Tuesday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1948, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Pat Quinlan. The ad features Ms. Quinlan in a curious yellow snowsuit (designed by Sophie of Saks Fifth Avenue) in a barren snow-covered wasteland, posing with two large dogs. I’d expect to see a sled nearby, but perhaps it’s just out of the frame.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1953. It’s a fairly typical Fifties-era ad for Schlitz, with the illustration showing a woman in a pink dress seated beneath a tree on a grassy knoll as her beau hands her a glass of Schlitz. One of my first dates with my wife was a picnic on Angel Island, but we looked like nothing like this couple. Oh, and I didn’t bring Schlitz.
Friday’s ad is, beginning the second thousand, is a variation on last night’s. This ad was also created by famed Swiss poster artist Peter Birkhäuser, in 1957. It’s another beautiful illustration of a red-gloved hand holding a pilsner glass filled with a golden-colored beer with a white head. Again, simply gorgeous.
Thursday’s ad is, believe it or not, the 1,000th ad featured here, so I wanted to pick a special one to mark the occasion. The ad was created by famed Swiss poster artist Peter Birkhäuser, in 1957. It’s a beautiful illustration of a green-gloved hand holding a pilsner glass filled with a mahogany-colored beer with a tan head. Simply gorgeous.
Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, again from 1947. The post-war ads shows a young couple in a suburban setting receiving a guest, but with a bag of loose beer bottles, to make sure they’re prepared for just such an event. I guess their local store was out of six-pack carriers.
Tuesday’s ad is another for Rheingold Beer, again from 1957, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Margie McNally. The ad features her in pink, with a farm in the background, holding a sprig of wildflowers. That’s some nice-looking grass, but those buildings look a bit dilapidated. How many farms do you know of with manicured lawns?
Monday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1957, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Margie McNally. The ad features her painting a small boat light blue, and the color seems to nearly match that of her dress. Her outfit also has white accessories, just like the boat. I think somebody was getting a bit too cute with the design. As my wife might say, it’s all too “matchy matchy.”
The original beer cellars, of course, were caves, where brewers could count on the temperatures staying low enough. I got an e-mail the other day from Dagmar Suarez (not his real name) who writes Detritus of Empire about his series of blog posts on abandoned brewery caves. As a former medical doctor in Wisconsin, most of the more than two dozen posts on old beer caves are located in the Great Lakes area, but it’s a fascinating look back to a time when brewers had to be resourceful to meet their cooling needs.
A brewery cave in Stillwater, Minnesota from the 1870s.
Last week, Boak & Bailey tweeted about what must have been one of the earliest commercial nanobrewery systems. I tried to find out more about the Midget Brewery, though there’s scant information available on the interwebs. Here’s what I found. In 1936, page 30 of the February issue of Popular Science featured a little piece about the Midget Brewery, developed for R&D in Great Britain.
Here’s the full text that accompanied the photograph:
All the operations of a modern beer-making plant are carried out in a working model eight feet high and covering an area of less than five square feet, recently completed for Birmingham University, England. Called the world’s smallest brewery, the miniature establishment will test hops, barley, and yeast, and carry out experiments in brewing research. The model consists of four independent units, capable of producing one gallon of beer apiece from each brew. Brewing conditions in any given plant may be simulated, and it is possible to duplicate any local variety of beer or ale.
Friday’s ad is still another one for Rheingold Beer, from 1958, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Madelyn Darrow. This time Miss Rheingold is in the boat with her rifle, with woman’s best friend and a few duck decoys.
