Historic Beer Birthday: Eugene Hack

November 18, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Eugene Hack (November 18, 1840-June 12, 1916). He was born in Wurtenburg, Germany, but emigrated to Indiana and settled in Vincennes in 1868. In 1875, he and a partner, Anton Simon, 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.

Here’s Hack’s obituary, from the Brewers Journal, Volume 47, published in 1916:

And this account is from “Vincennes in Picture and Story: History of the Old Town, Appearance of the New,” written by J.P. Hodge, and originally published in 1902.

Eagle-history-1
eagle-brewery-indiana
Eagle-history-2

In 1859 the Eagle Brewery was established by John Ebner on Indianapolis Avenue in Vincennes, Indiana. It operated under his management until 1875 when it was sold to Eugene Hack and Anton Simon. They kept the name and added an eagle logo identifying their flagship brand. Hack and Simon successfully operated the brewery for decades. They were producing 18,000 barrels of beer a year and maintained five wagons and twelve head of horses for their local trade. In time they established five refrigerated beer depots in towns in Indiana and Illinois. The brewery was shut down by Indiana prohibitionary laws in 1918 and apparently not reopened in 1934 after Repeal.

A brewery paperweight. hack-and-simon-poster

Historic Beer Birthday: Charles Liebmann

November 16, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Charles Liebmann (November 16, 1837-June 23, 1928). He was born in Schmiedelfeld, Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany. His father owned the Castle Schmiedelfeld, but when Charles was two, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and operated the Zum Stern Inn there, which also included a brewery. For political reasons, some of the family moved to America around 1850 to build a home, and the rest followed in 1854. Initially he ran the old Maasche Brewery, but later built a new brewery in Bushwick. Originally, it was called the Samuel Liebmann Brewery, but when his sons joined the brewery, it was called the S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. When Joseph’s father died in 1872, Charles and his brothers took over the family brewery. After prohibition ended, the brothers’ six sons re-opened the brewery as the simpler Liebmann Breweries, but in 1964 they changed the name again to Rheingold Breweries, after their most popular beer. The brewery closed in 1976.

This biography of Liebmann is translated from his German Wikipedia page:

Charles Liebmann was born in 1837. His father Samuel Liebmann was at that time owner of the estate Schloss Schmiedelfeld. In 1840, the family moved to Ludwigsburg and operated there the inn “Zum Stern” with attached brewery. There Liebmann attended the secondary school.
After the father decided for political reasons to emigrate to America, Liebmann’s brother Joseph was sent ahead in 1850 to build a new home. This settled in Williamsburg. Four years later, the rest of the family followed.
In the new home Liebmanns first operated the old Maasche Brewery. For a short time Liebmann was employed by the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company as Küfer. Later, the family built a new brewery in Bushwick – the S. Liebmann Brewery.
After the death of his father Samuel Liebmann in 1872, his sons took over the management of the brewery and renamed it S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. The Liebmann brothers alternated with each other as Chief Executive Officer each year. Charles Liebmann was considered the technical director of the company. In 1903, the Liebmann brothers retired and handed over the management of the company to six of their sons.
Liebmann died in 1928 in New York.

Schmiedelfeld-Castle

Schmiedelfeld Castle

This short biography of Charles is from his Ancestory.com page:

When Charles Liebmann was born on November 16, 1837, in Schwäbisch Hall, Baden-Württemberg, Germany, his father, Samuel, was 38 and his mother, Sara, was 36. He married Sophia Bendix on October 22, 1865. They had six children during their marriage. He died on June 23, 1928, in Manhattan, New York, at the age of 90, and was buried in Queens, New York.

This is from “The Originators of Rheingold Beer: From Ludwigsburg to Brooklyn – A Dynasty of German-Jewish Brewers,” by Rolf Hofmann, originally published in Aufbau, June 21, 2001:

New Yorkers over the age of fifty will remember the brand name Rheingold Beer and the company’s brilliant publicity stunt in which a bevy of attractive young women competed annually for the privilege of being elected that year’s Miss Rheingold and appearing in ads on billboards and in the subways throughout the New York area.
The beer’s evocative name with its allusion to Germany’s great river, was the culmination of a German-Jewish family enterprise that had its beginnings in 1840 in the town of Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg. One Samuel Liebmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family in the region, settled there and bought the inn and brewery “Zum Stern.” A liberal and staunch supporter of Republican ideals, Liebmann encouraged other like-minded citizens, including some soldiers from the garrison, to meet in his hospitable surroundings. The ideas fomented there contributed to the local revolution of 1848. It brought the opprobrium of the King down upon Liebmann’s enterprise, and “Zum Stern” was declared off limits to the soldiers. Soon thereafter, in 1850, Samuel Liebmann emigrated to the U.S.
The family settled in Brooklyn and Samuel, together with his three sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, opened a brewery once again at the corner of Forest and Bremen Streets. With the responsibilities divided among the family – Henry became the brewing expert, Charles. the engineer and architect, Joseph, finance manager – the company was already flourishing by the time of Samuel’s death in 1872. Success also led to a concern for the company’s Brooklyn surroundings, and the Liebmanns became involved in local welfare – focusing on housing and drainage systems.
Each of the three brothers had two sons, and when the older Liebmanns retired in 1903, the six members of the third generation took over. Other members of the family also contributed to the gradual expansion of the company. In 1895 Sadie Liebmann (Joseph’s daughter), married Samuel Simon Steiner, a trader in high quality hop, an essential ingredient for good beer. Steiner’s father had begun merchandising hop in Laupheim in 1845 and still today, S.S. Steiner, with its headquarters in New York, is one of the leading hop merchants. Under these fortuitous family circumstances, beer production grew constantly. In the early years, the brewery had produced 1000 barrels per year, by 1914 its output stood at 700,000 barrels.

The Liebmann family.Unfortunately, political developments in the U.S. between 1914 and 1933 were extremely disadvantageous for the Liebmann brewery. The resentment against Germany and anything German during World War I led to an informal boycott of German beers. Following close upon the lean wartime years, was the implementation of Prohibition in 1920 forbidding the manufacturing and trading of alcohol. The Liebmann enterprise managed to survive by producing lemonade and a product they called “Near Beer.”
With the reinstatement of legal alcohol production under President Roosevelt in 1933, opportunities for the brewery opened up, abetted by the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler’s Germany. The pressures on Jewish businessmen there, brought Dr. Hermann Schülein, general manager of the world-renowned LšwenbrŠu brewery, to America. Schulein’s father, Joseph, had acquired two of Munich’s leading breweries at the end of the nineteenth century–Union and Münchner Kindl–and his son had managed the 1920 merger with Löwenbrau. Arriving in New York with this experience behind him, Hermann Schülein became one of the top managers of the Liebmann brewery and was instrumental in its spectacular growth after World War II.
Working with Philip Liebmann (great-grandson of Samuel), Schülein developed a dry lager beer with a European character to be marketed under the brand name “Rheingold.” According to company legend, the name was created in 1883 at a brewery dinner following a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. When the conductor took up his glass, he was so taken with the shade of the beer, that he declared it to be the color of “Rheingold.” For New Yorkers, however, the name Rheingold did not bring to mind the Nibelungen fables, but the pretty young ladies who participated in Schülein’s most brilliant marketing strategy – the selection of each year’s Miss Rheingold by the beer-drinking public of greater New York
At the height of the campaign’s success in the 1950’s and 60’s, the Liebmann Brewery had an output of beer ten times that of Löwenbrau at the same time in Munich.
For thirty years, Rheingold Beer reigned supreme in the New York area, but by 1976, as a local brewery, it could no longer compete with nationwide companies such as Anheuser & Busch, Miller, and Schlitz, and its doors were closed. Only recently, using the same brewmaster, Rheingold is once again being sold in the tri-state area.

Here’s an “Origin of Liebmann Brewery” posted by a relative on Ancestry.com:

On May 12, 1833 (Sulzbach-Laufen Archive) Samuel and his older brother Heinrich bought a castle/inn Schmiedelfeld, Sulzbach-Laufen, Schwaebisch Hall District that dated from 1739. They renovated the place and created a prosperous farm/estate and in 1837 began a brewery in the cellar. In 1840, he moved to Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart and purchased the gasthaus [guest house or inn] “Zum Stern” on Seestrasse 9 (later Zum Rebstock) which included a brewery. (source: Translation extract from Dr. Joacim Hahn’s book, History of the Jewish Community of Ludwigsburg)
After supporting a movement to oust King William I of Wurttemberg, and sensing the wavering tolerance of Jewish businessmen, Samuel sent his eldest son Joseph to the US in 1854 to scout out a location to establish a brewery.
Samuel retired in 1868 and turned the family business over to his sons Joseph, Charles, and Henry under the name S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery.

S-Liebmanns-Sons-Cards-Trade-Cards-S-Liebmanns-Sons-Brewing-Company_17585-1

Historic Beer Birthday: Johann Evangelist Götz

November 16, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Johann Evangelist Götz (November 16, 1815-March 14, 1893). In Polish, his name is usually written as Jan Ewangelista Goetz. He founded the Okocim Brewery in 1845. Located in Brzesko in southeastern Poland, “his son Jan Albin expanded the family business, married a Polish aristocrat, and changed his name to Goetz-Okocimski. In 1945 the brewery was nationalized, then reprivatized in the 1990s. Carlsberg first acquired an interest in 1996, eventually acquiring full control in 2004.”

This short biography is from his Wikipedia page:

Johann Evangelist Götz was born to Anton and Josephine Götz. He attended the village school in his native Langenenslingen and middle school in Wilfigen, which he completed in 1830. He then worked in his father’s brewery and on the family’s farm. At the age of 18, as a journeyman brewer, he was employed in his cousin’s brewery in Hitzhofen. Subsequently, as a member of the brewer’s guild, he was obliged to travel away from his home region and establish himself as a brewer elsewhere.
He left Bavaria in 1834 and traveled around Germany and Austria, working in various breweries. He finally settled in Klein-Schwechat, near Vienna, where he obtained a position of “Cellarer” in a brewery of another cousin, Anton. After a year and a half, he was promoted. As an assistant to his cousin over the course of six years, he improved and modernized the brewery so that eventually it became one of the best-run brewing enterprises in Austria-Hungary. It was during that time that Götz introduced the then-new technique of bottom fermentation, which he would later utilize in his Okocim Brewery in Poland.

This is the entry from the Wikipedia page for the Okocim Brewery:

[Götz was] a German beer maker born in Wirtemberg together with Joseph Neumann, from Austria-Hungary, and local Polish noble, Julian Kodrębski. The first batch of beer was brewed on February 23, 1846. During the “Rabacja“, an Austrian-inspired peasant uprising in Galicia in 1846, directed at Polish nobility as well as affluent merchants, Götz barely escaped with his life. He survived thanks to help from local friends and the fact that the workers of his brewery stood up in his defense, certifying that his business provided good pay and decent working conditions. In turn, Götz helped to save the life of Julian Kodrębski, who had partly funded his brewery, by hiding him in woods on the banks of the Uszwica river in Brzesko, and providing him with food which was delivered over the course of ten days by workers from the brewery.
After the death of Neumann, Götz became the sole owner of the brewery. He modernized the enterprise and expanded it, adding a malthouse in 1875. In 1884 the brewery was visited by J. C. Jacobsen, the founder of Carlsberg brewery in Denmark.
After the death of Johann Evangelist Götz in 1893, the brewery was taken over by his son, Jan Albin Goetz. Jan Albin further expanded the family business, married a Polish aristocrat, and changed his name to Goetz-Okocimski. The Götz family quickly assimilated into Polish culture, became Polish patriots and engaged itself in Polish politics. Among other endeavors they funded a statue of Adam Mickiewicz, a gallery and the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, contributed money to buy out the Wawel castle from Austrian authorities. Jan Albin was also the president of the Koło Polskie (“Polish Circle”) in the Austrian parliament, and after Poland regained its independence a senator to the Polish sejm He built a private rail link between the brewery and the Brzesko rail station. As the richest person in Lesser Poland at the time he was also a philanthropist and a patron of the arts.

Okocim_Browar_1900 — The Okocim Brewery around 1900.

This account of the history of the Okocim Brewery is translated from Polish website:

John the Evangelist Goetz – the man from whom it all began.

At that time, Jan Goetz was a true visionary. Considered the father of modern brewing in Poland, he was one of the pioneers in the production of so-called Bavarian beer, bottom fermentation. The revolutionary nature of this method consisted in breaking with traditional forms of brewing beer, unchanged since the early Middle Ages. The new method consisted of aging at low temperatures of 7-12 º (in ice-cooled cellars) as well as bottom-up and back fermentation. This new species, called the lager, with a characteristic golden color and dense foam, beat the traditional types of beer on the head in terms of taste and allowed to store longer.

Although the founder of Okocim Brewery Jan Götz came from German Langenenslingen, he emphasized his belonging to Poland from the beginning. Soon for his involvement in the life of the local community, he received the nickname noble – Okocimski – and adopted the Polish name Goetz.

One of Jan Goetz’s principles was: best of the best. That’s how the best ingredients made beer, which brought Goetz fame and fortune. Goetz also kept in touch with other brewers, exchanging experiences and training in the art of brewing beer. At the end of the 19th century, Goetz met Jacob Christian Jacobsen, the creator of Carlsberg Brewery, who is only two years younger brother of Okocim.

The beginnings of Okocim Brewery

The history of the plant begins in 1845. It was then that Okocim with a small amount of money, sufficient only to build a small brewery, came then thirty-year-old Jan Goetz. Together with a partner, he began building a state-of-the-art brewery in Poland at that time. It was the quality of the beer brewed in it that made Goetz brewery very quickly become one of the largest in Poland. In 1846, the first bright full in Poland was brewed in Okocim. The first beer was only 7,500 buckets (1 bucket – approx. 60 l).

In the years 1846 – 1879, the volume of production in Okocim reached 24,000. hl. In the 1980s, three types of beer were introduced: Marcowe, Lager and Bock. The brewery, in particular, became famous for the latter, commonly known as bock. The brewery’s success gradually increased.
At the end of the nineteenth century, the brewery achieved an increase in production to 120 thousand hl. The beginning of the 20th century is already production at the level of 385,000 hl. In addition, the Okocim brewery from the beginning of its existence specialized in the production of oak barrels, not only for its own needs, but also for other breweries.

Okocim Brewery – beer for generations

In 1893, after the death of John the Evangelist, Okocim Brewery passed into the hands of his son, Jan Albin Goetz. In recent years before World War I, the brewery was at the forefront of the best of 1,200 breweries throughout the Austro-Hungarian monarchy. During the war, the Russian army forced the brewery to stop brewing for several months. After opening in 1915, the quality of beer dropped significantly. However, already in free Poland Jan Albin managed to restore Browar Okocim to the highest brand. During this period Okocimskie and Slodowe beers with the addition of sugar were brewed, as well as seasonal St. John’s beer.

After the death of his father, Antoni Jan Goetz became the owner of the brewery. Soon he launched a porter, which was sold in elegant, engraved bottles. The brewery’s prosperity was interrupted by the outbreak of World War II. Antoni Jan Goetz and his family fled to France from the approaching German army, and the brewery passed into the hands of the occupier and began producing beer for the army.
When the Red Army approached Okocim, the German administrator, Karl Schroeder, ordered the dismantling of the basic machinery and equipment of the plant and taking them to Magdeburg. However, the train did not leave Silesia. The equipment was found and checked back by the brewery employees. The machines were quickly mounted to their former places, thanks to which the brewery began production in the same year.
After World War II, the brewery was expropriated and functioned as the State Brewing Company in Okocim, later renamed Okocimskie Brewing and Sweet Factory. Despite the lack of major modernizations, it was one of the most prosperous breweries in the country. It mainly brewed OK Pils beer, but also Caramel beer (formerly Słodowe).

The Goetz family – responsible employers, patrons of culture and art

The Goetz family was not only interested in beer – they supported culture, art and engaged in local life. Along with the brewery, the city also developed. New jobs were created. Thanks to the philanthropy of John the Evangelist, the first folk primary school, a neo-Gothic church, presbytery and library were opened in the vicinity of the brewery. In 1898, the Goetz took part in the buyout of Wawel from the Austrians, financially supported the construction of the Adam Mickiewicz monument on the Krakow Market Square, the construction of the theater Słowackiego and the opening of the gallery in the Sukiennice.

The Goetz family took special care of the brewery’s employees. In 1878, Okocim was one of the few workplaces to have its own credit and loan fund. Then a theater room was built, and a brass band was created.

Jan Goetz, as an avid social activist, founded a volunteer fire department, often leading the way in danger. He was awarded the Papal Order of St. New Year’s Eve and the Gold Cross of Merit with the Crown awarded by the emperor for participating in fire fighting around Okocim.

Jan II Albin Goetz Okocimski was an avid patron of the arts. In his collection he had canvases of artists such as Chełmoński and Malczewski. Family members were painted by, among others, Stanisław Wyspiański and Olga Boznańska.

Okocim Brewery today

Today, the Okocim brewery is undoubtedly a contemporary brewery, but drawing on its unique history. Not only when it comes to buildings, many of which remember the Goetz family, but above all in the approach to brewing beer and the principles that are passed down from generation to generation among Okocim brewers.

Historic Beer Birthday: John H. Stahl

November 14, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Henry Stahl (November 14, 1825-January 18, 1884). He was born in Holstein, Germany, but moved to San Francisco when he was 33, in 1858. He moved further north, and in 1870 bought the City Brewery in Walla Walla, Washington. Although he continued to operate the brewery by that name, the business was called John H. Stahl & Co. until 1905, when his son Frank Stahl took over and renamed it the Stahl Brewing and Malting Co.

There’s not very much information I could find about him, not even a photograph. Gary Flynn at Brewery Gems has more about the brewery itself, in an article about Stahl’s Brewing Company ~ City Brewery and more broadly about the History of the Pioneer Brewing Company of Walla Walla, which includes the various business entities that operated the brewery over the years, from 1855 until it closed for good in 1952.

Here’s a short history of the brewery from 100 Years of Brewing:

And this short history is from “Washington Beer: A Heady History of Evergreen State Brewing,” by Michael F. Rizzo:

walla-walla-1876 — This is Walla Walla in 1876, about six years after John H. Stahl bought the brewery.

Historic Beer Birthday: Philip Kling

November 14, 2025 By Jay Brooks

philip-kling
Today is the birthday of Philip Kling (November 14, 1818-March 15, 1910). He was born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and was trained as a cooper. He came to the U.S. when he was 17, in 1836. Kling later founded the Peninsular Brewery with two partners in 1856 (at least according to “100 Years of Brewing” and at least one other source. Some sources claim it was not until 1863, but I think the date from the 1903 book is more likely correct.) Eventually, his partners either died or retired, and in 1871 he built a new brewery, which was called the Philip Kling & Co. Brewery (and later was known as Ph. Kling Brewing Co. It closed for good due to Prohibition in 1919, although in 1935 his sons bought another brewery, the Dailey Brewing Co., in Flint, Michigan, and operated it until 1947 when they must have sold it, because in that year it became the Pfeiffer Brewing Co., before closing for good in 1958.

When Kling retired in 1906, the Brewers Journal for that year published this little piece about him:

This account of Kling and his brewery is from Michigan State University Archeology Department.

Brewing began in the city of Detroit around 1830, where the industry was run by mostly British entrepreneurs making ale. Beginning around 1848, a large influx of Germans into the area brought with it a new era of brewing in the Detroit—one dominated by German lager brewers. Among these German brewers was Philip Kling, a cooper, who along with Michael Martz and Henry Weber, invested in the Peninsular Brewing Company in 1856, which was located on Jefferson Avenue, near the future site of the Belle Isle bridge. Kling gradually took greater control of the company, which was renamed Philip Kling and Company in 1868. Kling became the first president of the Detroit Brewer’s Association and by the end of the 1870s, PH Kling was one of the city’s most successful and prominent breweries. Their offerings included Pilsener, Gold Seal Export, Extra Pale Ale, and Porter.
After reverting to the name Peninsular Brewing from 1879 to 1890, the name Philip Kling Brewing Company was formally adopted. This year also marked the beginning of the great brewing dynasties, which in Detroit included the Strohs, Klings, Martzes, and Darmstaetters. However, Kling was but a middling competitor amongst the giants. The brewery was severely damaged in a fire in 1893, and a new 6-story brewhouse with increased barrel storage was constructed. After Philip’s death in 1910, his son Kurt took over operations, but business was interrupted by Prohibition in Michigan, which began in 1917. Like other breweries, the company replaced the word “brewing” in their corporate name, becoming Kling Products Company. In the attempt to keep the company running and generate income, Kurt Kling built Luna Park next to the brewery, and amusement park that included a roller coaster. However, the company was forced to close in 1921 and the building was torn down.
Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, Kling purchased Daily Brewery in Flint and resumed brewing by 1936. However, former bootleggers in Detroit still controlled distribution in Detroit, and Kling found it difficult to make his way back into the Detroit market. While the other major breweries were quick to make post-Prohibition recoveries, Kling’s Flint venture floundered and was out of business by 1942.

And this is from “Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830,” by Peter H. Blum:

Historic Beer Birthday: William IV, Duke of Bavaria

November 13, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of William IV, Duke of Bavaria (November 13, 1493-March 7, 1550). William IV “was Duke of Bavaria from 1508 to 1550, until 1545 together with his younger brother Louis X, Duke of Bavaria. He was born in Munich to Albert IV and Kunigunde of Austria, a daughter of Emperor Frederick III.”

Portrait by Barthel Beham.Here’s a short account of William IV’s life:

Though his father had determined the everlasting succession of the firstborn prince in 1506, his younger brother Louis refused a spiritual career with the argument that he was born before the edict became valid. With support of his mother and the States-General, Louis forced William to accept him as co-regent in 1516. Louis then ruled the districts of Landshut and Straubing, in general in concord with his brother.

William initially sympathized with the Reformation but changed his mind as it grew more popular in Bavaria. In 1522 William issued the first Bavarian religion mandate, banning the promulgation of Martin Luther’s works. After an agreement with Pope Clement VII in 1524 William became a political leader of the German Counter reformation, although he remained in opposition to the Habsburgs since his brother Louis X claimed the Bohemian crown. Both dukes also suppressed the peasant uprising in South Germany in an alliance with the archbishop of Salzburg in 1525.

The conflict with Habsburg ended in 1534 when both dukes reached an agreement with Ferdinand I in Linz. William then supported Charles V in his war against the Schmalkaldic League in 1546. William’s chancellor for 35 years was the forceful Leonhard von Eck.

William was a significant collector and commissioner of art. Among other works he commissioned an important suite of paintings from various artists, including the Battle of Issus by Albrecht Altdorfer. This, like most of William’s collection, is now housed in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. With his order to expand the Neuveste with the so-called Rundstubenbau and to set up the first Court Garden began the history of the Munich Residence as a representative palace. To the history cycle of the garden pavilion belonged Albrecht Altdorfer’s painting. In 1546 he ordered to upgrade Dachau Palace from a Gothic ruin into a renaissance palace. In 1523 with the appointment of Ludwig Senfl began the rise of the Bavarian State Orchestra.

On 23 April 1516, before a committee consisting of gentry and knights in Ingolstadt, he issued his famous purity regulation for the brewing of Bavarian Beer, stating that only barley, hops, and water could be used. This regulation remained in force until it was abolished as a binding obligation in 1986 by Paneuropean regulations of the European Union.

William died in 1550 in Munich and was succeeded by his son Albert. He is buried in the Frauenkirche in Munich.

Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria by Hans Schwab von Wertinger.

William IV, Duke of Bavaria, wrote and signed the Reinheitsgebot, also known as the Bavarian Beer Purity Law, and later the German Beer Purity Law.

reinheitsgebot

In the Bavarian town of Ingolstadt on April 23, 1516, William IV, Duke of Bavaria wrote and signed the law, along with his younger brother Louis X, Duke of Bavaria. That 1516 law was itself a variation of earlier laws, at least as early as 1447 and another in independent Munich in 1487. When Bavaria reunited, the new Reinheitsgebot applied to the entirety of the Bavarian duchy. It didn’t apply to all of Germany until 1906, and it wasn’t referred to as the Reinheitsgebot until 1918, when it was coined by a member of the Bavarian parliament.

Another painting by Barthel Beham.

Historic Beer Birthday: Hans Johann Claussen

November 13, 2025 By Jay Brooks

clausen
Today is the birthday of Hans Johann Claussen (November 13, 1861-March 20, 1940). He was born in Germany, but moved to California to work at the Fredericksburg Brewery in San Jose. In 1888, he moved to Seattle, Washington to take a job as the brewmaster of the Rule & Sweeney Brewing Co., but the brewery was in danger of going out of business and late the same year, Claussen and Edward Francis Sweeney re-incorporated it as the Claussen-Sweeney Brewing Co. Just a few years later, in 1891, Claussen sold his interest in the brewery. In 1901 he opened a new brewery in Seattle, the Claussen Brewing Association. It was in business until closed by prohibition, and by the time it was repealed, Claussen decided he was old enough to stay retired.

Here’s a biography of Claussen is from “A Volume of Memoirs and Genealogy of Representative Citizens of the City of Seattle and County of King, Washington,” published in 1903:

Mr. Claussen holds prestige as one of the essentially representative business men of Seattle, being prominently concerned in industrial enterprises of marked scope and importance and having shown that inflexible integrity and honorable business policy which invariably be- get objective confidence and esteem. Progressive, wide-awake and discriminating in his methods, he has achieved a notable success through normal channels of industry and today is president, treasurer and manager of the Claussen Brewing Association at Interbay, a suburban district of Seattle, and also vice-president of the Diamond Ice & Storage Company, whose business has likewise extensive ramifications.
Mr. Claussen is a native of the province of Holstein, Germany, where he was born on the 13th of November, 1861, being son of Caecilia M. and Peter Jacob Claussen, representative of staunch old German stock. Our subject prosecuted his studies in the schools of his native province until he had attained the age of ten years, when he accompanied his parents on their emigration to America, the family locating in the city of San Francisco, California, where he continued his educational work , as did he later in Dixon, that state, the family home having been on a farm for the greater portion of his youth. After completing the curriculum of the high school he entered a business college where be finished a thorough commercial course and thus amply fortified himself for taking up the active duties of life. In 1882 Mr. Claussen took a position as bookkeeper for the Fredericksburg Brewing Company in San Jose California. In 1884 he began learning the details of the brewing business, and later he passed about two years in the employ of the National Brewing Company of San Francisco, gaining a thorough experience in all branches of the industry and thus equipping himself in an admirable way for the management of the important enterprise in which he is now an interested principal. In 1888, in company with E. F. Sweeney, Mr. Claussen effected the organization of the Claussen, Sweeney Brewing Company in Seattle, and the business was conducted under that title until 1893, when the company disposed of the plant and business. In 1892 Mr. Claussen associated himself with Messrs. Charles E. Crane and George E. Sackett in the organization of the Diamond Ice & Storage Company, of which our subject became vice-president at the time of its inception and in that office he has since served, the enterprise having grown to be one of importance and extensive operations. In March, 1901, was formed a stock company which was incorporated under the title the Claussen Brewing Association, with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, which was later increased to two hundred and fifty thousand, and the company erected a fine brewing plant at Interbay and have here engaged in the manufacture of a very superior lager beer, the excellence of the product and the effective methods of introduction having gained to the concern high reputation and a most gratifying supporting patronage, which extends throughout Washington and contiguous states. The equipment of the plant is of the most modern and approved type and in every process and detail of manufacture the most scrupulous care is given, insuring absolute purity, requisite age and proper flavor, so that the popularity of the brands of beer manufactured is certain to increase. The annual capacity of the brewery is sixty thousand barrels, and the plant is one of the best in the northwest, the enterprise being a credit to the executive ability and progressive ideas of the gentlemen who inaugurated the same.
Mr. Claussen has been a resident of Seattle since 1888, and from the start he has maintained a lively interest in all that concerns the progress and material prosperity of the city, being known as an alert and public spirited citizen and able business man, and holding unqualified confidence and esteem in the community. He has been an active factor in the councils of the Democratic party, but in local affairs maintains a somewhat independent attitude, rather then manifesting a pronounced partisan spirit. In 1901, he was the Democratic nominee for member of the lower house of the state legislature, but as the district in which he was thus placed in nomination is overwhelmingly Republican in its political complexion he met defeat, together with the other candidates on the ticket. Fraternally he is prominently identified with the Fraternal Order of Eagles, the Seattle Turnverein society and the German Benevolent society, in each of which he has held office. He was also one of the organizers of the Mutual Heat & Light Company in 1902, and is ever stood ready to lend his influence and definite co-operation in support of legitimate business undertakings and worthy projects for the general good. In 1892 he erected his fine residence on Boren Avenue, and this he still owns, though he now makes his home in at Interbay, in order that he may be more accessible to the brewery, over which he maintains a general supervision. He is a young man of forceful individuality and the success which has been his indicates most clearly his facility in the practical application of the talents and power which are his. In the city of Seattle, on October 10, 1891, Mr. Claussen was united in marriage to Miss Emma Meyer, who was born in Hamburg, Germany.

To learn more about Claussen’s first brewery, the Claussen-Sweeney Brewing Co., there’s a thorough history of is at Gary Flynn’s Brewery Gems.

Likewise, Brewery Gems has a longer history of the Claussen Brewing Association.

And Michael F. Rizzo mentions Claussen in several places in his 2016 book, “Washington Beer: A Heady History of Evergreen State Brewing” 2016:

TANNHAEUSER-CLAUSSEN-BREWING-beer-SEATTLE-1901

Historic Beer Birthday: Samuel Liebmann

November 12, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Samuel Bär (or Baer) Liebmann (November 12, 1799-November 21, 1872). He family owned a brewery in Germany but because of the German revolution, Samuel sent some of his sons to America in 1850, and he and the rest of the family soon followed. They settled in Brooklyn and initially ran the old Maasche Brewery, but later built a new brewery in Bushwick. Originally, it was called the Samuel Liebmann Brewery, but when his sons joined the brewery, it was called the S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery. When Samuel died in 1872, his sons took over the family brewery. After prohibition ended, the brothers’ six sons re-opened the brewery as the simpler Liebmann Breweries, but in 1964 they changed the name again to Rheingold Breweries, after their most popular beer. The brewery closed in 1976.

Schmiedelfeld-Castle
Schmiedelfeld Castle

This biography of Liebmann is translated from his German Wikipedia page:

Samuel Liebmann was born in 1799 in Aufhausen, Württemberg, a district of the municipality Bopfingen [in Germany]. His parents were the merchant and religion teacher Joseph Liebmann and Berta Liebmann (nee Fröhlich). He had three brothers (Heinrich, David and Leopold) and two sisters (Johanna, Sarah) and attended elementary school in Aufhausen.
In June 1828 Liebmann married Sara Selz. When his father Joseph Liebmann died in 1832, Samuel Liebmann and his brother Heinrich left their hometown Aufhausen and bought the estate Schloss Schmiedelfeld. This they operated with economic success.
Liebmann moved to Ludwigsburg in 1840. There he acquired the inn “Zum Stern” with attached brewery, which he also successfully led. In the course of the German revolution he showed himself to be a supporter of the revolutionary movement. This meant that the royal soldiers, who belonged to this time to the regular clientele, the stop at Liebmann’s inn was prohibited by order. This ban and the failure of the German Revolution led to his decision to emigrate to America.
In 1850, he sent his son Joseph to America to build a new home there. Four years later, Samuel Liebmann followed with the rest of the family.
There, the family signed a lease for the Maasche Brewery on Meserole Street Williamsburg, which was renamed with the arrival of the family the S. Liebmann Brewery. After the lease expired, Samuel Liebmann set up a new brewery under the same name on the corner of Forest and Bremen Street in Bushwick.
Liebmann’s wife died in 1865. Three years later he retired from the brewery’s active business. Under his leadership, the company has grown steadily.
Samuel Liebmann died in 1872 at his home in Williamsburg. He is buried on the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn. His sons took over the management of the brewery.

Liebmanna_Lager_Beer

This is from “The Originators of Rheingold Beer: From Ludwigsburg to Brooklyn – A Dynasty of German-Jewish Brewers,” by Rolf Hofmann, originally published in Aufbau, June 21, 2001:

New Yorkers over the age of fifty will remember the brand name Rheingold Beer and the company’s brilliant publicity stunt in which a bevy of attractive young women competed annually for the privilege of being elected that year’s Miss Rheingold and appearing in ads on billboards and in the subways throughout the New York area.
The beer’s evocative name with its allusion to Germany’s great river, was the culmination of a German-Jewish family enterprise that had its beginnings in 1840 in the town of Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg. One Samuel Liebmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family in the region, settled there and bought the inn and brewery “Zum Stern.” A liberal and staunch supporter of Republican ideals, Liebmann encouraged other like-minded citizens, including some soldiers from the garrison, to meet in his hospitable surroundings. The ideas fomented there contributed to the local revolution of 1848. It brought the opprobrium of the King down upon Liebmann’s enterprise, and “Zum Stern” was declared off limits to the soldiers. Soon thereafter, in 1850, Samuel Liebmann emigrated to the U.S.
The family settled in Brooklyn and Samuel, together with his three sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, opened a brewery once again at the corner of Forest and Bremen Streets. With the responsibilities divided among the family – Henry became the brewing expert, Charles. the engineer and architect, Joseph, finance manager – the company was already flourishing by the time of Samuel’s death in 1872. Success also led to a concern for the company’s Brooklyn surroundings, and the Liebmanns became involved in local welfare – focusing on housing and drainage systems.
Each of the three brothers had two sons, and when the older Liebmanns retired in 1903, the six members of the third generation took over. Other members of the family also contributed to the gradual expansion of the company. In 1895 Sadie Liebmann (Joseph’s daughter), married Samuel Simon Steiner, a trader in high quality hop, an essential ingredient for good beer. Steiner’s father had begun merchandising hop in Laupheim in 1845 and still today, S.S. Steiner, with its headquarters in New York, is one of the leading hop merchants. Under these fortuitous family circumstances, beer production grew constantly. In the early years, the brewery had produced 1000 barrels per year, by 1914 its output stood at 700,000 barrels.

The Liebmann family.
Unfortunately, political developments in the U.S. between 1914 and 1933 were extremely disadvantageous for the Liebmann brewery. The resentment against Germany and anything German during World War I led to an informal boycott of German beers. Following close upon the lean wartime years, was the implementation of Prohibition in 1920 forbidding the manufacturing and trading of alcohol. The Liebmann enterprise managed to survive by producing lemonade and a product they called “Near Beer.”
With the reinstatement of legal alcohol production under President Roosevelt in 1933, opportunities for the brewery opened up, abetted by the anti-Semitic policies of Hitler’s Germany. The pressures on Jewish businessmen there, brought Dr. Hermann Schülein, general manager of the world-renowned LšwenbrŠu brewery, to America. Schulein’s father, Joseph, had acquired two of Munich’s leading breweries at the end of the nineteenth century–Union and Münchner Kindl–and his son had managed the 1920 merger with Löwenbrau. Arriving in New York with this experience behind him, Hermann Schülein became one of the top managers of the Liebmann brewery and was instrumental in its spectacular growth after World War II.
Working with Philip Liebmann (great-grandson of Samuel), Schülein developed a dry lager beer with a European character to be marketed under the brand name “Rheingold.” According to company legend, the name was created in 1883 at a brewery dinner following a performance at the Metropolitan Opera. When the conductor took up his glass, he was so taken with the shade of the beer, that he declared it to be the color of “Rheingold.” For New Yorkers, however, the name Rheingold did not bring to mind the Nibelungen fables, but the pretty young ladies who participated in Schülein’s most brilliant marketing strategy – the selection of each year’s Miss Rheingold by the beer-drinking public of greater New York
At the height of the campaign’s success in the 1950’s and 60’s, the Liebmann Brewery had an output of beer ten times that of Löwenbrau at the same time in Munich.
For thirty years, Rheingold Beer reigned supreme in the New York area, but by 1976, as a local brewery, it could no longer compete with nationwide companies such as Anheuser & Busch, Miller, and Schlitz, and its doors were closed. Only recently, using the same brewmaster, Rheingold is once again being sold in the tri-state area.

Here’s an “Origin of Liebmann Brewery” posted by a relative on Ancestry.com:

On May 12 1833 (Sulzbach-Laufen Archive) Samuel and his older brother Heinrich bought a castle/inn Schmiedelfeld, Sulzbach-Laufen, Schwaebisch Hall District that dated from 1739. They renovated the place and created a prosperous farm/estate and in 1837 began a brewery in the cellar. In 1840, he moved to Ludwigsburg, near Stuttgart and purchased the gasthaus [guest house or inn] “Zum Stern” on Seestrasse 9 (later Zum Rebstock) which included a brewery. (source: Translation extract from Dr. Joacim Hahn’s book, History of the Jewish Community of Ludwigsburg)
After supporting a movement to oust King William I of Wurttemberg, and sensing the wavering tolerance of Jewish businessmen, Samuel sent his eldest son Joseph to the US in 1854 to scout out a location to establish a brewery.
Samuel retired in 1868 and turned the family business over to his sons Joseph, Charles, and Henry under the name S. Liebmann’s Sons Brewery.

And this is from his Find-a-Grave page:

This German-Jewish family had its beginnings in 1840 in the town of Ludwigsburg, north of Stuttgart, in what was then the Kingdom of Württemberg. One Samuel Liebmann, a member of a prominent Jewish family in the region, settled there and bought the inn and brewery “Zum Stern.” A liberal and staunch supporter of Republican ideals, Liebmann encouraged other like-minded citizens, including some soldiers from the garrison, to meet in his hospitable surroundings. The ideas fomented there contributed to the local revolution of 1848. It brought the opprobrium of the King down upon Liebmann’s enterprise, and “Zum Stern” was declared off limits to the soldiers. Soon thereafter, in 1850, Samuel Liebmann emigrated to the U.S.

The family settled in Brooklyn and Samuel, together with his three sons, Joseph, Henry, and Charles, opened a brewery once again at the corner of Forest and Bremen Streets. With the responsibilities divided among the family – Henry became the brewing expert, Charles. the engineer and architect, Joseph, finance manager – the company was already flourishing by the time of Samuel’s death in 1872. Success also led to a concern for the company’s Brooklyn surroundings, and the Liebmanns became involved in local welfare – focusing on housing and drainage systems.

Each of the three brothers had two sons, and when the older Liebmanns retired in 1903, the six members of the third generation took over. Other members of the family also contributed to the gradual expansion of the company. In 1895 Sadie Liebmann (Joseph’s daughter), married Samuel Simon Steiner, a trader in high quality hop, an essential ingredient for good beer. Steiner’s father had begun merchandising hop in Laupheim in 1845 and still today, S.S. Steiner, with its headquarters in New York, is one of the leading hop merchants. Under these fortuitous family circumstances, beer production grew constantly. In the early years, the brewery had produced 1000 barrels per year, by 1914 its output stood at 700,000 barrels.

Historic Beer Birthday: Philip R. Ebling

November 12, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Philip R. Ebling (November 12, 1830-October 12, 1895). Along with his brother William Ebling, he founded the Ebling Brewing Co., which was known by several different names during its life from 1868 to 1950, including the Philip Ebling & Bro. Wm., Aurora Park Brewery, Ph. & Wm. Ebling Brewing Co. and Ebling Brewing Co., which was its name almost the entirety of the 20th century, both before and after prohibition.

This short biography is from his Find-a-Grave page:

Philip R. Ebling, was born at the family home in Monsheim, near the city of Worms, Province of Hesse, Germany. In 1857 he embarked in a sailing vessel from a German seaport for New York City, arriving at Castle Garden.
He then took up his abode in the Borough of the Bronx, New York City, where he sought employment at his trade. He quickly adapted himself to the baker’s business, as it was practiced in this country, and continued for a number of years. Having finally abandoned his trade, he became engaged in the manufacture of vinegar, and in 1868 established a brewery on St. Anns avenue, under the name of the Ebling Brewery Company. The enterprise was a success from its inception, and Mr. Ebling continued the guiding spirit in the company until his death. He married, in his native land, Catherine Baum, born in Biebesheim, a village near the city of Worms, Province of Hesse, Germany, October 10, 1833. He had six children: Philip Jacob, William, Louise, Pauline, Johanna and Louis Moritz.

The brewery apparently aged some of their beer in Bronx caves, and for some of their beers, like Special Brew, whose label boasts that the beer was “aged in natural rock caves.” Which sounds crazy, but in 2009, road construction crews in the Melrose section of the Bronx found the old caves, which was detailed by Edible Geography in Bronx Beer Caves.

An Ebling beer truck on 61st Street in New York in 1938.

Historic Beer Birthday: Jacob Betz

November 10, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Jacob Betz (November 10, 1843-November 16, 1912). Betz was born in Bavaria, but moved to America when he five years old. When he was 32, he bought a brewery in Walla Walla, Washington, renaming it the Star Brewery (though some sources say 1874, when he would have been 31). It was also known as the Jacob Betz Brewing Co. From 1904, when a “syndicate of local saloonkeepers and capitalists” bought the brewery, with Betz retaining an interest in it, it was then called the Jacob Betz Brewing and Malting Co. In 1910, it merged with another Walla Walla brewery, the Stahl Brewing Co., and was then known as the Walla Walla Brewing Co. until closing for good in 1910.

Here’s a profile of Betz published in “Washington, West of the Cascades” from 1917:

Jacob Betz, ever a good citizen, active in support and furtherance of Tacoma’s best interests, was born on the l0th of November, 1843, in the Rhine province of Bavaria, Germany, and his life record spanned the intervening years to the 10th of November, 1912. He was educated in the schools of Germany and America, having been brought to this country in 1848 when a little lad of but five summers. He arrived in California before the Civil war and there engaged in mining until 1870, when he removed to Walla Walla, Washington, where he erected a brewery which he operated for a long period. During his residence in eastern Washington his interests became extensive but at length he disposed of all of his holdings in that part of the state and in 1904 established his home in Tacoma. Here he purchased the Sprague block on Pacific avenue and at once began to remodel the building, which he improved in every way. He converted it into two hotels and also changed the store buildings and he installed therein the largest heating plant in the city. He also purchased the Hosmer residence at 610 Broadway and remodeled it into a most beautiful and attractive home. Since his death his family have carried out his plans and have erected an addition to the Sprague block on Fifteenth street. This property affords an excellent income to his heirs.
Mr. Betz was married in Walla Walla to Miss Augusta Wilson, who removed from California to Washington in 1866. To them were born five children, namely: Katherine; Jacob, Jr., who is deceased; Eleanor; Harry; and Augustus.
Mr. Betz was appreciative of the social amenities of life and found pleasant companionship in the Union and Country Clubs, of both of which he was a member. He also belonged to the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, in which he filled all of the chairs. In politics he was a republican, ever active in support of the party, working earnestly for its interests. Five times he was honored with election to the mayoralty of Walla Walla and five times to the city council and it was during his administration that the waterworks fight in Walla Walla was on. He won the case for the city in the United States supreme court and thus gave to the city one of its most important public utilities. In business and in public affairs his judgment was keen and penetrating and his opinions sound and logical. What he accomplished represented the fit utilization of his innate powers and talents.

Gary Flynn, in his Brewery Gems website, points out that the profile above concerns itself primarily with his time in Tacoma, rather then Walla Walla, and adds the following:

[A]t the age of sixteen, Jacob returned to Germany to learn the brewing trade. Seven years later, Jacob departed Hamburg on the “Germanic” arriving back in the U.S. on August 6, 1866. It is unclear what he did next. The above account suggests that he tried his hand at mining, but another, more plausible account has him working in a couple of eastern breweries in the late 1860’s.

Flynn add additional biographical information, which you can read at his Biography of Jacob Betz.

Fire Dept parade, Alder St; Denny, Drumheller, Betz Brewery

Betz-Brewery-1909 — And this was the brewery in 1909.

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