*** National Lager Day ***
Sunday December 16, 2018 1-5 PM
Facts and Links For an Interactive Tour
Join Pete Woodall of Hidden City and myself and celebrate National Lager Day with a pilgrimage to see some old breweries, have a few beers and end up at “America’s First Lager” historic marker. ($25)
I’ve created “National Lager Day” a Collection of Albums identified by Stop Number and Name: tour:
Stop 01: Chas. Maass Weiss Beer Brewery
1325 N. Randolph St.
The tour begins at the Maas Building (1325 Randolph St.) which, eluded me on all my bus tours and didn’t make it into the Guidebook to the Philadelphia Brewery Tour (2010). It was a weiss beer brewery and has been renovated as an events center. I realize this is National Lager Day, but this old weiss beer plant is a success story in brewery preservation!
Maass Weiss Beer Brewery Flickr Album
Maas Building website
Wagner, Rich. “Philadelphia’s Weiss Beer Breweries.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. December/January 2010.
To the north, at the opposite end of the playground was a brewery originally listed at 520 W. Jefferson St. which changed hands and lasted up until WWII. It was most famous as Elizabeth Vollmer's brewery (PA 521). I have been told that parts of the brewery complex may still be standing.
Stop 02: Charles Ehinger's Brewery
1150 Germantown Ave.
Ehinger Flicker Album
Wagner, Rich. “Philadelphia's Long Lost Lagers” Ale Street News, April/May 2007.
Stop 03: Christian Schmidt’s Kensington Brewery
113/117 Edward St.
Schmidt’s Flickr Album
Hexamer General Surveys: 1872 , 1885, 1892, 1895 , 1895
Wagner, Rich. “The Rise and Fall of Schmidt’s of Philadelphia.” American Breweriana Journal. November/December 2005.
Wagner, Rich. “Another One Bites the Dust.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. June/July 2001.
Wagner, Rich. “Blast From the Past, Schmidt’s Menu Tips.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. August/September 2007.
Wagner, Rich. “Remembering Schmidt’s: Beer as Beer Should Be.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. December/January 2007.
Russell, “Joe Sixpack,” Don. “Save the Sign.” Daily News January 28, 2000.
Flickr Album: Exhibits on Schmidt’s and Brewerytown at the National Brewery Museum
My Flickr Album devoted to outdoor beer storage tanks.
Video of first Philadelphia Brewery Tour in May 1987 meeting up at Schmidt’s:
Images of Schmidt’s being razed, 2001:
Schmidt's owner, Wm. Pflaumer, Obit
Stop 04: Urban Village
1001 N. Second St.
This brewery opened in 2017 in the Schmidt’s Commons, formerly The Piazza, near the old brewery complex.
Urban Village Flickr Album:
Stop 05: Binder, Biederbeck & Schmidheiser
606-608 Saint John St.
B.B. & S. Flickr Album
This was the site of a brewery starting in 1845 when the address was 178 Saint John St. The City standardized the address numbering system in 1856 and the address became 606 Saint John St.
Stop 06: Philip Guckes, International B.C.
822-834 Saint John St.
Guckes Flickr Album
U.S. Industrial Census 1870
|
AB II |
Company |
Capital |
Power: H.P. |
# Employees: Wages: Mos. |
Materials |
Products |
|
PA 442 |
Guckes, Ph. Ale & Porter Brewery & Malt House |
$100,000 |
Steam 30 h.p. Engine: 1 Mill: 2 |
20: $12,480: 12 |
Hops 36,000 lb. $5,000 |
Ale 7,237 bbl. $65,133 Porter 1,928 bbl. $15,420 |
|
|
|
|
Elevator: 3 |
|
Malt 33,000 bu. $5,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Refrigerator: 7 |
|
Grain 30,000 bu. $42,000 |
|
|
|
|
|
Pumps: 2 |
|
Coal 400 ton $2,800 |
|
Stop 07: Ortlieb’s
824-42 N. American St.
Ortlieb’s Flickr Album:
Video of Henry Ortlieb giving tour to Philadelphia Brewery Tour
Images of Ortlieb’s being razed, 2002
Trupert Ortlieb established a weiss beer brewery at 3rd & Thompson streets when he mustered out of his second hitch in the Civil War. He moved and was next to the much larger Guckes brewery, the property of which was later absorbed and became part of the large modern Ortlieb brewery complex.
Flickr Album devoted to “Allied Industries” in Philadelphia and Larry Handy’s Ortlieb exhibits at the national Brewery Museum in Potosi:
Wagner, Rich. “Ortlieb, Brewers By Birth Since 1869.” the KEG, Winter 2005.
Wagner, Rich. “Trupert Ortlieb’s farm near Lansdale.” the KEG, Fall 2009.
Kieran Timberlake, Architects who re-purposed the Ortlieb Bottling House for their offices.
Google Maps/Street View, description.
Stop 08: John Wagner, America’s First Lager
455 Saint John St. (Old Numbering System)
Link to the John Wagner Flickr Album
Wagner, Rich. “Tracking a Legend.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. June/July 2000.
Wagner, Rich. “Defending a Legend: The Truth About America's First Lager.” Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. April/May 2007.
And some tantalizing clippings from early newspapers discovered by Tod Von Mechow:
Marker Dedication Ceremony, December 1, 2001:
Russell, “Joe Sixpack,” Russell. “A Thirsty First.” Daily News. April 13, 2001.
Explore PA History Website:
Charlie Lieberman's poem he read at the dedication “The Brewers Yeast”:
Image from NoLib Neighborhood Association Tour:
More on Philadelphia's Lager Beer Breweries
Wagner, Rich. “Engel & Wolf, Die Erste Lager Bier Brauerei in Amerika” American Breweriana Journal. January/February 2008. (Magazine cover showing Engel & Wolf’s brewery at Fountain Green)
Hexamer General Survey (1866) of Engel & Wolf’s brewery:
Wagner, Rich. “Philadelphia’s Long Lost Lagers.” Ale Street News April/May 2007.
Earliest Hexamer General Surveys of Brewerytown c. 1866, Nos: 275, 276, 277, 278
Wagner, Rich. “Otto C. Wolf: Brewery Architect and Engineer, Philadelphia, PA.” Brewery History (Journal of the Brewery History Society). Issue 155. (2014).
Stop 09: Standard Tap
901 N. Second St.
Standard Tap Flickr Album
Established to promote locally produced beer, the Standard Tap was one of the pioneers that helped transform this neighborhood. William Reed opened a second location, Johnny Brenda's at Frankford and Girard Avenues a few years later. If you visit that location you can see the Protobrewery which is on the other side of Frankford Ave. a little to the north.
More...
I published The Breweries of Kensington and Beyond in 2003. Schmidt's was in a section called “Old Kensington” which was surrounded by Northern Liberties. With the help of Ken Milano, we identified 77 breweries which had addresses in Kensington in American Breweries II (Van Wieren 1995). Since then I made a similar list for Northern Liberties which had 99 breweries. What follows are some of the breweries that existed not far from the area of our walking tour from the Kensington list. Some numbers have been changed and reflect corrections that appeared in American Breweries III (Van Wieren 2016).
PA 383b Francis L. Brehm (2nd & Germantown Road) 1845-1846
383c Francis L. Brehm
(129/131 Coates St, 321/333 Coates/post 1857) 1846-1870
383d Ludwig Stein 1871-1873
PA 383.1 Fred Berger, Spruce Beer
(284 Germantown Road & Otter) c. 1844-1853
PA 389a Alois Christoph (117/127 West Thompson St) 1882-1884
389b Henry Hauser 1884-1889
PA 470.1a X. Lang, Tavern & Brewery
(1214 North 5th) 1861-1866
470.1b Joseph Bauer 1867-1868
PA 494a John Lips (1101 North 2nd & Germantown) 1843-1860
PA 517 (Fred) Nentzel & Hentzel
(1001 North 3rd (post 1857 numbers) & Beaver) 1854 1860
PA 518 Frederick Nentzel, Jr.
(548 North 3rd, 1012 North 3rd Post 1857)
aka: Peter Noll (1847); aka: Robert Ortlieb (1861) 1845-1865
PA 521a Martin Schurr (520 Jefferson) 1859-1869
521b Joseph Gindele
(1445/1449 Randolph & 520 Jefferson Sts) 1872-1876
521c Leonard Otterbach 1877-1882
521d Elizabeth Otterbach 1882-1883
521e August Vollmer 1883-1889
521f Elizabeth Vollmer
(1417/1449 Randolph & Jefferson Sts) 1889-1920
521g Vollmer Brewing Co. (1420/1430 North Randolph) 1933-1934
521h Schaffhauser Brewing Corp. 1934-1939
521i Schiller Brewing Co. 1940-1941
521j Jaeger BrewingCo. NP 1942-1943
PA 559a Servantes Schloetterer (118 Master St) 1869-1878
559b Jacob Schick 1878-1880
559c Gottlieb Reitter 1880-1882
559d Jacob Schick 1882-1888
PA 609.29a B. Waldsauer Brewery (514 Franklin St) 1857-1858
609.29b B. Waldsauer Brewery
(514 Girard Ave (Franklin renamed)) 1859-1862
609.29c Adam Miller 1863-1866
Other Northern Liberties Breweries in the Vicinity
Coates St. became Fairmount Ave.; Charlotte St. became Orianna St.
PA 401a Frederick L. Dithmar, aka: Dithmar & Gaul (1841) (520 North 3rd St) 1835 1843*
401b (Fred) Dithmar & (George) Butz (934/942 North 3rd St post 1857) 1843 1865*
401c Thomas O'Neill & Co. 1866 1866
401d J. W. Proctor & Co., Phoenix Brewery 1867-1868*
401e (Mary A.) Gaul & (George) Carey 1868 1870*
401f (George) Carey & (George) Riehl 1871 1877
401g George Carey & Co. (Robert Conway & Julia Carey) 1877 1892
PA 480a Koehnle & Gerkin (321/323 Fairmount Ave) 1874 1875*
480b Koehnle & Son 1875 1877
480c Joseph Koehnle 1877 1880
480d Peter Wolters 1880 1882
480e Peter Wolters Enterprise Brewery (315/323 Fairmount Ave) 1883 1886
480f Philadelphia Brewing Co. 1888 1888
PA 502 Luders, (John) Marbacker (also sp Marbacher) & Co.,
Northern Liberties Brewery (119 North 4th St) 1814 1820
PA 510e Ferdinand Schaefer (aka: Frederick Schaefer) (338/340 Brown St cor 4th) 1883-1891
510f Ferdinand Schaefer (aka: Mrs E. N. Schaefer) (723 N. 4th St, cor Brown) 1893-1894
510g The Gallivan Co. (former vinegar & cider makers at 401/403 Brown,
expanded around corner to encompass 723 North 4th) 1895 1896
510h Baltic Brewing Co. (401/403 Brown & 4th Sts) 1896 1902
PA 511a Christian Muellerschoen (495/497 North 3rd St) 1878 1882
511b (Anna) Mary Muellerschoen 1882 1891
511c Muellerschoen's Weiss Beer Brewery, Andrew Rudolph 1891 1902
511d Muellerschoen's Weiss Beer Brewery, John C. Muellerschoen 1902 1920
PA 630a Trupert Ortlieb, Weiss Beer Brewery
(1312 Germantown Ave cor 1248 North 3rd St) 1866 1879
630b August Weiler 1880 1884
PA 569a Louis Schweitzer (715 North 3rd) 1859 1860
569b (Louis) Schweitzer & (Henry) Grim 1859 1860
569c Zell & Regenald 1866-1868
569c John Kuhn 1871 1875
569d Caroline Kuhn 1876 1877
569e (John) Grundler & Co. (Fred Vetter) 1877 1882
569f John P. Schoettle 1883 1890
PA 598a Anton Stroebele (849 North 4th & 856 North Charlotte St) 1870 1888
598b John Roehm (849/851 North 4th & 856 North Charlotte) (see PA 544) 1888 1897
598c Consumers Brewing Co., John Roehm Brewery 1897 1903
598d Consumers Brewing Co., Roehm & Spaeth 1903 1904
598e Consumers Brewing Co., North Plant 1904 1909
598f Henry Hess Brewing Co. 1909 1912
598g Premier Brewing Co. 1913 1920
598h Trainer Brewing Co. (844/854 North Orianna (Charlotte renamed) 1933 1937
598i Otto Erlanger Brewing Co. 1937 1951
PA 605a Charles Theis (63 Saint John, 411/413 post 1857 & Callowhill) 1846 1869*
PA 608a (Reinhold) Vollmer & (August) Born (341/343 North 3rd St) 1860 1864*
PA 610.1a Adam Miller (927/931 North 5th St and 928 North Orkney) 1871 1882*
610.1b John J. Wolf 1886 1920*
610.1c John Jacob Wolf, Inc. 1934 1938*
PA 625.1 Andrew Wolf (615 North 3rd St, rear) ?-1860-?*