|
The History of the William J. Lemp Brewing
Co., in St. Louis, Missouri
By KEVIN KIOUS and DONALD ROUSSIN
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri, was dedicated as a memorial
to westward expansion. In a sense, it can also be seen as a memorial
to the introduction of the beverage known as lager beer in the middle
of America. For the Gateway Arch now stands on ground once occupied
by Adam Lemp's original brewery, which pioneered
the introduction of lager beer in St. Louis.
The Lemp saga began with the birth of Adam Lemp
on May 25, 1793, in central Germany. After learning the brewing
trade in his native land, Adam emigrated, arriving in St. Louis
in 1838, where he established a small mercantile store. In addition
to general merchandise, Lemp also sold in small quantities an item
he manufactured himself: beer. Apparently, Adam saw a great future
in brewing, because about 1840 he established a new brewery at 112
South Second Street between Walnut and Elm Streets.
Why was the introduction of Lemp's lager beer important? The lagering,
or aging, process does several things to beer which only time can
do -- allow un-removed yeast a chance to settle, improve the beer
flavor, and enable the beer to store better. Thus lager beer became
commercially important to the brewers in the years before artificial
refrigeration, because it gave them a product that did not have
to be consumed quickly before it went bad.
Lemp's Western Brewery continued to grow during
the 1840's. By 1850 it was already one of the larger breweries in
St. Louis. On August 25, 1862, Adam Lemp died, a rich man. His son,
William J. Lemp gained control on the brewery in
1864. However, unlike many businesses that wilt when a strong leader
dies, the Lemp Brewery actually grew and blossomed after William
J. Lemp took control. A short man at not quite five feet, one inch,
William J. and his brewery would nonetheless both become giants
in the industry. In 1864 William J. Lemp purchased a five-block
area around 13th and Cherokee, and began construction of a new brewery.
By the early 1870's, Lemp's Western Brewery was
the largest brewery in St. Louis with E. Anheuser &
Company's Bavarian Brewery coming in second.
On November 1, 1892, William J. Lemp's Western Brewery was incorporated
under the William J. Lemp Brewing Company banner.
By the mid-1890's the Lemp Brewery was well on its way to becoming
a nationally known shipping brewery. In fact, Lemp was the first
brewery to establish coast-to-coast distribution of its beers. Lemp
beer was being transported in some 500 refrigerated railroad cars,
averaging 10,000 shipments per year. It was the eighth largest beermaker
in the nation. Having expanded its distribution network throughout
the United States, Lemp continued to expand overseas. By the late
1890's, Lemp beers were being shipped in large quantities to Canada,
British Columbia, Mexico, Central and South America, the West Indies,
the Hawaiian Islands, Australia, Japan, and Hong Kong.
William J. Lemp Sr.'s death by suicide occurred in February 1904.
The responsibility for leadership of the business fell on his son
William J. Lemp, Jr., who was subsequently elected
corporate president on November 7, 1904.
With the shadow of Prohibition falling across the land after World
War I, Lemp, like many other breweries, introduced a non-intoxicating
malt beverage, (in this case) named Cerva. While
Cerva did sell moderately well after the passage of the 18th Amendment,
revenues were nowhere near enough to cover the overhead of the plant.
The giant plant closed without notice. Employees learned of the
closing of the brewery when they arrived for work one day, only
to find the doors and gates locked shut.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Remember the Moehn Brewing Co.
by Carla and Greg Moehn
Chicago brewer Greg Moehn is the
great grandnephew of Martin Moehn, founder of the
old Moehn Brewing Co. (pronounced “main”)
in Burlington, Iowa. The majestic red brick building still stands
at 922 Osborn Street in the town on the banks of the Mississippi
River.
Before arriving in America, Martin Moehn worked
as a cooper in his native Bavaria, barreling pickles and sauerkraut
as well as beer. After training as a brewer, he emmigrated to the
United States and eventually settled in Burlington, home to a large
German population. Once there, he bought beer from local breweries
and began putting it in his own bottles to sell.
In about 1890, Martin Moehn bought the
Western Steam Brewery, which he ran until 1903. In the
meanwhile, around the turn of the century, Moehn saved his money,
engaged investors and formed a company to plan for his new brewery.
With capital of approximately $115,000, the Moehn Brewing
Co. was launched and opened in 1904 with an annual capacity
of 25,000 barrels.
“My grandfather, Walter Moehn, who was Martin’s
nephew, had a job at the brewery shoveling coal into the furnaces
that heated the kettles,” recalls Greg Moehn, of
Applied Beverage Technology, and formerly of Hopcats
Brewing Co. in Chicago and the old Chicago Brewing
Co.
By 1915 the capacity at Moehn Brewing Co. reached
30,000 barrels a year. The Moehn Brewing Co. brands included Moehn
Select and Moehn Export. A near beer called
Malto-Dextrine was also produced in 1916, “but,”
according to Greg Moehn, “it just never took
off.” The firm closed in 1917 when Iowa’s Prohibition
hit.
In the end, the copper tanks were melted down and shipped to Middleton,
Iowa, where a munitions plant used the metal for bullet casings.
“I think the Moehn Brewing Co. building is a great
example of German Gothic architecture,” says Greg
Moehn. “It was designed by the Chicago architect
Bernard Bethel, who designed and built between 40 and 50
other breweries in the Midwest. My family history of brewing is
what started me on the craft brewing to begin with. It’s in
my blood.”
--------------------------------------------------------
JOHN F. OERTEL BREWERY
By Beer Dave Gauespol
In 1865 Franz Rettig started
a brewery in Eastern Louisville along Beargrass Creek. In 1868 he
sold this operation to Henry Kast and George
Stoepler. Two brothers, John & Charles Hartmetz
purchased this brewery in 1873. An opportunity to operate a brewery
in Evansville, Indiana came along in 1877. The two brothers flipped
a coin to see who would leave the Louisville operation to start
the new venture to the south. The brewery that John Hartmetz
opened in Evansville went on to become the Evansville Brewing
Association which later became Sterling Brewers.
In 1888 Charles Hartmetz passed away. His widow,
Madgalena formed a partnership with brewmaster John Frederick
Oertel to assist with the operation of the brewery. In
1892 John F. Oertel bought out his partner and
renamed the brewery “the Butchertown Brewery”.
This name stemmed from the fact that this brewery located at 1400
Story Avenue was right in the middle of the Louisville stockyards.
The year Oertel took over the ownership is were the ‘92
comes from.
In 1964 the brewery was purchased by Brown & Forman
Distilleries and Oertel’s Real Draft
was introduced. Even under the new ownership, sales continued to
decline and the brewery closed in 1967 the labels were sold to G.
Heileman of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Earlier that year Heileman
had purchased the George Wiedemann Brewery of Newport,
Kentucky. Production of the Oertel’s brands was shifted to
the George Wiedemann plant in Newport, Kentucky.
In 1972 the majority of the Oertel building were demolished and
G. Heileman sold the brands to the Peter Hand Brewery
of Chicago, Illinois. Peter Hand closed in 1978 and the brand was
sold to the Pickett Brewery of Dubuque, Iowa.
In the early 1990’s a group of Louisville investors made a
failed attempt to reintroduce the Oertel’s ‘92
brand. They had plans of opening a microbrewery or brewpub in the
bottle house the only remaining building of the original Oertel
“Butchertown” complex. Oertel’s colorful brewmaster
Fritz Finger was even brought out of retirement
to create the new brew. Only a few kegged batches were contract
brewed at Joseph Huber in Monroe, Wisconsin. Today,
110 years later Oertel‘s ‘92 is now
just another faded memory of brewing in Derby City.
--------------------------------------------------------
“PIONEER LIFE
-MEMOIRS OF MY LIFE,
by George Esser, Founder and Operator of the ESSER BREWERY,
1855-1861 Cross Plaines, Wisconsin”
“We were informed that Mathias
Leinenkugel, a son of Mr. Leinenkugel, owner and operator
of the Sauk City Brewery, in company with another
man, name of Schaefer, had already laid the groundwork for a brewery
at Eau Claire, with a brewing kettle from the Sauk City Brewery
at the Mazomanie railroad depot ready for shipment to Eau Claire.
Considering the size of Eau Claire as it was at that time, I felt
that two breweries would hardly have sufficient business, I decided
on my part to abandon this venture.”
“ John Hermann, on the other hand, argued
that the people of Madison knew of our partnership and strongly
spoke of it, possibly some other place with even better prospects.”
“I received a letter from Hermann, who had been in Janesville
and Monroe, informing me of a brewery in Monroe, Green County, owned
by John Knipschild and for sale for $1,500.00.”
“The brewery, not a large one, had not been in operation for
some time and was in a rather neglected state, necessitating extensive
repairs on the brewing kettle, and a number of other improvements,
such as two cellars, a malt mill and malt drier. By the end of October,
we were ready for operation, and by mid-November we sold our first
beer.”
“The first year was a poor one from a business standpoint.
Most of the beer sold in Monroe and vicinity was shipped in from
Milwaukee or came from Janesville. However, the second year we built
a storage cellar and brewed “Lager-beer,’
and business improved considerably.” “Gradually our
business extended, until finally only a negligible amount of beer
was shipped into our territory from outside breweries…
The third and fourth year we did excellent business.”
(1861-1865)
“ In Madison, I had the opportunity to either buy the Voigt
Brewery or enter into partnership with Voigt’s son
Edward and assume half share.
I considered the purchase price too high in the first instance,
and secondly I felt I had had enough trouble in partnership without
asking for more…I made a one week visit to Cross Plaines to
see some of my relatives and friends there, such as my brothers-in-law,
John Bussler who had a saloon near St. Francis
church, and my old schoolmate Joseph Koenig, who
had a farm not far from the church.”
“These and other acquaintances urged me to start a brewery
at Cross Plains and Joseph Koenig offered to sell
me a suitable location on his farm on the hillside west of the church
and close to the creek, at a reasonable price. Besides that there
was a brewery of a sort 2 miles north of the church, owned but no
longer operated by a fellow immigrant from Langensalza in Germany.”
“I bought 2 (and)1/2 acres of land and forthwith started to
dig a cellar and commence building….In March of 1863 we continued
construction and shortly after the feast of "Corpus Christi",
the building, including several rooms on the upper floor for my
family, was completed…By September 15th we started to malt
and installed the cooling system, in October we were ready for operation
and the first beer was brewed.
“ As brewers, I had hired two experienced men, a German immigrant
from the Rhineland who had been employed by Sprecher
in Madison, and Huber Bernatz…Cross Plains
at that time had nine “saloons”, but business was poor
the first year. Breckheimer and Hausmann had bought Sprecher’s
Madison business after Sprecher’s death, and delivered to
the majority of the Cross Plains saloons. Gradually I was able to
obtain the local business and the second year the last two saloons,
Uebersetzig’s, who up to that time took his
beer from Leinenkugel, and Hermann’s, who
had Stiegerhammer beer, also from Sauk City,…became
my customers.”
George Esser passed away in 1893. The Esser
Brewery continued, run by oldest son Jacob Esser.
From 1907, Werner B. Esser, Jacob’s son,
acted mostly as brewmaster.
In 1910, Werner B and Peter Esser
discontinued brewing and became distributors for Hausmanns,
using the brewery buildings until 1916. In 1918, Peter left. Werner
B. became a distributor for Blatz “Near Beer”
and continued as a distributor for Blatz Brewing Company
of Milwaukee. In 1933, he also became a distributor for Fauerbach,
Miller and other brands (including) Heilemann’s
Old Style, Fauerbach, Ballantine Ale & Graf’s
soda.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A WALK THROUGH OBERMANN
BREWERY
by ERIK
PETERSON
Beer Barons of Milwaukee
A significant piece of Milwaukee’s
brewing history is sitting on the corner of 5th & Cherry, only
a couple of blocks from the Brewery Credit Union.
It’s for sale. It could be a brewery once again. Or maybe
a brewing museum. Local developers and nationally-known brewery
historians have been looking at it for some time now.
With the removal of the Park East Freeway, many dilapidated, turn
of the century industrial buildings are becoming hot properties.
Obermann Brewery opened in 1854, and was Milwaukee’s
largest brewery for 20 years. I stopped by the Brewery Credit
Union to tell loan officer Steven Koski that I was researching
the boarded-up property down the street from him. According to Steve,
there was a fire at Obermann around the turn of the century. New
investors were brought in, and thus the name was changed to Falk,
Jung, and Borchart Brewing Co. Not long after that, Falk
went on to pursue other interests (Falk Industries),
as young Jung, a former brewing apprentice from Pabst Brewery
bought out Falk and Borchart. The name was changed
to Jung Brewery, and business prospered until sometime
after its officially closing at prohibition. However, the building
has survived demolition over the years by functioning as one of
the city’s many generic scrap yards. Cans, metals, and pretty
much anything picked up in the alleys was brought in to sell. In
fact, the basement and sub-basement were still packed full of this
valueless debris until last year.
The City of Milwaukee has owned the building since 2001, purchased
through tax remediation. One of the first tasks was to hire a salvage/cleaning
company to empty out the lower levels. There is a freight elevator,
which was installed about 75 years ago. It would take brewery workers
and supplies into the basement and sub-basement. On the main level,
the floor is an original wood-plank design. When the elevator is
lowered into the basement, its top creates a false-floor on the
main level, effectively hiding the elevator and the lower levels
from view. There is a pull rope to start or stop the elevator. According
to one Dept. of City Development (DCD) employee, the basement contains
vaulted tunnels made of cream city brick. The tunnel on the south
end of the basement appears to lead under the street, toward the
Hein Electric building.
As the first city employees ventured into the basement, their flashlight
view from the elevator was one of piles of debris, some of it decades
old. Broken furniture, wooden barrels, broken industrial machines,
wooden carts with cast iron wheels, bags and boxes full of trash,
piles of tin and aluminum cans with pull-tab tops were almost touching
the ceiling…and shopping carts from more than a few local
grocery chains. Within a few months, the building had been cleaned
out, the windows and doors had been secured, a temporary lighting
system had been wired in, and the electrical fuses had been restored,
at least partially…
The first potential buyers were shown the building in 2002. On one
early showing, an employee from DCD was giving a tour to a local
developer, when the elevator quit working. After a brief walk around
the lower levels, they had returned to the elevator, and found it
non-responsive. They looked around the elevator car to see that
there was no trap door on the ceiling. They looked around the lower
levels to find that there were no staircases going up. There were
workers on the main level, but they were using saws, air compressors,
hammer drills, and other power tools, so getting their attention
was hopeless. The city employee had his cellular phone with him,
and was able to find a spot in the basement where he could get a
signal strong enough to make a call. He didn’t have the numbers
of any of the workers above them, so he dialed 911.
“We’re stuck in the basement of the Obermann
Brewery building on 5th & Cherry.”
The fire department arrived, and came in through a door that had
been left unlocked by the construction workers on the main level.
They used axes to make a hole in the floor, then lowered a 20-foot
aluminum ladder down to free the men trapped below. A fuse had blown.
The City bought some spare fuses, and a ladder of their own to keep
in the hole, for future escapes.
They are still looking for a buyer. Obermann’s entryway on
Cherry Street is just simple wood steps. Once inside, the first
floor appears to have been remodeled in the 60’s or early
70’s, based on the interior design. There is one restroom
and a few offices. The 2nd floor is open, with a staircase, drop
ceiling, and fluorescent lights. Taking the elevator up, the roof
is flat, with a rubber membrane cover, and a few leaks. The roof
level seems to be about 2500 square feet, with spectacular views
in all directions: Brewers Hill, downtown, the Bradley center, and
nearby historic churches.
Nearby was Stout Bros. Public House, one of Milwaukee’s
newer brewpubs. Unfortunately, Stout Bros. closed its doors around
the 1st of September. Painted on the wall above the bar at Stout
Bros. were the logos of many of Milwaukee’s original breweries,
including Obermann.
Obermann building facts: 11,000 sq.ft. Cream City brick construction
& exterior. Missing cornices. Some bricked-up windows. Shipping
docks. 3 floors. 2 basement levels. Flat roof.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The GRAIN BELT BREWERY, 25 years later...
by Jeff R. Lonto
It’s been almost a quarter of a century
since businessman Irwin Jacobs took over Grain
Belt Breweries Inc. in Minneapolis, only to shut it down
a few months later and threaten to demolish the beautiful &
unique 19th-Century brewhouse. On September 8, I had the pleasure
of being part of a neighborhood group that got to tour the building.
The property is currently owned by the Minneapolis Community
Development Agency (MCDA) and before we could explore,
we had to sign a release. With sections of the building that were
totally dark and giant holes in the floors where copper brew kettles
were, one could get hurt if they didn’t watch their step.
But the structure itself remains quite stable.
There were about 20 of us in the group and once we got in, it was
incredible. I brought my Grain Belt breweriana for photo ops. There
was a slight but unpleasant musty basement smell in the building.
An ornamental iron staircase, designed in the frilly Victorian era,
winds through the building, painted an industrial green, like the
walls. There is a large “Grain Belt”
billboard dated 1975 on the main floor, still in great condition.
A few pieces of brewing equipment remain, such as the original 40-bbl
fermenting tanks, although most everything else was auctioned for
scrap in 1976.
We even got to go out on the roof on this warm September morning
and see the incredible view of the neighborhood and downtown Minneapolis.
We walked out to the glass atrium atop one of the building sections,
which housed an observation deck. Beyond the rails around the catwalks,
you can see all the way down to the bottom floor, with the ornamental
staircase winding its way around.
The MCDA has been looking for developers to buy up the property
and turn it into something lucrative, but most have found it way
too expensive and too much work. The is an independent community
effort to open up the building for the enjoyment of everyone, spearheaded
by the Mississippi Corridor Neighborhood Coalition. They are trying
to establish Marshall Street NE, as historic district with the brewery
as a gateway. Interested parties, contact MCNC at P.O. Box
18748, Minneapolis, MN 55418 or call Randy Kouri
at (612) 788-0249.
One crazy idea for Grain Belt would be to convert it into a Minnesota
Breweriana Museum. Bring back copper brew kettles to reinstall
in the giant holes in the floor, along with other equipment, and
memorabilia from not just Grain Belt, but also
Gluek, Hamm’s, Schmidt, Schell’s, Huenstein,
Fitger’s, Kato, Kiewel, Cold Spring, all the great
old Minnesota brewers.
Perhaps one section could even be converted int new official headquarters
for North Star Chapter, complete with meeting areas,
a full stocked bar and enough room for parties and buy/sell/ trade
sessions...just a thought.
********************************************************
Jeff Lonto is a member of North Star BCCA
and
author of a book on the Grain Belt Brewery.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
