Co-Operative Bank, was a past chancellor of the local lodge, Knights of Pythias, and member of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts and of the local Sons of Veterans.
“Pittsfield has been pleased with the success of Gimlich & White and they are counted among the town’s leading, liberal, and most public spirited citizens,” states one Pittsfield Sun editorial of the time.
By the early 1890s the torch was being passed to the next generation, with sons David Gimlich along with Fred and George White taking on more leadership of the company when it reincorporated as Berkshire Brewing Association in 1892. An additional four-story building was added, with the brewing complex now taking up the full block along Columbus Avenue between Onota and John Street to Gilbert Avenue.
Among Berkshire Brewing’s most popular products were Mannheimer Lager Beer, Berkshire Pure Malt Extract, Lenox Half Stock Ale, and Berkshire Pale Ale, considered to be one of the finest India pale ales then on the market. The plant also churned out bottled mineral waters, ginger ale and other soft drinks.
The elder Gimlich and White passed away in 1912 and 1916, respectively, but the enterprise they founded continued to see steady growth. The only brewery of the kind within 50 miles of Pittsfield, Berkshire Brewing Association had something of a monopoly in the region, along with a thriving distribution throughout the east coast as far south as the Carolinas. At its peak, it employed 150 workers and put out 75,000 to 100,000 barrels worth of beer annually. Records indicate between 1910 and 1920, Berkshire Brewing Association paid $1 million in federal taxes, in addition to state and local taxes and fees, including $1,200 a year for a brewer’s license and $800 for an annual bottling license.
The company was not without its occasional hiccups, such as a lengthy strike in the fall of 1911 by the Pittsfield Brewers Union, culminating in the reinstatement of a dismissed employee.
Real crisis came at the end of the decade, as increasing restrictions on alcohol grew into total national prohibition. They first ceased brewing beer temporarily in December 1918, after a directive from the National Food Administration following the passage of the the Wartime Prohibition Act. Even after the passage of the Volstead Act the following fall, BBA voted to remain in business, focusing on bottled soft drinks while hoping the ban to be a brief legislative phase.
They also continued to brew beer, as did several major brewers throughout the country at first, seeing the government’s lack of resources tasked to enforce the rule. Finally in spring 1922, federal officers arrived to turn off the taps, disposing of 15,000 gallons worth and estimated $15,000 to $20,000 at the time.
Ironically, the company waited it out until nearly the end of the failed domestic policy, the board of directors voting to close down in January 1929.
The brewery building was dismantled soon after; for a time, the Siegel Furniture Co. operated out of the former bottling building, which later became the Warehouse Furniture Co. In 1975, this, too, was cleared as the land passed to the Pittsfield Housing Authority, which developed the Christopher Arms housing project that occupies the former site of the brewery today.

berkshire-beer-truck A brewery delivery truck around 1905.

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Historic Beer Birthday: Rudolph Rheinboldt

December 27, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Rudolph Rheinboldt (December 27, 1827-October 30, 1916). He was born in Germany, came to Cincinnati, Ohio, and was involved with helping to found what would become the John Kaufman Brewing Co., though for a short time, from 1856-58, it was known as the John Kaufman Rudolph Rheinboldt Brewery. It’s possible he was related to Kaufman, though it’s unclear how, although Rheinboldt did marry Magdalena Kauffman in Cincinnati, Ohio, on August 13, 1859, when he was 31 years old.

Kauffman-brewery-letterhead Here’s the letterhead from the John Kauffman Brewing Co.

Since he appears to have been involved for only a short time, I was unable to find very much about him, no photos, and almost nothing after he left the brewing industry.

Here’s part of the John Kaufman Brewing Co. that involves Rheinboldt, from Cincinnati Brewing History:

In 1856 John Kauffman, George F. Eichenlaub, and Rudolf Rheinboldt purchased the Franklin Brewery on Lebanon Road near the Deer Creek from Kauffman’s aunt. Her husband, John Kauffman, estabished the brewery in 1844. He died in 1845. In 1859 under the name Kauffman and Company, they began to build a new brewery on Vine Street and soon left the Deer Creek location. The first structure on Vine was completed in 1860.
In 1871 the Kauffman Brewery was the city’s fourth largest with sales amounting to $30,930. It was located on both the west and east sides of Vine north of Liberty and south of Green Street.
In 1860 Kauffman also bought the Schneider grist mill on Walnut Street near Hamilton Road (McMicken Avenue), but leased it out before long to another company.
In its first year on Vine Street, the brewery produced only about 1000 barrels. By 1877 the number grew to 50,000 barrels of beer. Kauffman’s beer was sold in Nashville, Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah, and New Orleans.
In 1865 Eichenlaub retired from the business and he was followed by Rheinboldt in 1877. John Kauffman then took over the leadership by himself. After his oldest son Johnn studied brewing in Augsburg, Germany, he went to work at the family brewery. Emil Schmidt, Kauffman’s son-in-law, was superintendent by 1877.
In 1882 the brewery was incorporated as the John Kauffman Brewing Company with a paid-in capital stock of $700,000. In 1888 the brewery building at 1622 Vine was enlarged. Note it is occupied by the Schuerman Company today. The office and family residence was at 1625-27 Vine, which was razed and replaced about 75 years ago.

Historic Beer Birthday: Stephan Moninger

December 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Stephan Moninger (December 25, 1827-1875). He was born in Württemberg, Germany, and on December 16, 1856, was granted a license to brew commercially and founded the Brauerei Moninger in Karlsruhe, Germany. It was the same brewery he had previously worked at as brewmaster, then known as the Brauerei Ludwig Kaufmann. When his boss died in 1852, he married his widow, Marie Kaufmann, and Moniger assumed control of the brewery then but had to wait until two years later to be inspected and permitted to join the local brewers’ and coopers’ guilds, even though he’d become a citizen of Baden and had acquired the “master’s rights.”

Here’s the Google translation from the German Stadtwiki Karlsruhe:

As Stephan Moninger from Upper Unterschneidheim at Ellwangen in 1854 to Karlsruhe came, wanted the local brewers guild not accept his master’s certificate. No wonder he had bought himself in Stuttgart. When then 27 breweries and 25,000 residents, there was a great competition. Moninger then worked initially as managing director of Ludwig Kaufmann brewery in Waldhornstraße 23 died as a merchant, married Moninger 1856 his widow Marie born Hermann . However, before that same year the brewery under the name brewery S. Moninger could lead, he had to take a new master inspection before Bierbrauer- and coopers’ guild.
After Moninger 1866 in the former brewery of his brother Josef Hack in the Long Road 142 (later Emperor Street ) moved, the company began to flourish soon. 1875 , the company was by his widow Marie and from 1881 by the sons Karl and Stefan Moninger continued as a general partnership.
From Josef Hack Moninger also had a beer cellar in summer bar (at the Kriegsstraße acquired). On the local terrain in the Kriegsstraße 128-130 (. Later No. 210-216) established the brothers Moninger – after 1884 a brewery fire the malt kiln in the Kaiserstraße had destroyed – after a new brewery.
With the commissioning of the new brewery investments in 1888 , the change occurred to one of the first industrial companies in this hitherto craft-oriented industry. At the same time, the conversion into a corporation under the name carried Brewery Company vorm. S. Moninger AG (since 1938 only Brauerei Moninger AG). 1898 a beer output of 100,000 hectoliters was reached. Thus she could in the subsequent period as now largest brewery establish bathing. 1905 was a bottling plant in operation.
The First World War the supernatant Moninger AG better than most other Karlsruher breweries . Through the buying of brewery Kammerer ( 1920 ), the Eglau brewery ( 1921 ) and the Union Brewery ( 1922 ) she held the top position among the Karlsruher Breweries (beer production in 1928 : 200,000 hl.). From 1923 , the production of soft drinks and mineral was added.

The Moninger brewery in 1906.And here’s another translation of their history, this one from Karlsruhe Culture & Tourism:

In December 1856 originating from Württemberg took Stefan Moninger the brewery of the late Ludwig Kaufmann in Waldhornstraße 23, in which he worked as a brewmaster since. 1854 After Kaufmann’s death in June of the year, he had acquired Baden citizenship and the master’s rights, and married the widow Marie Kaufmann. Since Waldhornstraße the flourishing brewery Stefan Moninger offered little space, acquired Moninger 1866 for sale Brauerei his brother Josef Hack in Long Street (today Kaiserstraße ) 142 to the four acres of farmland including a beer cellar in summer line included. When Moninger passed away in 1875, his wife first handed over the management of the brewery to her oldest son, Ludwig Kaufmann junior. 1881 then took over the two elder sons from his second marriage, Charles Moninger (Kaufmann) and Stefan Moninger (brewer), the company for sale of her mother and made her a general partnership (OHG). In 1887, the youngest son Theodor Moninger joined the company as a third party, which developed into a major industrial company in the 1880s.
From 1886-1888 originated in the Kriegsstraße 128-130 (today Kriegsstraße 210-216), the site of the former summer line, according to plans by Hermann Walder modern brewery plant, which has been continuously expanded to 1900’s. On June 12, 1889, the family business was transformed into the company Bremerige Gesellschaftsgesellschaft S. Moninger. With a beer output of more than 100,000 hectoliters in the business year 1897/98 the enterprise rose to the largest Karlsruher brewery. 1898 the brothers from the town acquired a 12,800 square meter area at Westbahnhof as a storage and distribution center for growing freight traffic on rails. 1901 she opened in the Imperial Road 144, next to the former brewery, the also designed by Walder main places to Moninger . From 1906-1908 was on the brewery premises in Kriegstrasse modern Flaschenabfüllerei and on the adjacent corner plot war and border road (today Moningerstraße ) built a fountain.
The outbreak of the First World War led to a production Depression. 1920 took over the brewery, the brewery Karl Kammerer in Kriegstrasse 113 and the brewery Eglau Aktiengesellschaft (AG) in Durlach and 1922, the Union Brewery Aktiengesellschaft AG in Sophienstraße 101. In 1923 she expanded the production by making lemonade and mineral water. After ups and downs in the 1920s and 1930s led World War II in turn to a drop in production of in 1938 operating under the name and brewery Moninger AG company. The two houses in the Imperial Road were in airstrikes hit the brewery plant in Kriegstrasse spared.

Today the brewery is part of a merger, and is known as the Hatz-Moninger Brauhaus.

On May 1, 2010, the merger of Moninger AG brewery was with the court brewery Hatz AG from my Betriebspacht- and purchase agreement Rastatt sealed, which was there for the 1863rd Since then the brewery has been transferred to Hatz-Moninger Brauhaus GmbH. The Hatzfeld brewhouse was dismantled and installed the Brew vessels in a new brewhouse. This cost 3.4 million euros and was built within eight months at the Zentralgesitz Grünwinkel.

Brauerei-Moninger-1935
Brauerei Moninger circa 1935.

Historic Beer Birthday: Philipp Jung

December 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Philipp Jung (December 23, 1845–July 10, 1911). He was born “in Dorn-Assenheim, Hesse-Darmstadt, which today is a part of Reichelsheim in Wetteraukreis, Hesse, Germany,” but came to the U.S. when he was 25, in 1870. He came first to New York City, then Cincinnati before settling in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. “Jung married Anna D. Best, daughter of the brewer Jacob Best, and they had six children.”

Here’s a history of his career, from his Wikipedia page:

After his arrival in the United States, Jung was employed by Rogge and Feigenhaln Brewing Company in New York. He also worked as the maltster for the Foss, Schneider and Bremer Brewing Company in Cincinnati. After moving to Milwaukee in 1873, Jung became second foreman for the Phillip Best Brewing Company, then first foreman, and finally superintendent of the company’s south side plant. In 1879, he left Best to form a partnership with Ernst Borchert, founding the Jung & Borchert Brewing Company. In 1888 this became the Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Company in one of the earliest mergers involving Milwaukee breweries. The company became a rival to the Philip Best Brewery, which was operated by Frederick Pabst and later became the Pabst Brewing Company. Jung was considered “an important factor both as a manufacturer of large quantities and also as one who gave a distinctive quality to the goods sent out from his plant.”
In 1896, Jung purchased the Obermann Brewing Company at Fifth and Cherry Streets in Milwaukee, where he established The Jung Brewing Company. This firm grew and outlived its founder, finally closing because of Prohibition.

Falk-Jung-and-Borchert-Brewing-1870s
The Falk, Jung & Borchert Brewing Company.

This biography is from 100 Years of Brewing, published in 1903.

I think this is the Jung Brewing Co. employees, but it’s hard to tell. There were actually at least four Jung’s who brewed commercially in the U.S. One in Ohio, one in Texas, and two in Wisconsin. But seated in front, second from our left looks like Philipp’s mustache, so think this is the right one.

Historic Beer Birthday: John Roessle

December 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Roessle (December 23, 1808-October 3, 1873). He emigrated from Germany at fifteen, eventually settling in Boston, where he founded the John Roessle Brewery in 1846. It was one of the earliest lager breweries in the country, though they also used the name New England Brewing Co. from 1890 through prohibition. After repeal they became known as the Haffenreffer & Co., presumably having been bought by the Haffenreffer Brewery, which was also located in Boston, before closing in 1951. There’s not personal information I could find out about Roessle, though there’s plenty on his brewery.

And here’s his obituary from the Boston Evening Transcript in 1873:

And this is another account of Roeselle’s passing:

And this was written by Gregg Smith in 1997 for Yankee Brew News:

For centuries businesses have heralded any aspect of a product that can distance it from the competition. Location, processes, raw materials, and packaging have all been used to project an appealing cachet. Lacking those, they often resort to adjectives such as: quality, purity, tradition, best, finest, and preferred. But among all ways to boast a product none works better than the simple proclamation: First!
Brewer John Roessle became a “first” when he established a small brewery at 60 Pynchon street in Roxbury. It earned him a spot in New England beer history because from its opening in 1846 Roessle devoted production exclusively to brewing a new beer style that was capturing America’s taste.
Originating in Germany, the yeast for this beer arrived in the US only shortly before Roessle began construction of his brewery. It produced a distinctively clean beer with a crisp after taste unavailable in the much fruitier ale family of beer. This characteristic signature was the by-product of a lengthy, cold fermentation and so Germans simply named it after their word for storage – lager. The significance of the date not only made Roessle a pioneer of lager in the Northeast, it placed him among the first in the country to brew this style.
In those early days Roessle’s brewery had a maximum capacity of only 300 barrels, but despite its small size it had advantages over ale breweries. First, its flagship beer “Taffel” quickly became a favorite of Boston’s German population. More importantly, Roessle wasn’t burdened with the expense of distribution; enthusiastic and loyal customers bought every drop from the brewery’s door. It didn’t take long for Roessle to capitalize on the brand’s popularity by expanding the brewery. In fact, each time production increased sales rose equally.
Through four decades Roessle personally managed the business, then at his death in 1885 ownership was assumed by son John Roessle Jr. who directed operations for 11 more years. This wasn’t the brewery’s only father and son team. For over twenty years Robert Leiber carried out the duties of head brewer and when he died in 1890 the brew kettle was turned over to his son Albert. The fathers and sons of Roessle brewing performed so well the brewery was admired in the community, but not in the way they imagined.
During the 1890s breweries became the favorite investment of syndicates, and Roessle’s reputation made it one of Boston’s most attractive takeover targets. Among those noting the company’s impressive record was the New England Brewing Company, which presented John Roessle Jr. an offer substantial enough to make him sell. That same year they acquired the Haffenreffer brewery and two years later the Suffolk Brewing Company, and shifted the business address to 1250 Columbus Avenue, Boston. Despite consolidating, the continuing popularity of the Roessle brand prompted the new owners to preserve the name, and as the century turned the facility hit an annual production figure of 65,000 barrels.
For more than 20 years the syndicate reaped the profits of the Roessle’s name, as the beer slowly captured more of the Boston market. By 1918 the brewery was growing outmoded and badly needed a modernization. Then the unimaginable happened–Prohibition. At its onset, the syndicate closed the Roessle plant. It lay slowly decaying, becoming more obsolete with each day of prohibition’s 14 year lock out.
When repeal came they considered it too inefficient for further operation and the only plant they reopened was that of Haffenreffer. Once a darling of the city, the doors were shut forever, but no one will ever again claim the title of New England’s first.

Historic Beer Birthday: Conrad Binding

December 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Conrad Binding (December 23, 1846-December 17, 1933). He was a German brewer, entrepreneur and sponsor, and founded the Binding brewery in 1870. “After 1919 the Actien brewery Homburg vd Hoehe was transferred to the Binding brewery, which merged in 1921 with the Hofbierbrauerei Schöfferhof from Mainz and the Frankfurter Bürgerbrauerei to form the Schöfferhof-Binding-Bürgerbräu AG. In 1939, the first barrel of the “Römer Pils” brand, which is still well known today, was tapped. The brewery was 70 percent destroyed in an air raid during World War II. The brewery has belonged to the Oetker Group since 1952.” After the reunification of Germany, they acquired several more breweries in the former East Germany, including Radeberger Pils, and for a time it was known as the Binding Brauerei or Binding Group, but was later renamed the Radeberger Group.

This is part of his biography, translated from German Wikipedia:

Conrad Binding came from a family of bakers. His great-grandfather, Johann Peter Binding (1735-1804) immigrated from Reichelsheim to the Free City of Frankfurt and received Frankfurt citizenship due to his marriage to the master baker’s daughter Sibylla Catharina Becker (1746-1782) . Their son, Johann Lorenz Binding (1776-1856) ran a bakery in the house at Fahrgasse 17 as a master baker and became wealthy. From his marriage to Maria Dorothea Schäfer (1783-1834) came 14 children, including Conrad Binding’s father, Daniel Binding (1810-1883), who took over his father’s bakery. His older brother Eduard Binding (1810-1869) received a doctorate in law, the younger brother Theodor (1820-1892) Müller in Versbach near Würzburg, Emil (1822-1893) wine merchant, Carl (1823-1860) private owner and Ferdinand (1813-1870) operator of the Café du Grand Balcon on the Boulevard des Italiens in Paris.
After returning [from studying brewing and internships in other parts of Germany], he explored the Frankfurt beer market. There were 30 breweries in the city. The brewery founded by Ernst Ehrenfried Glock in 1860 was in financial difficulties. Binding succeeded in acquiring the Glocksche brewery on 1 August 1870 for 84,000 guilders (equivalent to about 144,000 marks after the currency reform of 1875). In addition to the brewery at Garküchenplatz 7 with the “Stadt Schwalbach” inn, he acquired a rock cellar at Darmstädter Landstraße 163 with inventory for 20,000 guilders. He financed the founding of the company with 11,000 guilders from his mother’s inheritance and borrowing.
The business benefited directly from the interruption in the supply of Munich beer as a result of the Franco-Prussian War . The subsequent founding years ensured further growth. In the Frankfurt beer riot of 1873, Binding got away with a small loss of 400 guilders and benefited indirectly from the far larger losses of some competitors. In 1874 he received a loan of 42,000 marks from his father, which he used to expand his business.
The brewing market had changed significantly. The small breweries largely disappeared, the brewery joint stock companies founded from the early days achieved ever larger market shares. Binding also decided to convert the sole proprietorship into a stock corporation . This was founded on May 16, 1885. Binding contributed his company shares, which were valued at 3.2 million marks, and became chairman of the board. In 1895 he moved to the head of the supervisory board. During his time as CEO, beer output had doubled from 86,983 to 167,207 hectoliters.
Binding gradually withdrew from the company and also reduced his shareholding. In 1899 he founded a brewery in Essen . The Brauhaus Essen expanded until the First World War , but then suffered from the wartime economy and was sold in 1918/19.
Inflation hit Binding Brewery hard. With the involvement of the Bank für Brau-Industrie , this merged in 1921 with the Hofbierbrauerei Schöfferhof from Mainz and the Frankfurter Bürgerbrauerei to form the Schöfferhof-Binding-Bürgerbräu AG. Conrad Binding retired from the company and lived privately until his death.

And this history is from a Frankfurt online news service, translated by Google:

For the 1st. August 1870 Conrad Binding (1846-1933) took over the small brewery Ehrenfried Glock on Garküchenplatz in the old town. The brewer’s career for Conrad Binding began as early as 1862. Against the advice of his father, who suggested that he study law, the young man began an apprenticeship as a brewer in Sachsenhausen.
As was customary at the time, Conrad Binding experienced his hiking years as a brewer in southern Germany, Austria and France. In 1869 he returned to his hometown to become self-employed in 1870.
The aspiring entrepreneur stayed in the narrow streets of the old town for only eleven years before building a beer factory on the other side of the Main in Sachsenhausen. Modern production and takeovers of smaller regional competitors have remained the constants in the company’s history for decades. The brother Carl Binding ( 1854-1925 ) joins the company; the one-man company becomes the “Binding’sche brewery company“ 1884.
The first bottled beer filling went into operation in 1905. The brewer’s name is stamped into the brown glass bottles, the variety name is on a neck label – as is the trademark, the eagle, and the note „ brewery filling “. Three years later, a sandstone relief Conrad Bindings as a representative of the brewer’s guild will be attached to the south building of the new town hall in Bethmannstrasse, which can still be seen today.
After the First World War, the Binding brewery, the Hofbierbrauerei Schöfferhof in Mainz and the Frankfurt Bürgerbrauerei merged to form „ Schöfferhof-Binding-Bürgerbräu AG “ in 1921. At the same time, the Johann Jakob Jung brewery is also taken over on Darmstadt’s Landstrasse. More larger breweries will follow.
On the occasion of his 85th. On his birthday, a street in Sachsenhausen was named after Conrad Binding in 1931. Shortly before the completion of his 87th. The master brewer dies on the 17th. December 1933 in his hometown. He is buried in the family grave in the main cemetery in Frankfurt.
The brewery was not spared the Second World War. The brewery on Sachsenhäuser Berg was badly damaged in the severe air raids on the city in 1944. The following years are then going up again. Since 1953 the Oetker Group took over the helm, numerous further acquisitions followed in Hesse, Rhineland-Palatinate, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony.
The establishment of “Clausthaler“ as a national brand for non-alcoholic beer proved to be far-sighted more than 40 years ago. Initially smiled at, In times of falling consumption, the non-alcoholic beers have long since become hopefuls in the brewing industry. Together with the nationwide wheat beer brand Schöfferhofer, Clausthaler forms the economic backbone of the Binding company, which, however, is extremely reluctant to pay exact figures on sales, sales and profits of the individual brands.
Another major cut in the Frankfurt brewery market followed in 2001 with the takeover of the Henninger brewery. It has a much longer tradition: the nucleus was in 1655 when Eberhard Stein founded his brewery. In 1869 Heinrich Christian Henninger joined the Stein brewery. The small traditional brewery becomes a modern brewing company that moves into a new brewing facility in Sachsenhausen in 1875.

This history is from the company’s website, translated by Google:

Conrad Binding was born in Frankfurt am Main on December 23, 1846, the second of four sons of master baker Daniel Binding and his wife Sibylle, née Bieber.
Against the advice of his father, who suggested he study law, Conrad Binding began an apprenticeship as a brewer in 1862, with master cooper Raumer in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen.
Conrad Binding experienced years of travel as a journeyman beer brewer in southern Germany (Erlangen, Augsburg, Munich), Austria (Vienna-Schwechat) and France (Paris, Sèvres, Lyon, St. Pourcain, Tautonville, Chateauroux). In 1869 he returned to Frankfurt.
On August 1, 1870, Conrad Binding acquired the small Ehrenfried Glock brewery in Frankfurt’s old town at Garküchenplatz 7, with an output of 1,500 hectoliters, for 84,000 guilders. As a brewery owner, he is not only responsible for monitoring production, but also for sales.
Conrad Binding dares the step from a craft to an industrial company and builds a completely new, modern brewery on the Sachsenhausen hill in 1881. The brother Carl Binding (1854 – 1925) joins the company; The one-man company becomes the “Binding’sche Brauereigesellschaft” in 1885,
Conrad Binding becomes the first and Carl Binding the second board member of the newly founded stock corporation “Binding’sche Brauereigesellschaft”.
On January 28, 1902, the name day of Charlemagne, Binding Carolus Doppelbock is served for the first time.
The first bottling of beer goes into operation in 1905. The name of the brewery is embossed in the brown glass bottles, the type designation is on a neck label – as is the trademark, the eagle, and the note “Brauerei-Füllung”. For the first time, the light and dark lager and export beers are also advertised, always emphasizing their special quality.
A sandstone relief of Conrad Binding as a representative of the brewer’s guild is attached to the southern building of the newly built New Town Hall on Bethmannstrasse in 1908.
In 1921, the Binding brewery, the Hofbierbrauerei Schöfferhof and the Frankfurter Bürgerbrauerei merge to form “Schöfferhof-Binding-Bürgerbräu AG”. At the same time, the Johann Jakob Jung brewery on Darmstädter Landstraße is also taken over. The merger creates a strong company. Conrad Binding resigns from the supervisory board and retires to private life.
On the occasion of his 85th birthday, in 1931, a street in Frankfurt-Sachsenhausen is named after Conrad Binding.
Conrad Binding died shortly before his 87th birthday on December 17, 1933, in his hometown. He is buried in the family grave in the Frankfurt main cemetery.

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