Beer Birthday: Joe Stange

May 26, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today may be the birthday of Joe Stange (May 26, 19??- ). A mutual friend posted this morning that it was, and in an absence of better — or any — information, I’m going to assume it is. Joe rarely shares much personal information, so you never know. His wife is in the state department so he’s lived abroad in different locations over the years, while writing about beer wherever he is. Joe is originally from Missouri, and studied journalism in college before becoming an AP reporter. He later studied politics in graduate school, where he met his diplomat wife and he began freelance beer writing wherever they were posted. More recently, he’s been the managing editor of Craft Beer & Brewing magazine, one of the few left concentrating on beer. Join me in wishing Joe a very happy birthday.

In Namur for Brussels Beer Challenge judging in 2017.

Beer Birthday: Big Mike Moore

May 25, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 66th birthday of “Big” Mike Moore. Originally a pharmacist, Mike gave it all up for beer … thank goodness. Mike has been leading beer tours in Europe and a few years ago took over running the judging for, first the California State Fair Commercial Competition, and more recently, the CCBC, the California Craft Brewers Cup, which was sponsored by the CCBA. I’ve gotten to know Big Mike much better over the last few years, judging together on Celebrator Beer News panels, at competitions at The Bistro and other beery events. He’s even stayed with us a few times in our guesthouse, where we’ve introduced him to the pleasures of gin. Join me in wishing Big Mike a very happy birthday.

Andy Klein (2nd from the left) and the Monk’s Cellar crew with Big Mike and Tom McCormick at the Celebrator Anniversary Party in 2017.

Big Mike with the 2018 inductees into the California Brewer’s Hall of Fame, Pete Slosberg, Judy Ashworth, and Tom Dalldorf.

In the basement of The Bistro for Double IPA judging in 2020.

Historic Beer Birthday: William H. Biner

April 16, 2025 By Jay Brooks

east-idaho
Today is the birthday of William H. “Billy” Biner (April 16, 1889-January 5, 1953). Biner was a journeyman brewer who worked for numerous breweries over his long career. He was born in the Montana territory to Swiss immigrant parents. His father, Theophil Biner, knew Leopold Schmidt and even worked at his Olympia Brewery. Biner sent two of his sons, including Billy once he’s finished with a career as a boxer, to brewing school in Milwaukee. Biner’s first brewing job was at the Phoenix Brewery in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1912. He then worked as the brewmaster for at least eight more breweries, from Los Angeles to Canada. The breweries he worked at included the Mexicali Brewery; the Orange Crush Bottling Company in L.A.; the Mexicali Brewing Company again after it was rebuilt following an earthquake; then the Kootenay Breweries, Ltd. in both Nelson and Trail, in BC, Canada; followed by the Ellensburg Brewing Co. in Washington, and then in 1937 he founded his own brewery, the Mutual Brewing Company. But it didn’t last thanks to World War II and supply issues, and it folded. Afterward, he moved on to both Sicks’ Century Brewery in Seattle and the Silver Springs Brewery in Port Orchard, Washington. Finally, he ran the East Idaho Brewing Co. in Pocatello, Idaho until 1946, when he retired from brewing and bought his own bar, the Leipzig Tavern in Portland, Oregon. He stayed there until a year before he died, which was in 1953.

You can read his biography at Brewery Gems, written by Gary Flynn working with Joseph Fulton, the grandson of Billy Biner.

Historic Beer Birthday: Leo Van Munching Jr.

April 7, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of Leo Van Munching Jr. (April 7, 1926-February 15, 2016). He was born in Rotterdam, The Netherlands, but moved with his family after prohibition. His father, Leo van Munching Sr. started importing Heineken beer under the name “Van Munching & Co., and he and his son built it into a powerhouse imported beer brand. Sales Agents UK has an overview of their business strategy in a short piece entitled Leo Van Munching – The Story of the US Heineken Mogul.

This is his obituary from the San Francisco Chronicle:

Leo Van Munching Jr., whose stewardship of the importing company started by his father made the Dutch-brewed beer Heineken and its low-calorie sibling, Amstel Light, familiar brand names in the United States, died on Sunday at his home in Darien. He was 89.
The cause was heart failure, his son Philip said.
Heineken, which was first brewed in the 19th century, was the first European beer to be shipped to this country after the end of Prohibition. It was Mr. Van Munching’s father, Leo van Munching (the father preferred the lowercase v, the son the uppercase V), who recognized the business opportunity, and persuaded Heineken executives to allow him to represent the brand in the United States.
He arrived from the Netherlands with 50 cases of beer and his young family shortly after the repeal in December 1933 of the 18th amendment to the Constitution that had banned the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages. Earlier that year, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had signed the Beer and Wine Revenue Act that legalized (and taxed) beverages containing no more than 3.2 percent alcohol. “I think this would be a good time for beer,” the president declared.
Exports from the Netherlands were curtailed a few years later during World War II, but in 1946, the elder Mr. van Munching established Van Munching and Company as the lone American distributor of Heineken products.
Spurred by the beer’s popularity among American soldiers, who had enjoyed it in Europe, and by an advertising campaign that underscored its cachet as a foreign beer, sales were brisk. In 1951, The New York Times reported that sales of Heineken in the United States totaled more than 4.6 million bottles, an increase of 49 percent from 1950, a period when beer sales as a whole increased by only 1.2 percent.
That was just about the time that the younger Mr. Van Munching went to work for the company, shortly after graduating from college in 1950. He worked closely with his father for a quarter-century, establishing regional offices and, through advertising and marketing, helping to lift American recognition of the Heineken brand.
The Van Munching name grew in prominence as well, largely because of radio ads for Heineken that closed with an announcer saying: “Imported by Van Munching and Company, New York, New York.” By the mid-1970s, Leo Jr. was running day-to-day operations; he was officially named president in 1980.
By then, Heineken had been the best-selling imported beer in America for eight years, and according to Advertising Age, in 1979, it accounted for a whopping 41 percent of all imported beer sales in the country. Under Mr. Van Munching, the family company introduced other brands to the United States (including Grizzly, a Canadian-brewed beer, whose radio ads featured a not terribly well-known comedian named Jerry Seinfeld).
But perhaps more significantly, he increased Heineken product sales: He persuaded Heineken, which had bought the Amstel brewery, then in Amsterdam, in 1968, to begin producing a low-calorie beer for export; it arrived in the United States as Amstel Light in the early 1980s, initially marketed with women as a target.
Beginning in the mid-1970s, he marketed Heineken with television advertising for the first time, focusing on the beer’s distinctive green bottle and a slogan promoting its documented popularity: “America’s No. 1-selling imported beer.”
By the late 1980s, fending off a challenge from Mexican beers that were being marketed to younger drinkers — by then, the decade had minted (and named) a new demographic, yuppies, who gravitated to trendy imports — Heineken changed its advertising direction, which was focused by a tagline: “When you’re done kidding around, Heineken.”
Mr. Van Munching sold his company to Heineken in the early 1990s (he ran it for them until 1993), and when he left, it was still the leading American import. By 1997, however, Heineken had yielded the top spot to Corona Extra. As of 2015, it had yet to reclaim it.
Mr. Van Munching was born in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, on April 7, 1926. His father had been a ship’s steward for the Holland/America cruise line before he began importing beer. His mother was the former Maria Molt.
The family lived in Weehawken, N.J., where Mr. Van Munching attended high school. He joined the Navy, serving in Hawaii at the end of World War II. Afterward, he studied business and management at the University of Maryland on the G.I. Bill of Rights.
In later years, among his many philanthropic donations were gifts totaling $11 million to his alma mater, where Van Munching Hall is the home of the Robert H. Smith School of Business.

And this obituary is from his hometown paper of Darien, Connecticut, the Darien Times:

Leo Van Munching, Jr., who guided Heineken’s decades-long dominance in the US imported beer market, died February 14th after a long illness. The Darien resident was 89.
Born in 1926 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Leo and his family immigrated to the United States upon the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. His late father, Leo, Sr., came as a representative of the Heineken brewery and eventually established the independent Van Munching & Company as the sole US importer of Heineken brands.
Leo served as a ‘Seabee’ in the 35th Special Naval Construction Battalion on Oahu, Hawaii from 1944 to 1946. Upon discharge from the Navy, he enrolled in the University of Maryland on the G.I. Bill, earning a degree from the College of Business and Management in 1950.
He then went to work for Van Munching & Company, establishing regional offices in major markets around the country and developing both the brand imagery and the distribution network that led to Heineken’s preeminence in the expanding imported beer segment. He married Margaret (Peggy) Pratt in 1953, and moved his quickly growing family to Chicago and Los Angeles before settling in Connecticut, where he took over as president of Van Munching & Company. He remained in that role until his retirement in 1993.
During his time with Van Munching & Company, no other brand approached Heineken’s position as the largest-selling imported beer. After cajoling the Heineken Brewery to create a low-calorie version of its Amstel brand, Leo guided Amstel Light to the top sales spot in the imported light beer segment.
In recognition of his outstanding contributions and personal dedication to US-Netherlands trade relations, and his promotion of goodwill for the Netherlands in the United States, the Dutch government honored him with The Order of Orange-Nassau in 1982. Six years later, the Netherlands Chamber of Commerce in the US also recognized his role in the expansion of trade between the two countries, presenting him with the George Washington Vanderbilt Award.
Leo’s efforts as a philanthropist – often anonymous – were substantial and far-reaching. Many of his contributions were made out of appreciation for the opportunities he and his family enjoyed in America. He became involved in the restoration of the Statue of Liberty in honor of his mother, Mia, who he said was greatly affected by seeing the statue as an arriving immigrant.
He donated Van Munching Hall, home of the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, in part to thank the university for its kind treatment of the veterans of World War II. In addition to building the home for the University of Maryland’s business school, Leo was a member of the school’s Dean’s Advisory Council, an honorary trustee of the University of Maryland College Park Foundation Board, and in 2012, was given the Tyser Gottwals Award in honor of his outstanding service to the university.
Leo’s fervent commitment to supporting education led him to a long-standing relationship with Kolbe Cathedral High School in Bridgeport. His support of that school, both as a benefactor and member of the Advisory Board, prompted the Diocese of Bridgeport to honor him with the Order of St. Augustine Medal of Service in 2012. He and Peggy were also strong supporters of the St. Margaret Mary School in the Bronx.
Closer to home, Leo and Peggy established the Van Munching Rehabilitation Unit at Stamford Hospital, which helps people with chronic or disabling illnesses or injuries restore their mobility and independence. The excellent care he received at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center prompted Leo to make a founding donation to the Margaret M. Dyson Vision Research Institute. Leo was also a leadership donor to the construction of the new Darien Library, which opened in 2009. He was an active supporter of several Darien-based charities, and a member of the Wee Burn Country Club.

This plaque hangs at the University of Maryland, Van Munching’s alma mater, which he attended after World War 2.

Historic Beer Birthday: John Friedrich Wiessner Jr.

April 5, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of John Friedrich Wiessner Jr. (April 5, 1859-September 21, 1906). He was born in Baltimore, Maryland, and learned the brewing trade there, before moving to New York to work at the George Ringler Brewery for a time. In the 1880s, he returned to Baltimore to work at his father’s brewery, first known as the John F. Wiessner Brewery, and after junior and his brother joined him in the business in 1888, it was renamed the John F. Wiessner & Sons Brewing Co., which it remained until closed by prohibition in 1920. It reopened after repeal in 1933 as the American Brewery until closing for good in 1973.

And this obituary is from the American Brewers Journal:

Baltimore History Bits has a short history of the brewery, and cartoonist from California, Chendi Xu, created a short comic about the history of Wiessner’s brewery, although she claims he went to Bavaria to learn brewing and came back from there rather than New York. There’s also a pdf online with a history of the brewery from a breweriana perspective by David Hagberg.

Historic Beer Birthday: Karl Frederick Schuster

April 2, 2025 By Jay Brooks

acme-script
Today is the birthday of Karl Frederick Schuster (April 2, 1890-November 4, 1976). He was born into a brewing family, and worked in several Bay Area breweries until prohibition, during which time he continued working with beer people though making cereal products. When prohibition ended, he was named president of Acme Breweries.

Brewery Gems has the only biography of Schuster I could find, written by Gary Flynn:

Our subject’s grand-father, Frederick Schuster emigrated from the Alsace upon hearing of the California gold rush and made his way to the placer mines in Plumas County.
In the early 1850s he started a family and failing to strike it rich, he established a small steam beer plant, one of the first in California. The Pacific Coast Directory for 1867 lists the La Porte Brewery, F. Schuster, proprietor. When the placer mines played out Frederick relocated to San Francisco, and in 1870 he purchased the American Railroad Brewery. When Frederick died, his son Frederick Paul Schuster took control of the Brewery, and in 1902 he merged it with the Union Brewing & Malting Company. The American Railroad branch of the new company operated for two more years, and was then closed. Frederick became the vice president of the Union Brewery.
Frederick Paul’s son, Karl F. Schuster, continued the family tradition in brewing. In 1908 he started as an apprentice, drawing his first pay check from the Union Brewery, which had abandoned the manufacture of steam beer and entered the lager beer field in 1903. While Karl was learning all aspects of the trade, the brewing industry in San Francisco was undergoing many changes – in part from the effects of the ’06 earthquake, but also from the influx of brewers escaping early Prohibition in their home states.
….
Karl Schuster remained president of Acme Breweries until it was sold in January 1954. He died in November 4, 1976.

You can read the rest of the Biography of Karl Frederick Schuster at Brewery Gems.

Beer Birthday: Hugh Sisson

March 11, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 71st birthday of Hugh Sisson (March 11, 1954- ). He founded Heavy Seas Brewing in Baltimore, Maryland in January of 1995, though officially its name is the Clipper City Brewing Co. But he’d been dabbling in beer long before that, starting with running Maryland’s only craft beer bar in 1982 with his father. In 1986, he helped get his state’s laws changed to allow brewpubs, and opened Sisson’s Brewpub. Wanting to focus more on the beer, het left the brewpub behind and started Clipper City, rebranding it in 2010 as Heavy Seas, since those were his most popular beers. I’ve only run into Hugh a few times over the years, but first visited Clipper City in 1998, when GABF On the Road was in town. Join me in wishing High a very happy birthday.

Beer Birthday: Spike Buckowski

February 19, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the 58th birthday of Brian “Spike” Buckowski, co-founder of Terrapin Beer Co. in Athens, Georgia. They first made a name for themselves at GABF that first year with their Rye Pale Ale, but a few years later their Hopsecutioner IPA became their flagship. I’m pretty sure we’d run to one another at events over the years, but I got to know him better while judging in South Africa last year. And unsurprisingly, he’s a great person and terrific ambassador for good beer. Join me in wishing Spike a very happy birthday.

Me and Spike in Nashville for CBC last year.

The American judges at 2022’s African Beer Cup: Marty Nachel, Doug Odell, Spike, Pete Slosberg, and me.

Historic Beer Birthday: George Wiedemann

February 7, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of George Wiedemann (February 7, 1833-May 25, 1890). He was born in Eisenach, Stadtkreis Eisenach, Thüringen, Germany, and “came to the United States as a young man in 1854. first finding work in the brewing industry in New York, Louisville, and Cincinnati. He moved to Newport, Kentucky in 1870, and founded the George Wiedemann Brewing Co., which became Kentucky’s largest brewery.” After his death, his sons continued to run the business. After prohibition, the brewery merged with G. Heileman Brewing Company, and in 1967 was operated as the Wiedemann Division of the G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. The brewery was closed in 1983.

This short bio is from Widemann’s Find-a-Grave page:

Businessman, Beer Magnate. Came to the United States in 1855 from Eisenach, Germany. He obtained his experience while working for a brewer in Williamsburg, New York. In 1870 he moved to Newport, Kentucky and began working for a brewer named John Butcher. In 1878 he bought out the interest of John Butcher, and two years later he purchased the Constans Brewery and built a new brewery in Newport, Kentucky, which carried his name. The George Wiedemann Brewing Comapany remained under family control, until August 1, 1967, when it was sold to the G. Heileman Brewing Company of LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

And this is from his Wikipedia page:

Wiedemann was born in Eisenach, Germany, in 1833. He came to the United States as a young man in 1854. first finding work in the brewing industry in New York, Louisville, and Cincinnati.[1] He moved to Newport, Kentucky in 1870. He was the founder of the George Wiedemann Brewing Company, which became Kentucky’s largest brewery. It was located at 601 Columbia Street in Newport, Kentucky. Wiedemann beer was synonymous with Newport. Wiedemann promoted itself as “America’s only registered beer” and often used humorous radio commercials as part of its advertising campaigns.
Wiedemann married Agnes Rohman and they had six children. Newspaper accounts described Wiedemann as an honest man with a natural sociability and a dignified businessman.
On May 28, 1890, George Wiedemann became ill and died at his home at 188 East Third St in Newport. The business was continued to operate by his sons, George Jr. and Charles.
Wiedemann Brewing was merged with G. Heileman Brewing Company, in 1967 and was operated as Wiedemann Division, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. The primary brands were Wiedemann Fine Beer, Royal Amber Beer, Blatz Beer/Cream Ale and other assorted Heileman labels. The brewery was closed in 1983.
The Wiedemann name was then sold and was brewed by the Pittsburgh Brewing Co. in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until 2007 when the brand was dropped.
2012, a Newport, Kentucky company, Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Company, LLC, re-established the brand and started brewing Wiedemann Special Lager as a small-batch, craft beer. The name, the recipe, logo and all intellectual rights were bought out by beer brewer and journalist Jon Newberry. In 2018 Jon and wife, Betsy purchased an old funeral home in Cincinnati and after a few years of renovating the old building it opened up not only a brewery but a taproom and restaurant.
In 2019 the Sipple Family, Covington natives, bought the home of George Wiedemann, Jr. at 401 Park Avenue. The historic home has been renovated and is now utilized as a place of business for the 2nd generation family business, Centennial Talent Strategy and Executive Search. Centennial, a family business like the Wiedemann Brewery Company, is one of the Greater Cincinnati region’s largest and most prominent firms in their industry. 401 Park Avenue is also the home of IMPACT Cowork, an executive coworking and meeting rental space, and Talent Magnet Institute, a consulting firm, with a weekly podcast recorded in the historic building.

George Wiedemann was born in Eisenach,Thüringen, Prussia. He was educated in the brewer’s art in Saxony and in 1853 at the age of 19 years, emigrated to America. Wiedemann found immediate employment in a brewery in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, but it being not to his liking he remained there only three months.
Upon his release Wiedemann moved 750 miles southwest to Louisville where he had found a position in another brewery. Six months later he was hired away by Frank Eichenlaub to work in his brewery in the Walnut Hills neighborhood of Cincinnati. The addition of John Kaufmann as partner in the Eichenlaub firm inspired the erection of a second brewery on Vine Street, over which Wiedemann was made foreman.
In 1856 Wiedemann was joined in marriage to another German emigre Agnes Rohmann. The union produced four children, including sons Charles and George Junior.
Wiedemann presided over Eichenlaub’s Vine Street Brewery until 1870, when he took his savings and bought a minority share in John Butcher’s brewery in Newport Kentucky. The business was ideally located but Butcher was modest in ambition. Ambition was a trait Weidemann had in spades, though, and the partners quickly grew the brewery from 15 barrels a day to the largest in Kentucky. When Butcher retired from the firm in 1878 Wiedemann continued as sole proprietor.
By this time Wiedemann’s sons Charles and George Jr. were employed in the firm. Their education in the business proved so thorough that when the elder Wiedemann died unexpectedly at age 57 the transition of management to his sons was seamless. George Wiedemann died on the 25th of May 1890. His sons Charles (age 32) and George Jr. (age 24) carried the business on into the 20th century.
The family brewery operated through Prohibition and two World Wars. The firm was sold in 1967 to the G. Heileman Brewing Co. of La Crosse, Wisconsin, and closed in 1973, a little over a century after George Wiedemann persuaded John Butcher to think big.

This is from the Northern Kentucky Tribune, an article entitled “Our Rich History: George Wiedemann, Northern Kentucky’s Beer Baron and his Brewery.”

George Wiedemann (1833-1890) came to America from Germany in 1854, and after several years in the New World founded a brewery in Newport, Kentucky that became the largest south of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi River, as well as a brewing family dynasty that lasted for four generations.
Wiedemann was born in Eisenach in Saxony-Weimar, a province of the Kingdom of Prussia. It also was the birthplace of Martin Luther. The Wartburg, where Luther translated the Bible into German, overlooks the town. It was also not far from Mühlhausen, the hometown of John A. Roebling, who like many others, immigrated due to discontent with the socio-political conditions in the German states.
In 1854 at age 21, Wiedemann, who had learned the brewing trade by means of the apprenticeship system, joined the waves of German immigration that surged after the failure of the 1848 Revolution. After arrival in New York, he quickly found work in one of New York’s forty breweries, but then moved on to Louisville, which had a growing German population.
At the time, many native-born Americans feared the arrival of the Forty-Eighters, the refugees of the 1848 Revolution, as well as the large number of Catholics. This nativist antipathy gave rise to hostilities across the country, and to a riot known as Bloody Sunday in Louisville in August 1855. Not surprisingly, Wiedemann headed for Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine district.
He found a job at the brewery of Franz Eichenlaub, and worked his way up to Braumeister. Eichenlaub’s son-in-law, John Kauffman, took over the brewery, which was located on Vine Street in Over-the-Rhine, and it became known as the Kauffman Brewery. Wiedemann remained there for fifteen years, gaining much valuable experience in operating a brewery.
By 1870 Over-the-Rhine had a sizable number of breweries, so starting a brewery there would have been a challenge. Fortunately, Wiedemann had a friend, Johannes Butscher, across the Ohio River in Newport who was from his hometown. So in 1870, he partnered with him to form the Butscher & Wiedemann Brewing Co., with Wiedemann working as Braumeister. In 1878, he bought out his partner, taking full control of the brewery. In 1888, he rebuilt the entire brewery complex, with all the latest refinements and inventions in brewing. Pictures show that it was a wonderful example of German-American brewing architecture, built in the style known as German Romanesque Revival.
The Wiedemann Brewery also featured a Bavarian-style Gasthaus with a Bierstube for visitors. The reception area was adorned with murals on the ceiling, and the office was state of the art with telephones and typewriters. And Wiedemann’s office was truly fitting for a beer baron. The well-known architect Samuel Hannaford designed the brewery stable that housed 150 horses, all of which were needed for the horse-drawn beer wagons.
The Wiedemann Brewery was well known for its Bavarian Lager and its Bohemian Pilsner. The latter became popular after the 1873 Vienna International Exposition, and many brewers from the U.S., including Wiedemann, introduced the brew here. This was more yellow in color than a golden Lager, more light-bodied and had a foamy head with smooth creamy flavor.

Historic Beer Birthday: George Wiedemann Jr.

February 6, 2025 By Jay Brooks

Today is the birthday of George Wiedemann Jr. (February 6, 1866-March 26, 1901). He was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, the son of George Wiedemann Sr., who founded the George Wiedemann Brewing Co. in 1870, in Newport, Kentucky. After his father passed away in 1890, he and his brother sons continued to run the business. After prohibition, the brewery merged with G. Heileman Brewing Company, and in 1967 was operated as the Wiedemann Division of the G. Heileman Brewing Company, Inc. The brewery was closed in 1983.