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Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Historic Beer Birthday: John G. Schemm

January 7, 2025 By Jay Brooks

john-g-schemm
Today is the birthday of John G. Schemm (January 7, 1834-March 24, 1899). He was born in Germany, but when he was 22, in 1852, he and his father moved to the U.S., settling on a farm near Detroit. Unfortunately, after a short time, John’s Dad passed away, and he moved to Saginaw, Michigan in 1864. With business partner Christian Grueler, he started a brewery, the Schemm & Gruhler Brewery, in 1866. Three years later, Gruhler passed away and he brought on another partner, renaming the brewery the Schemm & Schoenheit Brewery in 1874. But by 1881, he bought him out, and it became the John G. Schemm Brewery. When he passed away, his son George C. Schemm took over, and incorporated it in 1899 as the J. G. Schemm Brewing Co. Inc. It closed in 1919 due to prohibition, and was sold to another business who tried reopening it as the Schemm Brewing Co. Inc., but it closed for good in 1938. While I found some information on the brewery, there was very little about Schemm himself, not even a picture of him.

Export-Beer-Labels-The-JG-Schemm-Brewing-Co

This account of the brewery is from the “Industries of the Saginaws: Historical, Descriptive and Statistical,” by John W. Leonard, published in 1887.

schemm-brewery-1
schemm-brewery-2

Schemm-brewer-castle

This Schemm’s obituary from the American Brewers Review in 1899:

john-g-schemm-bio
This short account is from “100 Years of Brewing,” published in 1903.

schemm-brewing-100yrs

schemm-brewing-poster

Export-Beer-Labels-Bay-City-Brewing-Co--pre-Prohibition

Schemm-Pilsner-Beer-Labels-Schemm-Brewing-Company

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: Germany, History, Michigan

Historic Beer Birthday: George C. Schemm

December 28, 2024 By Jay Brooks

john-g-schemm
Today is the birthday of George Christoph Schemm (December 28, 1862-October 20, 1904). He was the son of John G. Schemm, who in 1866 founded what became the J. G. Schemm Brewing Co. in Saginaw, Michigan. George took over his father’s brewery in 1899, incorporating the brewery. Schemm’s wife tried to keep it going after his death, but it closed in 1919 due to prohibition, and was sold to another business who tried reopening it as the Schemm Brewing Co. Inc., but it closed for good in 1938.

Schemm-michigan-football
This is the only photo I could find of Schemm. That’s him in the middle row, seated on the left, as a member of the 1884 University of Michigan Football Team.

This is George Schemm’s obituary from the American Brewers’ Review in 1904:

geroge-c-schemm-bio
Export-Beer-Labels-The-JG-Schemm-Brewing-Co

In this blog post from Pure Saginaw, entitled “Saginaw’s Historic Schemm Brewing Co. ‘Pure and Without Drugs or Poison’,” George’s involment in the brewery is mentioned:

John’s son George C. Schemm also helped with the business and was well educated. He graduated from the University of Michigan with a degree in medicine and was a practicing physician in Saginaw. After the passage of the food and drug act of 1906 requiring truth in labeling, “pure and without drugs or poison” was added to the bottles. It seems kinda funny to read it now, I can’t imagine a beverage manufacturer ever referring to poison on their bottles but the Schemm brewery and family was well respected by the people of Saginaw and known for the high quality of the beer they brewed.

Schemm-brewer-castle

This short account is from “100 Years of Brewing,” published in 1903.

schemm-brewing-100yrs
schemm-brewing-poster
Export-Beer-Labels-Bay-City-Brewing-Co--pre-Prohibition

Schemm-Pilsner-Beer-Labels-Schemm-Brewing-Company

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Michigan

Beer In Ads #4826: Bock Beer Toast

December 19, 2024 By Jay Brooks

This year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. Bock, of course, 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 depicts a young woman and a goat looking each other in the eye over a barrel of Bock Beer and drinking a toast. Behind them on the left is another goat rolling a barrel and to the right is a goat bartender smoking a pipe. The chromolithograph was created in 1882 by the Calvert Lithographing and Engraving Co. of Detroit, Michigan.

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Advertising, Bock, History, Michigan

Historic Beer Birthday: Peter Stroh

December 18, 2024 By Jay Brooks

strohs
Today is the birthday of Peter Stroh (December 18, 1927-September 17, 2002). He was the great-grandson of Bernhard Stroh, who founded Stroh’s Brewing Co. in 1850. When he became president of Stroh’s in 1968, he was the sixth family member to run the business.

peter-stroh-good-luck

Here’s Stroh’s obituary from Find-a-Grave:

Peter Stroh, former chief executive of the Stroh Brewery Co., died of brain cancer on September 17th at his home in Grosse Pointe Farms, MI.

Mr. Stroh is remembered as a gracious elder statesman in the brewing industry. “Peter Stroh was truly a gentlemen’s gentleman,” said Mac Brighton, chairman and COO of Business Journals, Inc., publisher of Modern Brewery Age. “He was admired and respected by everyone in the brewing industry, friends and competitors alike.”

Stroh also made his mark as a tireless civic booster for the city of Detroit. “He never gave up on the city,” former Detroit mayor Dennis Archer told the Detroit Free Press after learning that Stroh had died. “He was a ‘laboring oar.'”

Stroh was the sixth family member to head the Stroh Brewery Co., which his great-grandfather, Bernhard Stroh, founded in 1850 on Detroit’s east side. Before coming to the United States, the Strohs had been brewers in Rhineland Palatinate since 1755.

Under Peter Stroh’s leadership in the 1980s, the company made a play to become a national brewer, but found itself outmatched by deep-pocketed competitors. Peter Stroh stepped down as chairman in 1997, and the Stroh Brewery Co. was out of the beer business by 1999.

Peter Stroh talked very little to the press, but friends said that the decline of the company’s position in the brewing industry was very painful to him.

Despite the Stroh Brewery Co.’s misfortunes, Stroh is remembered with respect in Detroit due to his remarkable civic commitment. Family members have reported that the 1967 Detroit riots forever changed his out- look on personal and corporate responsibility. Mr. Stroh had stood on the roof of the brewery and watched fires consume the city. “As a result of that sad experience, I began to wonder about the company’s and the family’s historic role in our community,” Stroh wrote in a family newsletter in 1997. “And quickly discovered that there really hadn’t been one for either.”

Stroh became active in the Urban League and the Detroit branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. He also worked with former Mayor Coleman Young on a variety of projects. “He and the mayor had a very strong, personal friendship,” said Bob Berg, Young’s longtime aide.

The Stroh clan used personal and corporate money to develop Stroh River Place, the renovation of the old Parke-Davis pharmaceutical complex at the foot of Jos. Campau.

The UAW-GM International Training Center is located on former Stroh land nearby. Stroh also was active with the Detroit Medical Center, the Detroit Symphony, the Detroit Zoo and the Detroit Institute of Arts? He served on the boards of more than half a dozen local organizations, including Detroit Renaissance, Detroit Economic GrowthCorp., and New Detroit Incorporated.

Stroh also helped finance projects in genetic engineering and molecular biology, including helping a British company produce recombinant human serum albumin from brewer’s yeast.

Son of Gari and Suzanne Stroh. He graduated from Princeton in 1951 with a degree in international affairs, and planned a career with the Central Intelligence Agency. But in 1952 a runaway truck in Washington, D.C., crushed him against a building and put an end to his nascent career in espionage. He was hospitalized for a year.

As a college student, Stroh had worked in the brewery as a janitor. After recovering from his accident, he spent time in the brewing and laboratory departments and quickly became skilled at the technical side of brewing.

He was elected to the Stroh board in 1955 and became director of operations in 1966. Named president of Stroh’s in 1968, Stroh teamed with his uncle, John Stroh, who was chairman and chief executive officer.

Stroh guided the family company from its regional roots to become a quasi-national brewery. Stroh’s shipped 3 million barrels in 1970 and 24 million in 1985.

Stroh bought F. & M Schaefer in 1980, and in 1982 purchased the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. At that time, Stroh was the number three brewer behind Anheuser-Busch and Miller.

But the acquisitions bred over-capacity, and Stroh chose to close its flagship brewery in downtown Detroit in 1985. “This was one of the most difficult decisions we ever made,” Stroh told the Detroit Free Press at the time.

The battle for market share against the top two brewers gradually drained the company’s coffers, although Stroh tried various imaginative strategies to survive. In 1989, Stroh and Coors came close to a deal in which the Golden, CO-based Coors would purchase Stroh. Unfortunately, the deal came unwound, and Stroh was forced to go it alone. In the mid-1990s, Stroh bought the troubled G. Heileman Brewing Co. The deal brought the company a handful of strong brands, but also more capacity than it could ever use.

Over the years, the Stroh brands were consistently rated tops among the major brands, but the brewery could never muster the marketing muscle to compete with A-B and Miller. In 1999, the company announced it would exit the brewing business, and it sold its breweries and brands to the Miller and Pabst Brewing Companies.

Outside his work in the beer business and the city of Detroit, Stroh made his mark as an outdoorsman and conservationist. He served as a member of the National Audubon Society board, did fund-raising for Ducks Unlimited, was a trustee for Conservation International, which specializes in Latin American issues, and sat on the board of actor Robert Redford’s Institute for Resource Management, which tries to settle environmental disputes without lawyers. He traveled the world, hunting birds and fishing.

“To have a sense of our outdoor past–our biological past–is as important as a sense of our historical and cultural past, and sometimes a lot more fun. I say that even as a former board member of the Detroit Institute of Arts and a current board member for the Guggenheim,” he once told the Detroit Free Press. “Wading through a cypress swamp is every bit as much fun as treading through the galleries.”

Stroh is survived by his wife, Nicole; two sons, Pierre and Frederic; one grandchild, and a brother, Eric.

strohs-family-1974
“Members of Detroit’s onetime leading beer family at the Stroh brewhaus, 1974: (from left) Chairman John Sr., President Peter, Eric, Gari Jr., John Jr.”

This is an “In Memoriam” from Crain’s Detroit Business:

Stroh shunned the limelight, but he took seriously his commitment to the family company and his community.

When Stroh became chairman and CEO of the brewery in 1968, it was still trying to recover market share lost in a 1958 strike, and it was clear national brands were squeezing out local ones.

Stroh began introducing products and acquiring other brands until by 1982 it was the third-largest U.S. brewer. But with acquisitions came crippling debt. In 1985, Stroh closed the Detroit brewery on Gratiot Avenue near Eastern Market where the Brewery Park development now sits; it is the headquarters of Crain Communications Inc., parent of Crain’s Detroit Business. Stroh attempted unsuccessfully to sell the company to Coors in 1989. He stepped down in 1995, and in 1999 the Stroh brands were sold to Pabst and Miller.

Despite his unsuccessful efforts to save the company, Stroh and other family members have made lasting contributions to the city of Detroit.

He led a $150 million redevelopment that became Stroh River Place at the site of the former Parke-Davis pharmaceutical company. An ardent hunter, fly fisherman and conservationist, he long advocated for opening the Detroit riverfront to the public and also was a driving force behind the federal designation of the Detroit River as one of 14 American Heritage Rivers.
He died in 2002 at age 74 from brain cancer.

Strohs-brewery-postcard
A postcard of Stroh’s Brewery in Detroit.

And this is the portion of Wikipedia‘s page for Stroh’s that includes Peter’s employment with the family brewery:

Upon Julius Stroh’s death in 1939, his son Gari Stroh assumed the presidency. Gari’s brother John succeeded him in 1950 and became Stroh’s chairman in 1967. Gari’s son Peter, who had joined the company following his graduation from Princeton University in 1951, became president in 1968.

In 1964, the company made its first move toward expansion when it bought the Goebel Brewing Company, a rival across the street. The company had decided it could no longer compete as a local brewer and was about to move into the national scene. One reason was a costly statewide strike in 1958 that halted Michigan beer production and allowed national brands to gain a foothold. When Peter Stroh took over the company in 1968, it still had not regained the market share lost in the strike ten years earlier.

Stroh ended a 40-year relationship with a local advertising agency for a large national agency and began targeting the larger national market. Led by creative director Murray Page, Stroh’s came up with the slogan “The One Beer…”, and by 1971, Stroh Brewery had moved from 15th to 13th place nationally. In 1972, it entered the top 10 for the first time. A year later it hit eighth place. Peter Stroh’s willingness to depart from years of tradition enabled Stroh’s to survive, but the changes were hard to swallow for many Stroh’s employees. Stroh broke the company’s tradition of family management and recruited managers from companies such as Procter & Gamble and Pepsico. He also introduced a light beer, Stroh’s Light.

By 1978, Stroh’s served 17 states when it produced 6.4 million barrels of beer. By this time, the original Detroit facility was 128 years old and had a capacity of seven million barrels annually. As it became difficult to make efficient shipments to new markets in the East, the company recognized that it required a new brewery. The F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company had fallen victim to the Miller beer wars and Stroh’s purchased all of Schaefer’s stock. In 1981, the combined breweries ranked seventh in beer sales. In addition, Stroh was able to take advantage of Schaefer’s distributors in the northeastern part of the country. The acquisition also brought Stroh three new brands: Schaefer and Piels beers, and Schaefer’s Cream Ale. The company now had a volume of over 40,000,000 barrels (6,400,000 m3) and 400 distributors in 28 states, Washington D.C., Puerto Rico, and other Caribbean islands.

Stroh’s head office used to be located at Grand Park Centre near Grand Circus Park and Woodward Avenue.
In 1982, Stroh bid for 67 percent of the Schlitz Brewing Company. By spring of that year, Stroh had purchased the entire company, making Stroh’s the third largest brewing enterprise in America: it owned seven brewing plants and reached the market value of $700 million in 1988 (according to Forbes). During the takeover, Schlitz fought a fierce battle in the courts trying to remain independent. Schlitz finally accepted the takeover when Stroh raised its offer from an initial $16 per share to $17, and the U.S. Justice Department approved the acquisition once Stroh agreed to sell either Schlitz’s Memphis or Winston-Salem breweries.

Forbes has an interesting article about the Stroh’s family business’ fall from grace, entitled How To Blow $9 Billion: The Fallen Stroh Family.

Strohs-brewery

Filed Under: Birthdays, Just For Fun Tagged With: History, Michigan

Beer In Ads #4817: Bock Couple

December 9, 2024 By Jay Brooks

This year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. Bock, of course, 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.

Monday’s ad is for Bock Beer, created in 1883. The chromolithograph was done by the Calvert Lithographing Engraving and Map Publishing Co., which appears to have been located in Detroit, Michigan.

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Advertising, Bock, History, Michigan

Beer In Ads #4812: Detroit Bock Beer

December 4, 2024 By Jay Brooks

This year I decided to concentrate on Bock ads. Bock, of course, 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.

Wednesday’s ad is for Bock Beer, and was created in 1882. It’s a chromolithograph but the lithographer is not known, except that its origin is Detroit, Michigan.

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers, Just For Fun Tagged With: Advertising, Bock, History, Michigan

Historic Beer Birthday: Philip Kling

November 14, 2024 By Jay Brooks

philip-kling
Today is the birthday of Philip Kling (November 14, 1818-March 15, 1910). He was born in Baden-Württemberg, Germany and was trained as a cooper. He came to the U.S. when he was 17, in 1836. Kling later founded the Peninsular Brewery with two partners in 1856 (at least according to “100 Years of Brewing” and at least one other source. Some sources claim it was not until 1863, but I think the date from the 1903 book is more likely correct.) Eventually, his partners either died or retired, and in 1871 he built a new brewery, which was called the Philip Kling & Co. Brewery (and later was known as Ph. Kling Brewing Co. It closed for good due to Prohibition in 1919, although in 1935 his sons bought another brewery, the Dailey Brewing Co., in Flint, Michigan, and operated it until 1947 when they must have sold it, because in that year it became the Pfeiffer Brewing Co., before closing for good in 1958.

Philip-Kling-portrait
When Kling retired in 1906, the Brewers Journal for that year published this little piece about him:

Philip-Kling-obit-1
Philip-Kling-obit-2
Ph-Kling2

This account of Kling and his brewery is from Michigan State University Archeology Department.

Brewing began in the city of Detroit around 1830, where the industry was run by mostly British entrepreneurs making ale. Beginning around 1848, a large influx of Germans into the area brought with it a new era of brewing in the Detroit—one dominated by German lager brewers. Among these German brewers was Philip Kling, a cooper, who along with Michael Martz and Henry Weber, invested in the Peninsular Brewing Company in 1856, which was located on Jefferson Avenue, near the future site of the Belle Isle bridge. Kling gradually took greater control of the company, which was renamed Philip Kling and Company in 1868. Kling became the first president of the Detroit Brewer’s Association and by the end of the 1870s, PH Kling was one of the city’s most successful and prominent breweries. Their offerings included Pilsener, Gold Seal Export, Extra Pale Ale, and Porter.

After reverting to the name Peninsular Brewing from 1879 to 1890, the name Philip Kling Brewing Company was formally adopted. This year also marked the beginning of the great brewing dynasties, which in Detroit included the Strohs, Klings, Martzes, and Darmstaetters. However, Kling was but a middling competitor amongst the giants. The brewery was severely damaged in a fire in 1893, and a new 6-story brewhouse with increased barrel storage was constructed. After Philip’s death in 1910, his son Kurt took over operations, but business was interrupted by Prohibition in Michigan, which began in 1917. Like other breweries, the company replaced the word “brewing” in their corporate name, becoming Kling Products Company. In the attempt to keep the company running and generate income, Kurt Kling built Luna Park next to the brewery, and amusement park that included a roller coaster. However, the company was forced to close in 1921 and the building was torn down.

Following the end of Prohibition in 1933, Kling purchased Daily Brewery in Flint and resumed brewing by 1936. However, former bootleggers in Detroit still controlled distribution in Detroit, and Kling found it difficult to make his way back into the Detroit market. While the other major breweries were quick to make post-Prohibition recoveries, Kling’s Flint venture floundered and was out of business by 1942.

kling-letterhead
And this is from “Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830,” by Peter H. Blum:

kling-bio-1
kling-bio-2
kling-bio-3
kling-bio-4
kling-bio-5
kling-export

klings-prost-tray

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Germany, History, Michigan

Beer Birthday: Pete Reid

August 26, 2024 By Jay Brooks

mod-brew-age
Today is Pete Reid’s 61st birthday. Pete was the publisher of Modern Brewery Age. I first met Pete a number of years ago at a Craft Brewers Conference but finally got to know him much better during a trip to Bavaria a few years back, where the two of us took a side trip to Salzburg to visit the original Austrian Trumer Brauerei. I think he may be retired or at least shut down MBA, as the domain name is no longer active, plus I haven’t seen him at beer events lately, either. Still, join me in wishing Pete a very happy birthday.

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At the Zotler Brauerei in Germany.

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At the Bavarian Hop Museum, that’s Pete in the back row in the baseball cap.

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Pete, me and Chris Rice, from All About Beer magazine, during a trip to Belgium a few years ago.

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Peter Reid, with Gary Ettelman, of Ettelman & Hochheiser at the NBWA convention in 2008.

pete-reid-3
Toasting with Horst Dornbusch at the Bamberg Brewing Museum.

Filed Under: Birthdays Tagged With: Media, Michigan

Historic Beer Birthday: Bernhard Stroh

August 20, 2024 By Jay Brooks

stroh-coa
Today is the birthday of Bernhard Stroh (August 20, 1822-June 24, 1882). He was born in Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany, and after a detour in Brazil, emigrated to the U.S. and settled in Detroit.

StrohBernard

This biography is from Find-a-Grave:

Businessman. He left Germany in 1848, and joined a group of German settlers in Brazil for three years before arriving in America. He landed in Buffalo, New York heading by way of the Erie Canal. The boat he was on docked in Detroit. So Stroh took it upon him self to venture into the city. He liked what he saw and decided to stay. With a few hundred left from the Brazilian business venture he started a small brewery at 57 Catherine Street in Detroit. Soon after establishing his German brewery local patrons in Detroit aquired a desired taste for his German lager beer. Bernhard Stroh would have his sons personally cart small kegs of beer to his customers by wheelbarrow. For over a century now, local Detroiters have enjoyed the same “fire-brewed” taste that the Stroh Family created over 150 years ago.

Stroh-family-1871
The Stroh family around 1871.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Stroh’s early days through Julius Stroh’s tenure:

The Stroh family began brewing beer in a family-owned inn during the 18th century in Kirn, Germany. In 1849, during the German Revolution, Bernhard Stroh (1822-1882), who had learned the brewing trade from his father, emigrated to the United States. Bernhard Stroh established his brewery in Detroit in 1850 when he was 28 and immediately started producing Bohemian-style pilsner, which had been developed at the municipal brewery of Pilsen, Bohemia in 1842. In 1865, he purchased additional land and expanded his business and adopted the heraldic lion emblem from the Kyrburg Castle in Germany and named his operation the Lion’s Head Brewery. (The lion emblem is still visible in its advertising and product labels.)

Bernhard Stroh’s original beer selling operation consisted of a basement brewing operation and was then sold door-to-door in a wheelbarrow. The new beer (Stroh’s) sold door-to-door was a lighter-lager beer, brewed in copper kettles.

Stroh-brewery-1864-scan
The Stroh Brewery around 1864.

This short account about Bernhard is from the Entrepreneur Wiki:

The Stroh family has a long history of brewing beer, which first began in Germany. However, due to the German Revolution, in 1849, Bernhard Stroh moved the business to the United States after three years of living in Brazil. He started his company with a budget of $ 150.00.

Stroh selected Detroit, Michigan as the location for his brewery and settled there in 1850. Stroh was 28 years old at the time. The company was known for making a Pilsner (also known as Pilzen) style beer. Pilsner beers are fire-brewed and lighter than traditional beers. In 1855, the company increased in size, and then shortly thereafter became known as Lion’s Head Brewery. The company had been known as Stroh’s Brewery until this time.

The most popular beer sold, Stroh’s, was first peddled via wheelbarrow. The new beer was brewed in copper kettles to enrich the flavor. The company name was then changed to B. Stroh Brewing Company when Bernhard passed in 1882, and his son, Bernhard Junior, took over the business. In 1988, Forbes estimated that the Stroh family had an estimated worth of 700 million dollars. The brewing company stayed in the Stroh family until the year 2000.

bernhard-stroh

Strohs-Bohemian-Style-Beer

Filed Under: Birthdays, Breweries, Just For Fun Tagged With: Germany, History, Michigan

Beer Birthday: John Mallett

July 27, 2024 By Jay Brooks

bells
Today is John Mallett’s 60th birthday — The Big 6-O — John was, until recently, the production manager at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo, Michigan, a post he’d held since 2001, and also for New Belgium Brewery more recently. John has a great sense of humor and I recall a particularly side-splitting kvetching evening-long conversation with him and Fal Allen at CBC in San Diego a number of years ago and a couple of years we judged together in Japan, which was great fun. In addition, John also published the Brewers’ Publications book on Malt: A Practical Guide from Field to Brewhouse. But even more recently, John’s retired and looking for the next great adventure. Join me in wishing John a very happy birthday.

gabf07-55
Mugging for the camera at GABF in 2007, with Bob Pease, Ray Daniels and Mark Dorber.

tion-din-12
At Bruce Paton’s “Tion” Beer Dinner. That’s John in orange trying to smooch with Peter Bouckaert from New Belgium.

mg_6665
John, me and other judges in Tokyo to judge at the Japanese Craft Beer competition in 2013.

mallett-1
John with Fred Bueltmann of New Holland Brewing, at Red Horse Ranch in Michigan (photo purloined from Facebook).

If you’d like to see John wearing lederhosen, click here.

Filed Under: Birthdays Tagged With: Bell's, Michigan

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