Sunday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, another one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one focuses on the fact that “Nature Makes Beer,” but it’s hard not to love this. “A wholesome beverage, it deserves to be sold only in wholesome surroundings.”
Saturday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, this one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Ah, “The Moderation Hour,” where “Good Beer and Ale in wholesome, modern taverns, offer Americans pleasant inexpensive relaxation!” In all of the 1939 ads I’ve been running, they’ve been saying annual taxes brewers pay is $400 million but now the results are in for 1939, and the new number is $411,596,780, for both state and federal.
Friday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Showing an order for $100 million dollars worth of crops, including 3 billion pounds of barley, along with hops, corn and rice, the ad points out how important the brewing industry is to farmers growing those crops.
Here’s an interesting look at hops from a 1914 publication. The book is Nature Neighbors, a lavishly illustrated multi-volume set of nature books published by the American Audubon Association in Chicago, which was limited to only 2,500 printed copies. It was edited by Nathaniel Moore Banta, with “articles by Gerard Alan Abbott, Dr. Albert Schneider, William Kerr Higley, Thomas Crowder Chamberlin, John Merle Coulter, David Starr Jordan, and Other Eminent Naturalists.”
In Volume 4, covering minerals and plants, under Chapter III: Medicinal Plants, by Dr. Albert Schneider, beginning at page 133, they include a description and illustration of hops.
HOPS
“The Hop has been called the Northern vine. It is found in a wild state throughout Europe, excepting the extreme North, and extends east to the Caucasus and through Central Asia. It is a handsome plant and not infrequently used as an arbor plant. The lower or basal leaves are very large, gradually decreasing in size toward the apex.
Hops is also cultivated in Brazil and other South American countries, Australia, and India.
The principal use of hops is in the manufacture of beer, to which it imparts the peculiarly bitter taste, and its repute as a tonic. For this purpose enormous quantities are consumed in Germany and England. The exhausted hops
from the breweries form an excellent fertilizer for light soils. The leaves have been used as fodder for cows. Leaves, stems, and roots possess astringent properties and have been used in tanning. In Sweden the fiber of the stem is used in manufacturing a very durable white cloth, not unlike the cloth made from hemp and flax.
Hops is used medicinally. It at first causes a very slight excitation of brain and heart, followed by a rather pronounced disposition to sleep. Pillows stuffed with hops form a very popular domestic remedy for wakefulness.
Hop bags dipped in hot water form a very soothing external application in painful inflammatory conditions, especially of the abdominal organs. It has undoubted value as a bitter tonic in dyspepsia and in undue cerebral excitation.”
Description of plate : A, staminate (male) inflorescence; B, pistillate (female) inflorescence; C, fruiting branch; 1, staminate flower; 2, perigone; 3, stamen; 4, open anther; 5, pollen; 6, pistillate catkin; 7, 8, 9, pistillate flowers; 10, scales; 11, 12, 13, scales and flowers; 14, 15, fruit; 16, 17, 19, seed; 20, resin gland (lupuhn).
You can see the book in its entirety at the Internet Archive, where you can also download a pdf, ePub or Kindle formatted file there. Or read it online via Open Library, where you want to look for page 308.
Thursday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. That “One-Sixth of a Nation Blowing Away!” is referring to the dust bowl of the midwest. But not to worry, it can all be saved, thanks to beer taxes — “a million dollars a day!”
Wednesday’s ad is still another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. The ad shows Uncle Sam (who first appeared today in 1813) peering out on a sunlit landscape, with a road spreading out before him. He’s stop, holding his hat behind his back, deep in thought trying to decide which of three roads to take just up ahead. What are his choices? “It is not blindly that we of today must choose our path. Many men before us have travelled each of the three roads … the dead-end road to excess, the harsh road of intolerance, the straight road ahead which is the way of moderation and sobriety.” I vote for the way of mod sob. But I also love the text from the inset box:
“Beer is one of the oldest and best of beverages; its use is widespread in every land; it is within the reach of every purse … The growth of its use in this country is bound to make for general temperance; for there is nothing more promising to combat the evil of too much alcohol than the opportunity of drinking good beer.”
Tuesday’s ad is yet another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. The worker, the taxman and the farmer are all saying “Thanks a Million!” for the over one million dollars paid in taxes each and every day by the beer industry. But I especially love this line. “Even the non-beer drinker enjoys beer’s economic benefits!”
Sunday’s ad is still another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. In some ways, this is a strange one, asking consumers to care if the brewers’ beer they’re buying is a member of the UBIF. For only the geekiest of beer geeks is that a serious concern. I especially love the sign hanging on the wall behind him. “This Place Observes the Law.” You don’t see signs like that in bars and retailers anymore, sad to say.
Saturday’s ad is yet another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one ran in Life magazine, and is an extension of their earlier ads about how much taxes are paid by the brewing industry, over $1 million each day in 1939. And I love their reminder to the American people, with prohibition still fresh in everyone’s mind. “Yes, it’s a Fact: if beer didn’t pay a million dollars a day in taxes, the American taxpayer would have to find an extra million dollars a day to meet the costs of government!” And how about the look on the face of the man representing a typical American taxpayer, with his comically large glasses.
Friday’s ad is yet another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, again from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one talks about the fact that in the six years since prohibition, brewers used over 15 billion pounds of barley, corn, rice and hops planted on 3 million acres, roughly the same size as New England!
