Sunday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1951. This a series of ads they did in 1951 using a Q&A format aimed at highlighting different positive aspects of beer and the brewing industry.

Q
What was the menu of the first Thanksgiving menu?

A
The Pilgrims and their Indian guests had game, seafood, vegetables, and beer.

“According to a written record by an historian of the time” — curiously unnamed — beer was in the table at the first Thanksgiving, in part, because then, as now, “beer was all but the universal beverage.”

Saturday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1951. This a series of ads they did in 1951 using a Q&A format aimed at highlighting different positive aspects of beer and the brewing industry.

Q
What was Thomas Jefferson’s attitude on beer and brewing?

A
He brought brewers to this country because he wanted to beer to become popular here.

Jefferson also built a brewery at Monticello after his retirement from politics. Before that, his wife Martha brewed 15-gallon batches every two weeks on their Virginia estate. But in his seventies, he hired English brewer Joseph Miller and the pair built a dedicated brewing room and beer cellar at Monticello, where he malted his own grain and grew hops. Jefferson bottled most of his beer, and sealed the bottles with corks. I believe he did say the bit about beer becoming common, in 1816. The full quote is “I wish to see this beverage become common instead of the whiskey which kills one-third of our citizens and ruins their families.” But my favorite Jefferson quote is this. “Beer, if drunk in moderation, softens the temper, cheers the spirit and promotes health.”

Friday’s ad is another one from the United States Brewers Foundation, from 1951. This a series of ads they did in 1951 using a Q&A format aimed at highlighting different positive aspects of beer and the brewing industry.

Q
Are most American breweries “large” or “small” businesses?

A
Small, individually — although the Brewing Industry as a whole ranks 13th in America.

Interestingly, the way the defined “small breweries” was not barrels brewed or the amount sold, but by the number of employees. They defined a small brewery as one with less than 500 workers, saying the average was less than 200. Using that metric, 409 of the 440-then active breweries they defined as being small. I wonder how that would work out today? I suspect only 2 of the more than 3,000 breweries open today have anything close to 500 employees.

Thursday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1944. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” This was from a group of the morale ads that took the point of view of soldiers and sailors writing home about what they were missing from home. In this one, a sailor is telling his wife or girlfriend Hazel “I can see my hammock now hanging in the orchard—.”

Wednesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1944. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” This was from a group of the morale ads that took the point of view of soldiers and sailors writing home about what they were missing from home. In this one, a sailor is writing to his parents, asking them to pass along a message. “Tell Uncle Bert I can still lick him pitching horseshoes.”

Tuesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1944. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” This was from a group of the morale ads that took the point of view of soldiers and sailors writing home about what they were missing from home. In this one, a soldier is writing to his friend(?) Sam, saying. “We’ll have to go hunting again when I get back —.”

Monday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1944. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” This was from a group of the morale ads that took the point of view of soldiers and sailors writing home about what they were missing from home. In this one, a sailor is reminiscing about his father’s grilling, and how “Boy did those grilled steaks used to taste swell.”