Colt 45

Anheuser-Busch in the 1950's developed a way to pasteurize their beer giving it a longer shelf life. This made Budweiser that much more of a threat to the National Brewery forcing them to come out with a new beer that would help even the competition. Anheuser has been building breweries all over the country especially the east coast to expand their business. In 1963 the National Brewery introduced Colt 45 and was originally a higher priced beer then Natty Boh. The beer was popular throughout Baltimore and in other parts of the country. Colt 45 also sponsored the Baltimore Colts because of the name and of course because it was a Baltimore brew. The beer, or malt liquor, is now cheap and is often considered a fast and affordable way for one to get drunk. Colt 45 is far from a brew one could call enjoyable but is still popular among Baltimoreans.

Brennen Jensen, "A Beer to Call Your Own: Tales from the Rise and Fall of National Brewing," Baltimore City Paper, January 16, 2002. http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=3445 (accessed December 13, 2009).

Photo From:
Joseph Pisani, "After Work Bad to the Bone: From gas-guzzling engines to extra-strength booze, consumers still crave products that do no good to their health, environment, or their pocketbooks, "Businessweek, Not given, under "Page 4," http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/hardees_badthings/source/4.htm (accessed December 13, 2009)

Fox News Documentary on Natty Boh

This is a brief history segment of Natty Boh from a Fox 45 documentary that really gives some good insight to the past of the brewery. Even though the brewery shut down and left Baltimore it has still left a strong impact on the city. The beer seems as though it is here to stay within the city because it employed so many happy workers and supplied so many loyal customers. There is an interview with an older gentleman who started working there in 1947 and said, "that was the beginning of one of the greatest periods of my life." I really appreciate the words from someone who actually worked and lived in Baltimore during the height of the breweries success. The decline of the brewery is quite sad but at the same time its not because of the mark it has left. Overall, it really is a nice little piece that I enjoyed watching very much.

smallavatar. "Natty Boh Documentary." October 31, 2007. Online video clip. YouTube. (accessed December 13, 2009) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STBPDNmcODk&feature=related

Gunther Beer Commercials Part 2

Natty Boh Commercials

The National Brewing Company

Of course the most popular and well known brewery of Baltimore is the National Brewing Company located on Brewers Hill in the neighborhood of Canton. The brewery is famous for producing National Bohemian Beer or "Natty Boh" is still favored and sold in practically every bar and liquor store in the city. The official website of the National Bohemian Beer has a great little history page that gives some brief information about the breweries past http://www.nationalbohemian.com/history/Default.aspx.
This is only a portion of the information that I found on the website that I will provide on this post. The brewery began to brew Natty Boh in 1885 although their mascot "Mr. Boh" was introduced after prohibition. If you look throughout the city you can see Mr. Boh which has become somewhat of a prized symbol in the city. The National Brewery was also the first brewery to produced canned beer in six packs in the late 1940's. In 1965 the brewery became the official sponsor of the Baltimore Orioles and was proudly served at Memorial stadium and even today at Camden Yards.
This website also has a really nice picture page of the "Natty Boh" and "Mr. Boh" logo's taken throughout Baltimore. One reason why this brewery and beer has such an important impact on Baltimore's Brewing History and the city's culture is the poll that is taken on it's website. The poll asks, "Why do you drink Natty Boh?," and the best answer was "Baltimore Pride". "My Parents Drank it," "It's affordable," and "It's really good," were the next three answers in descending in order.

No Author Given, “History,” NationalBohemian.com, http://www.nationalbohemian.com/history/Default.aspx (accessed December 12, 2009).

Gunther Beer and Orioles Photo

This photo is really interesting because it was taken in 1959 the year the Theodore Hamm bought the Gunther Brewery. If you look behind the team you can see Gunther Beer being advertised on the score board. The advertisment probably didn't stay up there for very long because Hamm eliminated the production of Gunther Beer shortly after he took over and started selling his own brew instead. This photo also represents how influential Gunther Beer was to Baltimore and to the Orioles. I am sure during this time fans were drinking Gunther while watching the Orioles play in Memorial Stadium oppossed to todays beer of choice Bud or Miller Light.
Photo Courtesy of Enoch Pratt Library, State Library Resource Center Baltimore, Maryland

Gunther Brewing Company. “1959 Baltimore Orioles baseball team at Memorial Stadium, Baltimore.” Digital reproduction of 1 black-and-white photograph, 21 x 26 cm. Baltimore: Enoch Pratt Library, Date Original 1959, Date Digital 2003-05-19. From Enoch Pratt Library, Maryland Digital Cultural Heritage, 1951-1960, http://collections.mdch.org/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/mdaa&CISOPTR=114&CISOBOX=1&REC=14 (accessed December 10, 2009)

About the video posted below

The Google Video that I found below originally came from a website called TVDAYS.com but when I went to the actual site and searched for the video I found nothing. I am also uncertain of the actual date more or less the year when this video first aired. I wanted to post these comments on the same post as the video but I am unsure how to do that. I have to embed the HTML script of the video to the post and if I type up anything else the video doesn't show up... so that was really annoying. Overall I think the video is a little cheesy but it's old and in black and white so what do you expect? I believe this is how you cite a Google video - Gunther Beer [Commercial]. Retrieved December 10, 2009, from http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-73880865837109734&hl=en##

Gunther Beer commercial that I found on Google Videos

Gunther Beer Advertisements from Baltimore Historical Newspaper

I thought I would go ahead and post a couple of old newspaper ads featuring Gunther Beer from the Historical Baltimore Sun. Unfortuately I can only post the link to the document oppossed to actually posting the document on my blog because I don't know how to do that. I really wish I could actually post them on this blog but the images are PDF files so it's impossible to copy and paste them. So all stundents will need to use their Library Card number to view these old newspaper ads. The first one is just really neat to look at and compare to today's beer advertisments.
http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=1657584252&sid=1&Fmt=10&clientId=41152&RQT=309&VName=HNP

"Display Ad 5 -- No Title." The Sun (1837-1985), July 15, 1908, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 10, 2009)

This newspaper ad is also really cool because it was published in 1933 when prohibition ended. According to the newspaper ad Gunther Beer was in high demand and couldn't supply Baltimore customers fast enough. This ad supports how popular the beer was to the city and how happy they were to have their beloved beer back. On the bottom of the ad it says "Brewed and Bottled in Baltimore since 1881." So now I know when the brewery was first established! http://proquest.umi.com.proxy-ub.researchport.umd.edu/pqdweb?index=5&did=1671037252&SrchMode=1&sid=2&Fmt=10&VInst=PROD&VType=PQD&RQT=309&VName=HNP&TS=1260505767&clientId=41152

"Display Ad 26 -- No Title." The Sun (1837-1985), April 8, 1933, http://www.proquest.com/ (accessed December 10, 2009).

Gunther Beer

It was difficult to find secondary sources on the Gunther Brewing Company but here is some basic information that I found. The name of the Brewery before prohibition was originally called "Guenther" which probably meant that German immigrants founded the Brewery much like the American Brewery. The location of the Brewery is on 1211 South Conkling Street and is now used for cold food storage by the Tulkoff Family Partnership. I could not find an exact date when the Brewery was established but it appears it was sometime in the 1850's and produced beer up until 1976. The Brewery was bought out by Theodore Hamm in 1959 who owned a large Brewery in Minnesota and wanted to expand his business to the east coast. Hamm eliminated the original Gunther Brand which turned out to be a horrible business move because he lost many of Baltimore's loyal customers. Hamm didn't stay in Baltimore for very long and sold the brewery three years later to the F & M Schaefer Brewing Company. Schaefer reintroduced Gunther Beer back to Baltimore and regained former customers for quite some time after that. F & M Schaefer realized over time that is was too expensive to constantly maintain and upgrade older facilities like the one in Baltimore and decided to build a brand new modern brewery outside of Allentown, Pennsylvania. They then sold their property and operations in 1976 and beer there was no longer produced.

No Author Given, "Facts About... Gunther Brewing. Parcel 5, 'Ale, Pilsner, Stout Buildings' (Voluntary Cleanup Program)," Maryland Department of the Environment, http://www.mde.state.md.us/assets/document/Gunther_Brewery_parcel_5.pdf (accessed December 8, 2009).
Anthony Pompa, "Gunther Brewing Company Baltimore, Maryland," Beer, Breweries, and Breweriana of Upstate New York, http://heritage575.tripod.com/gunther_history.html
(accessed December 8, 2009).
Will Anderson, "The F. and M. Schaefer Brewing Company," BeerHistory.com, http://www.BeerHistory.com/library/holdings/schaefer_anderson.shtml (accessed December 9, 2009).

Newly Restored American Brewery

This is a picture of the newly restored American Brewery thanks to the help from Humanim. This is such a great picture to post because it is probably what the brewery looked like during it's first few years of operation. There are more pictures to view from this link from the Baltimore Sun http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-brewery-pg0522,0,7356115.photogallery and this photo is from the same photographer Jed Kirschbaum, “The American Brewery Building Restored,” Baltimore Sun, May 21, 2009. http://www.baltimoresun.com/business/bal-brewery-pg0522,0,7356115.photogallery (accessed December 1, 2009).

Restoration of the American Brewery

I apologize, it appears that a Columbia-based non-profit organization called Humanim are responsible for the restoration of the American Brewery and not the National Park Service. I was a little skeptical about this myself because the National Park Service is horribly funded and why would they spend money on restoring an old brewery in Baltimore. According to an article from the Baltimore Sun by Jacques Kelly $21.2 million dollars went into the restoration of the building. The project is not only a large step in reserecting an historical industrial icon but a big step towards the rebuilding of the community around the brewery. The communties population has declined almost twice its size in the past three decades and is considered one of the cities worst areas for crime. The whole restoration process is one of the first steps in rebuilding the community by sparking some motivation in its residents to work together for a better future. Cindy Truitt, chief development officer says, "This iconic building is a symbol of hope for us, in it, we saw the combination of the physical structure with the amazing human captial in this neighborhood. The neighborhood needs work force development and has the motivation for change." This quote and this information was provided from Baltimore Sun reporter Jacpues Kelly article - Jacques Kelly, "Splendor restored: Long-neglected American Brewery building becomes a 'symbol of hope' for a blighted city neighborhood," Baltimore Sun, August 18, 2008. http://www.humanim.org/library/splendor.pdf (accessed November 24, 2009).

The American Brewery

The first brewery I will focus on is the American Brewery which was built in 1863 by John Frederick Wiessner who was a German immigrant. The brewery still stands today and is located on 1701 North Gay Street although it is closed and not open to the public. It was vaccant for years after it closed down sometime in 1973. The building that you see today looks much like it did when it was reconstructed in 1887 and was restored by the National Park service of Historical Places. The Wiesnner family was forced to shut down the brewery during prohibition and was later on bought out by the Allegheny Beverage Company. The Brewery is special to Baltimore history because it represent how much European immigration had on the brewing industry in Baltimore. The brewery employed tons of German immigrants which supported their community and their presence in the city. No Author Given, "Baltimore: A National Register of Historic Places Travel Itinerary, American Brewery," National Register of Historical Places, http://www.nps.gov/nr/travel/baltimore/b37.htm (accessed November 24, 2009).

More Good Finds

I found a very interesting website called www.baltimorebeerweek.com that has a nice little section about the beer history of Baltimore. I didn't even realize it but Baltimore's Beer Week is October 8th-18th and I really wish I would have attended it. I would have been able to spend time with my girlfriend, have a beer or two... or three, and get some research done at the same time. Here are some recap videos on what I missed out on during that week in the Inner Harbor on the homepage of the website http://baltimorebeerweek.com/index.shtml. This was footage of the opening tap celebration although you apparently had to subscribe to the website to win tickets to this event but afterwards there was a kickoff party at the Pratt Street Ale House. I found two interesting articles on the website that are very useful to my research called, "History of Beer Making in Baltimore" by Stephen Demczuk and, "Is Baltimore a Beer Town?" by Thomas Cizauskas. Demczuk is the president of the Baltimore-Washington Beer Works and Cizauskas is a writer for the Mid-Atlantic Brewing News. Demczuk looks like he has a lot of knowledge about Beer History in Maryland and Baltimore and has an email on his website so perhaps I could contact him for information http://ravenbeer.com/home.html. I also found another website that has more information on Baltimore's Brewing History and it appears to be pretty credible for its information and pictures http://www.kilduffs.com/American_Brewery_Baltimore.html.

Found interesting Primary Sources and experienced some mild frustration

I found some pretty neat primary source documents in the Baltimore Sun Archives on Proquest provided from the Langsdale Library. Some of them were ads for National Bohemian Beer (Natty Boh) and Gunther's Beer ranging from the 1890's to the 1930's. I had no idea that Gunther's beer was a beer that Baltimore produced. The other documents were articles about the American Brewing Company ranging once again from the 1890's to the 1930's. If I remember correctly one of the articles discussed price cuts in the in the late 1930's due to the depression. This was interesting and I am really frustrated because I emailed all these documents to myself and I cannot view them at home. I would have loved to post them all in this blog, especially the ads, but for some reason I cannot log into the Libraries Datebase from home. My pass code must have expired... Next monday I will be sure to post these ads with of course the proper citations. I also found some pretty good information of the American Brewing Company from the Web.

Project Proposal

The focus of my research will be based on Baltimore's general brewing history. National Bohemian Beer is still a large icon within the city of Baltimore although some may not think of this right away, it is the unsung symbol of the cities culture. The National Brewing Company that use to produce Natty Boh is certainly one of the more recent breweries but I want to explore more then just one brewery. I want to also focus my research on the American Brewing Company and the Gunther Brewing Company as well. Throughout my research I want to find out who founded the breweries? Who were the employees that worked there throughout the time it was open? How popular was the beer throughout the history of Baltimore compared to its popularity today? Why did the brewery go out of business? How much of a legacy have these breweries left behind that makes them a substantial part of Baltimore's rich history?