Vintage Detroit Beers

[old guy]

I'm not sure why, but being of English, Irish, Scottish and German descent, I have a great love of beer. I also love the old advertising graphics of vintage labels. I actually spend time reading about the histories of old breweries.

I ran across a number of old Detroit brewery labels and wondered if any of the, more, well seasoned people from Detroit on this forum might know anything of these beers. I'm assuming that most of them are quite old and doubt from the graphics that any of them still exist. Just curious if anyone here ever drank any of these beers.

Most are from Detroit but I tossed in a few from areas outside of Detroit assuming they probably would have been imported into the city.

Like I said, just curious if there are any old timers that are familiar with any of these labels.



A few others, not brewed in Detroit, but from the surrounding area.

[EastsideAl]

Great stuff old guy!

Here is an old [[circa 2007) thread discussing old Detroit breweries:
http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1181759187

[Brock7]

The Stroh's label is a familiar sight to me from cases of beer in our basement from the late 50's through at least '71 when my Dad was still at home.

[Honky Tonk]

Don't forget E & B!

http://www.mibeercans.com/EB/EB_pages/EB.htm

[old guy]

On February 8, 1985, Stroh announced that it would close its 135-year-old brewery on Detroit's east side. Chairman Peter Stroh said that the facility was simply outdated and had no room to expand. The structure was imploded the following year.
The plant, at Gratiot and the Chrysler Freeway, topped out at 1 million square feet and had a 7-million barrel capacity. Stroh's, Stroh Light, Goebel and Signature were made at the 71-year-old building. The company was the third-largest beer maker in the U.S. at the time. [[from wiki & freep)
Was the Stroh's party ball made in Detroit? Can't remember what years those were around. I can't find a picture of one anywhere.

[oladub]

[old guy]

[Whaler]

Love this thread!!!...The Pfiffers Brewery was on Mack ...The building still stands....Whaler

[Fathand]

The label of the "Sport Beer" with the pheasant on it is from the Sebewaing Brewing Company which is a small town up in the thumb.

Here's a cool read on that brewery.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/we-t...-today-288942/

[old guy]

Greetings Fathand. Thanks for the story/link.

[old guy]

Hey, where's Ray been? Don't know if he was a beer drinker, but for some reason I can picture him up north on a fishing trip drinking a Sport beer years ago.

[old guy]

[Bobl]

Love this thread, but it is driving me crazy. Somewhere, I have an old black and white photo of Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Andrew Loog Oldham [[I think), on a plane, monopoly game in progress, container of Pfeiffers Beer in Mick's hand.
Been tearing the basement files apart, trying to find it!

[mikefmich]

Altes & Colt45, Mack & Hurlbut. Used to visit often when "working" in the city.

[old guy]

Colt 45 was a Detroit beer?

[EastsideAl]

Colt 45 was a Detroit beer?

Colt 45 was brewed nationwide at the breweries of the National Brewing Co., including the one in Detroit at Mack & Cadillac.

National was headquartered in Baltimore [[where they made the famous National Bohemian "Natty Boh" beer). They acquired Altes [[which was formerly known as Tivoli Brewing) in 1954.

[EastsideAl]

Goebel Brewing Co., 1905
East side of Rivard:


West side of Rivard:

[[both from Shorpy)

Goebel's was bought out by Stroh's in 1964. But I believe a couple of small buildings from this complex are still standing at the old Stroh's ice cream facility off Maple St. just south of Gratiot.

And, for good measure, for all you old Tiger [[and beer) fans out there, it's Brewster!

[canuck]

Man, that Pfeiffer brewery postcard is a delight. It seems almost impossible to imagine a time and place like Old Detroit circa 1910 when all this hooplah enthusiasm that eastern European cultures brought to the mix.There is a pungeant innocence to all that stuff. Thanks for the pictures.

[old guy]

The original Stroh brewery at right, with the Stroh family home in foreground. Circa 1864.



Micheal's Lounge? Anybody know anything about this place.

[Bob S]

The original Stroh brewery at right, with the Stroh family home in foreground. Circa 1864.



Micheal's Lounge? Anybody know anything about this place.

I remember Michael's Lounge. It was on Van Dyke south of 6 mile. It was known for their softball teams. There used to be trophies set up on the awning. I believe the building still stands.

[Whaler]

I was talking to George MacKool yesterday ..He worked the afternoon shift at Stroh Brewer 17 years....He told me story's of how the workers could drink all day long!!!..I had heard of this before but, his accounts of 15-24 beers a day.. He said all the guys work performance was way above Par!!!...They had pride in the product....Can you imagine that going on in today's world...Stroh in its day was some of the finest tasting beer IMO...Why when they left Detroit it became the worst swill imaginable???...Whaler

[oladub]

Whaler, I did some construction in the late 60's. We did some work at Strohs's. In some parts of the Stroh's plant,beer was available for workers during their work shifts. I was told this by some of the carpenters I worked with who had been in the brewery.

My work there was helping add a floor of offices to an executive building. We had been bringing long boards up an executive elevator. The executives didn't like our sawdust, our presence, or whatever, so they made us carry all lumber and supplies up a stairwell. I was the summer helper for the carpenter crew so I was assigned to carrying much of whatever the lumber truck bought us up four flights of stairs. It would have been nice, but I never saw any beer.

[jiminnm]

When I was at Cass in the 60s, the chemistry club got a tour of the Stroh's Brewery. After the tour, the teachers leading the tour got to into a "special room" and we went elsewhere and had Stroh's ice cream [[which was OK with me). Later that year or the next, we toured the Hiram Walker distillery in Windsor. Wouldn't you know it, the same thing happened.

Oladub, I don't remember if we were told about the workers getting beer at Stroh's. I have toured the Coor's brewery in Golden, Colorado [[an adult for that one), and they told us that beer was available for their workers.

[EastsideAl]

My great uncle worked at Strohs for several years, and, yes, they did have beer available for drinking by the crews on the brewing floors. This went back to old Bernhard Stroh and the feeling among a lot of those old Germans, Czechs, etc. that beer was the healthiest thing you could drink, and kept men strong.

But there were limits, and open drunkenness was not tolerated, particularly if it adversely impacted your work. My great-uncle was, unfortunately, subject to our family's "curse" and had times when he just could not handle his alcohol and limit his drinking. It proved his undoing, and when staff-trimming occurred at Stroh's my uncle was out of there.

[old guy]

That's a great thread you added in there Al. I spent quite a bit of time sorting through that. http://atdetroit.net/forum/messages/...tml?1181759187

Wouldn't mind having one of these.