Historic Beer Birthday: Phillip Best

September 26, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Phillip Best (September 26, 1814-July 17, 1869) Phillip Best was the son of Jacob Best, who founded the brewery that eventually became Pabst Brewing Co., with his four sons in 1844. The Best family’s business was originally called “The Empire Brewery,” and then it was “Jacob Best & Sons Brewery” until 1859 when Phillip Best took over the firm and renamed it the “Phillip Best Brewing Company.” Upon Phillip’s retirement Frederick Pabst and Emil Schandein became the company’s president and vice-president in the mid-1860s and the brewery’s name was amended to Phillip Best & Company. After Schandein died, the company was renamed the Pabst Brewing Company in 1889.

Immigrant Entrepreneurship has a lengthy article about the Bests, centered around Frederick Pabst, but with background that includes Phillip and the rest of the Best family:

In 1844, Phillip Best (born September 26, 1814, in Mettenheim, Grand Duchy of Hesse; died July 17, 1869, in Altenglan, Kingdom of Bavaria), together with his father and three brothers, opened the Jacob Best & Sons Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Twenty years later, Phillip’s son-in-law Frederick Pabst (born March 28, 1836, in Nikolausrieth, Kingdom of Prussia; died January 1, 1904, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin) joined the company and helped to transform it into the nation’s leading beer producer – first in 1874 and then again in 1879, a position that was maintained until the turn of the twentieth century. As the company’s president, the former ship captain led the firm through a remarkable period of growth and the Pabst Brewing Company (as it came to be called from 1889 onwards) became the epitome of a successful national shipping brewery. Pabst not only contributed to the firm’s (and Milwaukee’s) economic growth, he also left a permanent cultural and social mark both on the German-American community and on the public at large. A decade after the height of his success, Pabst died on New Year’s Eve of 1904, passing on his commercial and cultural legacy to his sons.
The Best family’s relocation from Mettenheim to Milwaukee went relatively smoothly. After spending a few weeks in the summer of 1844 looking for a suitable location, Jacob Sr. purchased two lots on Chestnut Street (today West Juneau Avenue) on September 10 and founded the Empire Brewery. Jacob Sr.’s sons, Charles and Lorenz, soon went on to establish independent brewing ventures, so Jacob Sr. formed a new partnership with his other two sons, Phillip and Jacob Jr., in 1851, which stayed in place until Jacob Sr. retired two years later. After several arguments about the expansion of the firm, Jacob Jr. sold out to Phillip on October 1, 1859, who continued the business as its sole proprietor under the name of the Phillip Best Brewing Company.
In its inaugural year, the Best brewery produced 300 barrels (one barrel equaling 31 US gallons). The firm initially produced ale and porter, but added German-style lager on February 22, 1845. In 1847, Phillip reported in a letter to his wife’s family that the business was developing well and selling 28-30 barrels of beer weekly for $4.50 per barrel ($5 if delivered). The brewery owned three horses for the malt grinding mill, as well as for deliveries in the city and county, and planned to buy another. By 1850, the company’s 2,500-barrel annual production classified it as a medium-sized producer, ranking fourth out of the twelve largest reported breweries in Wisconsin.
As production increased, the company acquired and built new facilities. In 1850, the family purchased a lot on Market Street between Biddle and Martin Streets (today East Kilbourn Avenue and East State Street). Five years later, the company built a new brick house on Market Street with a beer hall on the ground floor, and in 1857 it erected a new main brewery on the north side of Chestnut Street between Ninth and Tenth Streets with large storage cellars. The Milwaukee Sentinel reported on October 9, 1857, that the brewery had the “deepest cellars in the city” and it may be seen from almost any part of the city. The building is a fine looking one, and were it not for a life-sized figure of a sturdy Teuton which is perched on top, in the act of sipping a glass of lager, one would never suspect its being a brewery. It has much more the appearance of a public building of some sort.
The article went on to explain that demand for Best beer was not only “constantly increasing” locally but also across the whole nation: “Everybody has tasted Best’s beer, and it’s very generally acknowledged to be the best in the country.” Although the article certainly exaggerated the national impact of Best’s beer at mid-century, the company had begun to sell their brands outside Wisconsin in the early 1850s when it established a sales office in Chicago, Illinois. While Milwaukee and the surrounding region provided the main market for Best products throughout the second half of the nineteenth century, this early effort to serve the national and – beginning in the 1860s – international market was a distinctive feature of the company’s development.
Best’s production and profits increased during the nationwide economic boom of the 1850s, but the panic of 1857 and the economic disruption of the Civil War slowed the firm’s growth rate. At the height of its early prosperity in 1857, the brewery employed steam power to produce nearly 40,000 barrels a year and was valued at $50,000 (approximately $1.4 million in 2014$). It employed eight men and used ten horses for delivery. Not until after the Civil War would these production levels be reached again. But as the expansion of the family business began to stall, Phillip made his two sons-in-law, Frederick Pabst and Emil Schandein, equal partners in 1864 and 1866 – a decision which turned out to have a lasting impact on the future development of the company.

philip-best-brewery-1880 — The Best’s South Side brewery in 1880, a few years after Jacob died and it became the Philip Best Brewing Co.

Here’s a shorter account from “American Breweries of the Past” by David G. Moyer:

best-brewery-long — And this is the main Best brewery, the original Empire Brewery.

A biography of Phillip Best from the National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, published in 1893.

phillip-best-brewing-company-became-pabst-brewing-company-signed-by-fred-pabst-as-president-milwaukee-wisconsin-1874-12 — A stock certificate for the Phillip Best Brewing Company from 1874.

This history is from A Spirited History of Milwaukee Brews & Booze by Martin Hintz:

And finally there’s this from the Industrial History of Milwaukee, published in 1886.

Beer In Ads #5087: It’s Like Old Times Again

September 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Last year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. 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.

Thursday’s ad is for Rainier Bock Beer, which was published on September 25, 1933. This one was for the Rainier Brewing Co. of Seattle, Washington, which was originally founded in 1878, though it was mostly advertising Long John’s Tavern, which located in downtown Nevada City, California. The tagline was “It’s Like Old Times Again Down at Long John’s.” This ad ran in The Nevada County Nugget, from Nevada City, California.

Historic Beer Birthday: James Moffat

September 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of James Moffat (September 25, 1808-April 4, 1863). He was the son of John Moffat, and helped his father in founding one of the earliest breweries in Buffalo, New York in 1833. It was later called the James Moffat Brewery, and after that the Moffat & Service Brewery. His son, who took over after James died, renamed it the Henry C. Moffat Brewery in 1890, which was closed by Prohibition in 1920. It briefly reopened after repeal, in 1934, as Moffat’s Ale Brewery, but closed for good the same year.

This account of his brewery is from “100 Years of Brewing,” published over 40 years after he died:

According to John & Dave’s Buffalo Brewing History, John Moffat, along with his son James, acquired what was Buffalo’s second brewery and named it the Moffat Brewery.

Kane, Peacock and Relay brewery was short lived however and a 1909 article in the Buffalo Evening Times indicates John Moffat and his son James purchased the brewing operation around 1833. Also, the 1836 Buffalo City Directory lists Moffat as a brewer at that location. The 1839 Directory lists James Moffat & Co. as a “Brewery, Soap and Candle Factory”. The Moffat Brewery continued in operation until son James died and it was sold to Arthur Fox and became the Fox and Williams Brewery. In 1876 it was sold back to the Moffat family and continued in operation at the same location until the advent of Prohibition forced their closure in 1920. After Prohibition the Phoenix Brewery continued brewing “Moffats Pale Ale” through an agreement with the Moffat family.

And “History of the City of Buffalo and Erie County, Volume 2,” published in 1884, has this to say about Buffalo’s earliest brewers, including Moffat:

Beer In Ads #5086: Ehrhart’s Party Store Bock Beer

September 24, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is for an unknown Bock Beer, which was published on September 24, 1965. This one was not for a specific brand of bock beer, it was instead for a liquor store called Ehrhart’s Party Store. I cut out the middle of the ad, which consisted of some other ads for root beer along with information about the store and its hours. Surprisingly, sixty years after this ad ran, the store is still a going concern in Bucyrus, Ohio. This ad ran in The Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, which serves Bucyrus, Crawford County and Ohio.

Beer In Ads #5085: Celebrated Miller’s Bock Beer

September 23, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Tuesday’s ad is for Miller Bock Beer, which was published on September 23, 1903. This one was for the Miller Brewing Co. of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which was originally founded in 1855. This ad ran in The Honolulu Star Bulletin, of Honolulu, Hawaii because the ad was really for the liquor department of the Hoffschlaeger Co., which also made whiskey. Miller apparently only made a bock from 1888-1920. I do love the remark about it being the “most nutritious in the market.” Plus, “Doctors recommend it to their patients with the greatest confidence,”

Historic Beer Birthday: Lord Chesterfield

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Lord Chesterfield, whose full name was Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (September 22, 1694-March 24, 1773). He “was a British statesman, and a man of letters, and wit. He was born in London to Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield, and Lady Elizabeth Savile, and known as Lord Stanhope until the death of his father, in 1726. Educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he subsequently embarked on the Grand Tour of the Continent, to complete his education as a nobleman, by exposure to the cultural legacies of Classical antiquity and the Renaissance, and to become acquainted with his aristocratic counterparts and the polite society of Continental Europe.

In the course of his post-graduate tour of Europe, the death of Queen Anne (r. 1702–1714) and the accession of King George I (r. 1714–1727) opened a political career for Stanhope, and he returned to England. In the British political spectrum he was a Whig and entered government service, as a courtier to the King, through the mentorship of his relative, James Stanhope, 1st Earl Stanhope, the King’s favourite minister, who procured his appointment as Lord of the Bedchamber to the Prince of Wales.

Today he’s arguably best known for two things. The first is the numerous letters written to his illegitimate son Phillip Stanhope. They consisted of 400 private correspondences written over thirty years, first published a year after Lord Chesterfield’s death as “Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman.” From that correspondence, many quotations have become well-known, such as “Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well,” “Never seem more learned than the people you are with. Wear your learning like a pocket watch and keep it hidden. Do not pull it out to count the hours, but give the time when you are asked,” “Take care of the minutes and the hours will take care of themselves,” and “Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no delay, no procrastination; never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” Then there’s “Young men are apt to think themselves wise enough, as drunken men are apt to think themselves sober enough” and “Choose your pleasures for yourself, and do not let them be imposed upon you. Follow nature and not fashion: weigh the present enjoyment of your pleasures against the necessary consequences of them, and then let your own common sense determine your choice.”

Portrait by Jonathan Richardson from 1728.Here’s the description from the Oxford edition of Chesterfield’s collected letters:

Not originally intended for publication, the celebrated and controversial correspondences between Lord Chesterfield and his son Philip, dating from 1737, were praised in their day as a complete manual of education, and despised by Samuel Johnson for teaching “the morals of a whore and the manners of a dancing-master.” Reflecting the political craft of a leading statesman and the urbane wit of a man who associated with Pope, Addison, and Swift, Lord Chesterfield’s Letters reveal the author’s political cynicism, his views on good breeding, and instruction to his son in etiquette and the worldly arts. The only annotated selection of this breadth available in paperback, these entertaining letters illuminate the fascinating aspects of eighteenth-century life and manners.

The second thing he’s known for today is Yuengling Brewery’s Lord Chesterfield Ale, which the brewery first brewed in 1829, the year they were founded as the Eagle Brewery.

The Lord Chesterfield Ale label in 1934. lord-chesterfield-3

Historic Beer Birthday: Alfred Werthmueller

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Alfred Vinzenz Werthmueller (September 22, 1835-?). Werthmueller was born in Germany, and with a partner, brewed the first lager in the state of Iowa. He became part of the Wertmueller & Ende Co. Brewery in 1892 and appears to have been bought out by his partner, Charles Ende, when in 1902 the name changed to the Ende Brewing Co. It started out in Burlington, Iowa as the Union Brewery in 1856, and closed in 1915.

I can find almost no information about Werthmueller or even the brewery he was a partner in for ten years. He’s referred to as a brewer in USBA convention minutes, and for the Ninth Convention was still in Iowa, but during the Tenth Convention he’s listed as a representative of G. Bosch & Co. I can’t find any information about G. Bosch & Co., although there was a Bosch Brewery in Michigan from 1874 to 1973. But it was founded by a Joseph Bosch, so it may have been a different company. But that’s all I could find, and nothing about his later life or where he ended up.

burlington-1889 — Burlington, Iowa in 1889.

Here’s an account of the brewery from “100 Years of Brewing:”

Historic Beer Birthday: Clarence C. Geminn

September 22, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Clarence C. Geminn (September 22, 1915-April 21, 2006). He was born in Belleville, Illinois, and his German immigrant grandfather worked in a brewery and his father became a brewer at the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis, and Clarence apprenticed there, too, before getting his beer education at the Siebel Institute. After his graduation in 1951, he was hired by Genesee Brewing in Rochester, New York, and in 1959 became their Brewmaster. The following year at Genesee he developed the recipe for Genesee Cream Ale, which not only became their best-selling beer, it was also for a time the best-selling beer in America, all the more amazing because it was distributed primarily in the Northeast. Tom Acitelli has a nice history of the beer he wrote for All About Beer entitled “How Cream Ale Rose: The Birth of Genesee’s Signature.” In 1995, he retired after 36 years as brewmaster.

This is his obituary that’s been posted at his Find-a-Grave page:

It’s a trade that is often passed through the family, and it’s not unusual to hear that the son of a brewmaster has married the daughter of a brewmaster of another brewery. Keeps it in the family. Clarence Geminn, who’s of German descent, was brewmaster of Genesee Brewery from 1959 to 1978, one of only four brewmasters at Genesee since it started brewing in 1933. Born in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis, his father was a brewmaster and his grandfather a brewery worker. In 1934, Geminn started work as an apprentice brewer at the same brewery where his father worked, the Star-Peerless Brewing Co. in St. Louis. Later, he went to the Siebel Institute, now in Chicago, and took a nine-month course to obtain a brewmaster’s diploma.
“It’s sort of a finishing school after you’ve had the practical training,” Geminn said. In 1951 he left Star-Peerless for Genesee. “You could see the handwriting on the wall. That little brewery wasn’t going to make it.” Geminn knew about Genesee because he met William Hoot at Siebel. Hoot is now president of Genesee and Wehle’s cousin. THE ROLE of the brewmaster has changed, Geminn said. Operations such as bottling are outside the realm of the brewmaster, and there are positions above the brewmaster, such as vice president of production, the position Geminn now holds. When Geminn worked in St. Louis, all the trappings of a brewmaster’s power were evident. “In the old days, the brewmaster had a residence on the property. He had free rent and free light. The brewmasters had their own formulas and they were very secretive. That’s where they got their power. “The owner must have known what was going on, but sometimes he didn’t. There were some tricks of the trade, like how you add the yeast and how to blend to achieve a uniform product that was the brewmaster’s secret.” – But even when Geminn came to Genesee in 1951, not all the traditions were gone. Asked if the brewery workers tipped their hats to him, Giminn smiled and said: “Yes, I had that happen to me. Nobody would come into my office until they took their hat off, and the foremen would practically click their heels.”

And here’s his obituary from the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester, New York on April 24, 2006.

And this article about Geminn is from the Belleville News Democrat of Illinois from March 10, 1964.

Historic Beer Birthday: Jacob Birk

September 21, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Jacob Birk (September 21, 1835-March 2, 1920). Birk was born in Württemberg, Germany, but made his way to Chicago, Illinois when he was 19, in 1854. He first partnered with Frederick Wacker to form Wacker & Birk Brewing Co., then later purchased the Corper & Nocklin Brewery and set it up for his sons to run when he retired as the Birk Bros. Brewing Co. Birk & Water was closed by prohibition, but Birk Bros. reopened after repeal and continued on until 1950.

Here’s some biographical info from “Historical Review of Chicago and Cook County and Selected Biography,” by A.N. Waterman:

Birk, his father having been born in Germany and being in early manhood a harnessmaker. He came to Chicago in 1854, prospered in trade and business, and for many years conducted a hotel on West Lake street. In 1881 he became associated with Fred Wacker & Son, then engaged in the malting business, and in the following year became associated with the firm in brewing operations under the firm name of the Wacker & Birk Brewing Company. In 1891 the business was sold to the English corporation, the Chicago Breweries, Limited, and Jacob Birk and his two sons, William A. and Edward J., incorporated the Birk Brothers’ Brewing Company. Since the founding of the company, at that time, William A. has been president and Edward J. Birk, secretary and treasurer. The basis of the complete and extensive plant was the Corper & Nockin brewery, purchased in 1891, and since remodeled and enlarged. The elder Birk retired from his connection with the business in 1895.

And here’s another account, from the “History of Cook County, Illinois,” published in 1909:

The first brewery Birk was involved in was Wacker & Birk:

The Chicago brewery Frederick Wacker started was originally called Seidenschwanz & Wacker, and was located on Hinsdale, between Pine and Rush streets. It was founded in 1857, but the following year it became known as Wacker & Seidenschwanz, and was on N. Franklin Street. That version lasted until 1865. Beginning that same year, its name changed once again to the Frederick Wacker Brewery, and its address was listed as 848 N. Franklin Street, presumably in the same location as its predecessor. Sixteen years later, in 1882, it relocated to 171 N. Desplaines (now Indiana Street) and it became known as the Wacker & Birk Brewing & Malting Co. Just before prohibition the name was shortened to the Wacker & Birk Co., although it appears to have closed by 1920.

And the second was Birk Bros. Brewing, though most of its history I could find was in the above accounts.

Birk Brothers Brewing Company delivery wagon on Belmont Avenue, around 1895.

Birks-Beer-Labels-Birk-Bros-Brewing-Company

Beer In Ads #5084: It’s Simply A Matter Of Good Taste

September 20, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Saturday’s ad is for Hornung’s White Bock Beer, which was published on September 20, 1935. This one was for the Jacob Hornung Brewing Co. of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was originally founded in 1885. This ad ran in The Harrisburg Telegraph, of Pennsylvania’s capital city. Curiously, this same ad ran today in a variety of newspapers across Pennsylvania and nearby states, including the Trenton Evening Times, the Evening News of Hanover, and the York Dispatch, to name a few. The only difference in the ads is the local distributor listed.

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