Breweries

Metz Brothers Brewery – Bob Kisken in Omaha NB

Oct 11th, 2011

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Metz Brewery – Wikipedia
Metz Brothers Brewery – Early Omaha: Gateway to the West – Omaha Public Library Digital Collection

This photograph taken in 1879 shows the Metz Brothers Beer Hall. The Hall was located at 510-512 South 10th Street. The beer was brought to the hall in kegs by horse drawn wagons as seen in the photo. Charles and Fred Metz supplied the beer hall from their brewery established in 1860. The Metz Brothers Brewery was headquartered at 6th & Leavenworth streets and took up nearly a full city block. The main building was a 3-story affair crowned with a large observation deck. The rest of the complex consisted of boiler and engine houses, offices, ice houses, bottling facilities and barns for the horses. The malt house had a storage capacity of 4,000 bushels. Metz Brothers beer was famous for its “flavor, purity, amber, clearness and body” (“Frederick Krug,” p. 9). Unfortunately, the Metz Brothers Brewery did not survive Prohibition. The majority of the land was sold to the Corn Derivatives Company in January 1920.

Text written by Lynn Sullivan, October 2003

Maisel’s Weisse Aus Bayreuth – Maisel Bräu – Amsterdam, NL

Jul 20th, 2010

by Frank.

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The beer on its most beautiful white © Frank H. Jump

Maisel’s Weisse Original

Maisel is known to some beer-lovers for an ale-like speciality called Dampfbier (“Steam Beer”) but has in recent years given more emphasis to its popular wheat beers.

While the city of Bayreuth is best known for its Wagner festival, it is also a brewing town. It is in Germany’s most breweried state, Bavaria, and in the district that makes the most colourful brews, Franconia.

Bavaria has several breweries owned by families called Maisel, not necessarily related – at least, not closely. The best known is this sizeable regional brewery, dating from 1886-7. The original Maisel brewery, magnificently castellated, is kept in working order and beautiful condition as a museum of beer-making and coopering, and is open for tours. It has a 1930s steam engine and a remarkable collection of early equipment, blueprints, and advertising enamels Next door is the remorselessly modern, 1974, premises.

The old bottling hall has been converted into a bar intended to reflect the Roaring Twenties. Franconia may be a long way from New York or Chicago, but one of the owning Maisels married an American wife. – Michael Jackson’s Beer Hunter

Internet resources:

Brouwerij de Ridder – The Knight Brewery – Maastricht, NL

Jul 11th, 2010

by Frank.

2 comments

Brouwerÿ de Ridder © Frank H. Jump

Ridder - Knight © Frank H. Jump

Last of a dying brew © Frank H. Jump

Brewery De Ridder is a former brewery in Maastricht. The city’s brewery was located in Wyck, in the eastern city [east of the Maas River]. For decades, the lager Ridder Pils was brewed, and since the 80s of last century, the wheat beer Wieck White [as well]. The acquisition of the brewery by beer giant Heineken and the success of the wheat beer, have led to the production [being] transferred to other locations and a brewery on the banks of the Meuse [Maas] is now standing empty. For the monumental [historical building], plans for redevelopment are [have been] made. – Wikipedia (translated by Chrome to English)

History of the brewery – from Nederlandse Bierpaginas

Since 1857, the Brewery Knight [was] between Levee & Law Streets [Oeverwal en Rechtstraat] in Wyck-Maastricht. It was founded by the brewing family Van Aubel, when Maastricht counted more than forty breweries. Before the start of World War I, there were twenty-four. Between 1919 and 1940, the number deteriorated to nine, including two monastery breweries. These monastery breweries and brewers Eberhard, Th. Grein and Eugene Marres quit after World War II. Additionally, St. Servatius Brewery (a Heineken daughter, formerly The Black Horse) at the Anna Avenue, Marres-Ceulen in Capucijnenstraat corner of Grand Canal [also closed]. And on the east bank in Wijck: Brewery ‘The emperor’ in the NA Bosch Wijcker Grachtstraat and the Knight of the Levee. In 1971 Bosch closes, and the last brewery – The Knight goes on alone. In 1982, De Ridder continued as a family business, under the Heineken umbrella until its closing in late 2002. – for more info, click here.

European Beer Guide

Nederlandse Bierpaginas

UW Tacoma work erases historic icon – Peter Callaghan – The News Tribune

May 28th, 2010

by Frank.

5 comments

UW Tacoma work erases historic icon – PETER CALLAGHAN

The Student Prince loved his beer.

And beer lovers in Tacoma loved the Student Prince.

I say loved – past tense – because the Student Prince is dead. The last large image of the iconic advertising symbol of local brew Alt Heidelberg was washed away from the side of the University of Washington Tacoma’s Joy Building during renovation.

“We’re deeply saddened and dismayed and heartsick over this,” said UWT spokesman Mike Wark. He said the UWT strives to preserve the historic painted signs it inherited but was told by a subcontractor that the condition of this one was too fragile to withstand brick cleaning and tuck pointing.

Read more: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/05/27/1202505/uw-tacoma-work-erases-historic.html#ixzz0pAzk2tKK

I wrote the piece today about the destruction of the alt Heidelberg ghostsign in Tacoma. I’m now wrestling with people who say it isn’t that big a deal because it can just be repainted. I’m trying to explain why that just isn’t the same (and would be a bad idea to try). Can you give me some help? What is the beauty of ghost signs that demands that they be original, that they be apparitions that we discover? As bad as this mistake is, I think it would be made worse by some attempt to repaint the Student Prince.

Thanks. Enjoy your page.
Peter Callaghan
The News Tribune
Tacoma, WA

Previously posted:

Alt Heidelberg – Columbia Brewing Co – Tacoma, WA – Fading Ad Blog

Trommer's Genuine Ale – Fletcher's Castoria – Astoria, Queens

Oct 28th, 2009

by fadingad.

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Astoria Blvd © Frank H. Jump

Castoria is clearly written on the bottom © Frank H. Jump

Close-up on Trommer's Ale ad © Frank H. Jump

Active Collectibles dot com

Distributed by John F. Trommer Inc - 1632 Bushwick Avenue, Brooklyn NY - US Beer Labels dot com

Trayman dot net

circa 1937 - Tavern Trove dot com

Old Beer Stuff dot com

Tavern Trove dot com

John F. Trommer’s Evergreen Brewery
[Bushwick Ave at Conway Street, Brooklyn]

The Brooklyn brewery was founded by John F. Trommer, who had emigrated from Germany. He settled first in Maine, then worked in Boston, and finally settled in New York City. After working in a number of breweries, he purchased the recently built plant of Stehlin and Breitkopf in 1896. Know as the Evergreen Brewery, it grew gradually during the next two decades. Trommer died in 1898, but his son, George, continued the business. Somewhat atypically, George Trommer managed to expand business during the 1920s by lending money and giving support to potential owners of hot dog restaurants-which, of course, featured Trommer’s White Label Near Beer. By 1930 he supplied more than 950 such places.

In 1933, a second plant was opened in Orange, New Jersey, and both breweries proved very successful well into the late 1940s. [Furthermore, Trommer’s housed one of Brooklyn’s most popular beer gardens called the Maple Garden.] The New York City strike of 1949 and loss of sales thereafter hurt the company, however, and the New Jersey plant was sold to Rheingold in 1950. In 1951 Trommer announced the sale of the Brooklyn plant to Piel Brothers. George Trommer died on November 16, 1956, at the age of 83.

In Bushwick, the presence of the brewing industry encouraged the dairy industry. Farmers collected spent grain and hops for cow feed. Milk, with close to 4% butterfat, was sold fresh, made into cream, butter, cheese or ice-cream, or thinned for drinking. The milk business supported blacksmiths, wheelrights and feed stores along Flushing Ave. The Bedford section of Brooklyn (now part of Bedford-Stuyvesant) was agricultural until the 1920s, hosting substantial dairy activity. – New York Food Museum (Brooklyn Beer)