Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Historic Beer Birthday: Michael Brand

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Today is the birthday of Michael Brand (March 23, 1826-October 26, 1897). Born in Gau-Odernheim, Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany, he was trained as a brewer and came to America and became a partner with Valentine Busch in 1852 and Busch and Brand Brewery continued until Busch passed away in 1872, when in became the Michael Brand Brewery in Chicago, Illinois, though many sources say that it was 1878 when the name change took place. In 1889, in became the United States Brewing Co., which it remained until in closed in 1955.

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Here’s a short biography from the “History of Chicago.”

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Here’s another short history of his brewery for “One Hundred Years of Brewing.”

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Historic Beer Birthday: Philip Zorn

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Today is the birthday of Philip Lewis Zorn (February 21, 1837-January 4, 1912). Zorn was born in Wűrzburg, Bavaria, and learned brewing from his father, how was a brewer in Germany. In 1855, when he was eighteen, he emigrated to the U.S., and initially settled in Illinois, where he worked in breweries in Blue Island, Illinois. In 1871, he moved to Michigan City, Indiana and opened the Philip Zorn Brewery. Twenty years later, he incorporated it as the Ph. Zorn Brewing Co. After prohibition, his sons Robert and Charles, who had worked for the brewery beginning as young men, reopened the brewery as the Zorn Brewing Co. Inc., but it in 1935 it became known as the Dunes Brewery, before closing for good in 1938. He was also a city councilman and a co-founder of Citizens Bank of Michigan City.

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This account is from the Indiana Bicentennial:

Philip Zorn Jr. was the son of a brewer in Wűrzburg, Bavaria who immigrated at the age of 18. He worked at a brewery in Illinois from 1855 until he started his own in Michigan City. By 1880 he was making 3,000 bbls annually. He became a prosperous man, a city councilman and the founder of the Citizens Bank of Michigan City.

The company passed to Philip’s sons Robert and Charles who built a new brewhouse in 1903 and reached almost 15,000 bbls by the time of Prohibition. During the dry years they made the Zoro brand of soda pop. After Prohibition they changed the name to Dunes Brewing, possibly because of a court action against Zorn in 1935 for selling beer to unlicensed companies. They made Grain State, Golden Grain and Pilsenzorn brands.

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Zorn beers.

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And this excerpt is from “Hoosier Beer: Tapping into Indiana Brewing History,” by Bob Ostrander and Derrick Morris:

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Historic Beer Birthday: Kasper George Schmidt

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Today is the birthday of Kasper George Schmidt (February 20, 1833-December 10, 1898). He opened the William Siebert & Kaspar Schmidt Brewery in Chicago in 1860, but by 1866 it was known as the K.G. Schmidt Brewery.

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Here’s a biography from the Encyclopaedia of Biography of Illinois.

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And this is another one from A History of the City of Chicago.

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Although it’s unclear, it appears that the Chicago brewery bought the Columbia Brewery in Logansport, Indiana in 1893, renaming it K.G. Schmidt. Though by that time, Kaspar may have already been retired, and his son George K. Schmidt was running the company.

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Beer Birthday: Grant Johnston

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Today is the 71st birthday of Grant Johnston. Grant was the original brewer at Marin Brewing when it opened in 1989, and spent a number of years at Black Diamond Brewing in Concord, California. Grant was very influential in the early days of Bay Area brewing, and he’s an incredibly talented brewer. A few years ago he moved to the midwest, and for a time he could be found working a few days a week at the Argus Brewery in Chicago. But more recently, he’s retired and happily making bread at home. A couple of years back, I was in Belgium at the Cantillon Brewery when in walked Grant, quite by chance, so you never know when you’re going to run into him. Join me in wishing Grant a very happy birthday.

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Grant and me at GABF in 2006.

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Grant (on the right) judging the 2006 Double IPA Festival in the cellar of The Bistro, with Tom Dalldorf, Vicky, our hard-working beer steward in the middle, and the Toronado’s Dave Keene in profile on the left.

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Brendan Moylan and Grant shortly before Marin Brewing opened in 1989.

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Grant and Arne Johnston brewing his Wild Rice Ale for Marin’s 25th Anniversary.

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Grant, bottom left, among the GABF judges for the 10th anniversary of the festival in 1992.

Historic Beer Birthday: Jacob Hammel

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Today is the birthday of Jacob Hammel (February 10, 1827-July 9, 1901). He was born in Rheinfalz, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1849, when he was 22. He initially settled in Ohio, but moved to Lebanon, Illinois where he started the Illinois Brewing Co. For health reasons, his son William moved to Sirocco, New Mexico, and his brother Gustav joined him and they founded Hammel Bros. & Co. But their father Jacob joined them when he was older, around 1888, and they renamed it the Illinois Brewing Co.

This obituary is from the American Brewers Journal five years after his death in 1901, in their “Five Years Ago” page in the 1906 edition.

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This description of Hammel and his breweries’ histories

According to an oral history interview of Clarence Hammel by Helen Sickles, his grandfather Jakob Hammel emigrated from Bavaria ca. 1848 in company with (Eberhard) Anheuser and briefly considered forming a partnership with him in St. Louis, Missouri. The two men were evading conscription into the army before the War of 1849. They separated, and Anheuser established E. Anheuser & Co. (later Anheuser-Busch) in 1860 in St. Louis, Missouri, while Hammel set up the Illinois Brewing Co. (also called Illinois Brewery Co.) ca. 1870 in Lebanon, Illinois. Jakob’s son, William Hammel, was born in 1857 and migrated as a young adult to Socorro in 1882. Like many other newcomers he traveled west on a doctor’s recommendation to find a cleaner and healthier environment. He set up a warehouse and imported beer from Illinois until 1886 when he bought property from Pedro Montoya and started a brewery housed in adobe buildings. In 1904 the Illinois Brewery Co. moved into a new stone building which is now known as the Hammel Museum. The product was a lager beer with the label, Export, later changed to Select. The brewmaster was Francis Eppele.

In 1919 the Volstead Act (18th Amendment) put an end to the brewing operation, and the company continued for almost half a century as an ice house and bottling plant. The company had a very early franchise for Pepsi-Cola to which it added Orange Crush, Dr. Pepper, and Grapette. The growing number of home electric refrigerators eventually reduced the demand for ice to an unprofitable level and the business closed in 1969. Ownership was transferred to the Socorro County Historical Society.

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The New Mexico brewery around 1902-04.

And this is from “100 Years of Brewing.”

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Historic Beer Birthday: John L. Hoerber Jr.

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Today is the birthday of John L. Hoerber Jr. (February 5, 1848-April 1, 1927). His father, John L. Hoerber, founded the John L. Hoerber Brewery in 1858 of Chicago, Illinois, located at 186 Griswold Street. There was very little information I could find about him or his son, not even a photo. But their brewery appears to have taken on a partner in 1864, and was renamed the Hoerber & Gastreich Brewery, but just one year later was hte John L. Hoerber Brewery again. But in 1865 it was sold. As far as I can tell, another John L. Hoerber Brewery was opened in 1864, located at 216/224 West 12th Street, but appears to also have been sold in 1882. Then in 1882, yet another brewery was opened at 646/662 Hinman & 22nd Streets, though it 1885 it changed its name again from brewery to the John L. Hoerber Brewing Co., which is stayed until prohibition. After prohibition, it reopened as The Hoerber Brewing Co., and remained in business until 1941, when it closed for good.

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There’s some information about junior in “The Book of Chicagoans: A Biographical Dictionary of Leading Living Men of the City of Chicago,” published in 1911:

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Chicago historian and beer writer Bob Skilnik had an article in the Chicago Tribune that mentioned the Hoerber Brewery in 1997:

A population increase from a few hundred in 1833 to more than 100,000 in 1860 opened the market and made success possible for scores of brewers. In 1857, the city council ordered the grades of all existing properties to be raised to a height that would ensure proper drainage. John Hoerber used this opportunity to raise his combination saloon, store and boardinghouse and install a small brewery underneath, pumping fresh beer to his customers. By doing so, Hoerber beat the now-defunct Siebens on West Ontario by about 150 years for the title of Chicago’s first brew pub.

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Beer Birthday: Wendy Littlefield

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Today is Wendy Littlefield’s 60th birthday. Wendy, along with her husband, ran the Belgian export company Vanberg & DeWulf, until quite recently, when the business was sold, although they continued for the next year with the company before starting the next chapter. Their portfolio included such great beer lines as Dupont, Castelain and Dubuisson (Bush). They were also the original founders of Brewery Ommegang. Four years ago was their 30th anniversary of being involved in the beer industry and bringing great beer to America. Plus, they’re great fun to hang out and drink with, especially in Belgium. Join me in wishing Wendy a very happy birthday.

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Michael Roper, owner of the Hopleaf, Jonathan Surratt, and Wendy, when we had dinner there a couple of years ago.

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At an Avec beer dinner a few years ago.

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Wendy with husband Don Feinberg in Ghent at a beer dinner with Dilewyns last week.

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Don Feinberg, Anne (from New York’s Ginger Man) and Wendy in Belgium.

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Wendy and Don in 1979.

NOTE: Photos purloined from Vanberg & DeWulf’s website and Facebook.

The Lagunitas Loft Couch Goes To Chicago

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If you’ve ever been to the loft that overlooks the Lagunitas Brewery, you’ve probably seen this orange couch. I’ve sat in it on numerous occasions. As I remember it, it’s a pretty comfy sofa, and you sink right into it.

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But I guess I’ll have to travel to Chicago if I want to sit on it again. Check out its journey in this humorous video from Lagunitas.

Lagunitas Building New Brewery In Chicago

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Sheesh, you try and do something other than sit at your computer all day, and all hell breaks loose. At least I have an excuse, sort of. My wife and I just bought another house, which we’re having some work done on before we move in, and that’s been occupying a healthy percentage of my time over the past few weeks, which is also why I haven’t been posting as much, either. But what I missed was a wowzer. Tony Magee, the iconoclastic owner of Lagunitas Brewing, revealed via twitter that’s he’s signed a lease for an old movie soundstage (and former Ryerson Steel Factory) in Chicago, where he’s planning to build another 250-barrel brewhouse by July 2013, with the first brew anticipated in the 4th Quarter.

Adam Nasam, from Beer Pulse, happily, was paying attention and broke the story yesterday, even including a map of the property. Earlier today, Craft Business Daily had an interview with Magee, where he revealed more details about Lagunitas’ plans for the Chicago brewery.

This afternoon, Lagunitas finally sent out a press release about the acquisition and their plane for a Chicago brewery.

The Lagunitas Brewing Company of Petaluma CA is moving forward with the construction of a second brewing facility in the crossroads of the US; Chicago Illinois. Carl Sandburg’s ‘City of Big Shoulders’ will be home to a new ROLEC-built 250 barrel kettle and 200,000 barrels of initial capacity. The brewery will be operating by the 4th quarter of 2013, and will occupy 150,420 square feet on the grounds of the CineSpace Movie Soundstage complex at 15th Street and Rockwell in Chicago’s Douglas Park neighborhood.

According to Lagunitas founder and CEO, Tony Magee, the idea got very real in the last 2 months. A few days spent with a calculator and a couple more visiting sites around the city crystalized the plan. “I was born and raised in Chicago so the siting questions were easy to figure out. But the real driver behind it all was two-fold; first, I realized that there was about 4 ounces of diesel in every 22oz bottle of our beer when enjoyed in Chicago, even more if you’re in NYC. Secondly, the future of Craft Beer is, we believe, local and we sure want to be a part of the future so the decision was easy. One of the best things about craft brewing is being close to the people who are digging it.”

Lagunitas is just finishing up a major expansion of its Petaluma home where it built a new brewhouse that will eventually enable it to brew more than four times what it brewed in 2011. The Petaluma brewery only has fermentation capacity to meet its needs through 2013. By building a second brewery in Chicago, Lagunitas will be adding that needed future capacity closer to where it will be enjoyed. According to Magee, “By the time Lagunitas Chicago is ready to mash in we will move about 140,000 barrels of production there. All the left coast and western states beer will still be brewed in Petaluma and life at the Petaluma brewery will be pretty calm, for a change, for a while…!”.

Awesome news for Lagunitas. That’s the fourth regional brewery this year to announce a second location. I’d say we’re witnessing a definite trend.

Illinois Beer

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Today in 1818, Illinois became the 21st state.

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State_Illinois

Illinois Breweries

Illinois Brewery Guides

Guild: Illinois Craft Brewers Guild

State Agency: Illinois Liquor Control Commission

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  • Capital: Springfield
  • Largest Cities: Chicago, Rockford, Aurora, Naperville, Peoria
  • Population: 12,419,293; 5th
  • Area: 57918 sq. mi., 25th
  • Nickname: Prairie State
  • Statehood: 21st, December 3, 1818

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  • Alcohol Legalized: December 5, 1933
  • Number of Breweries: 52
  • Rank: 10th
  • Beer Production: 8,999,624
  • Production Rank: 5th
  • Beer Per Capita: 21.6 Gallons

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Package Mix:

  • Bottles: 44.6%
  • Cans: 45.4%
  • Kegs: 9.7%

Beer Taxes:

  • Per Gallon: $0.23
  • Per Case: $0.51
  • Tax Per Barrel (24/12 Case): $6.98
  • Draught Tax Per Barrel (in Kegs): $6.98
  • $0.12/gallon in Chicago & beer sold in clubs plus additional 10% retail tax for all beer sold in clubs

Economic Impact (2010):

  • From Brewing: $748,215,023
  • Direct Impact: $2,730,875,319
  • Supplier Impact: $2,317,033,213
  • Induced Economic Impact: $3,238,802,131
  • Total Impact: $8,286,710,664

Legal Restrictions:

  • Control State: No
  • Sale Hours: On Premises: Depending on local government; 24-hour bars are permitted in Cicero; a handful of 21-22 hour bars exist in Cook County, and the Metro East.
    Off Premises:
  • Grocery Store Sales: Yes
  • Notes: Opening/closing hours are up to the decision of counties or towns.

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Data complied, in part, from the Beer Institute’s Brewer’s Almanac 2010, Beer Serves America, the Brewers Association, Wikipedia and my World Factbook. If you see I’m missing a brewery link, please be so kind as to drop me a note or simply comment on this post. Thanks.

For the remaining states, see Brewing Links: United States.