Adam Scheidt Brewing Company
The Adam Scheidt Brewing Company was an American brewery in Norristown .
history
The story of Adam Scheidt Brewing Company begins when a couple of brothers named Moeshlin founded a brewery in 1866 at 151 West Marshall and Barbadoes Streets in Norristown. Four years later this brewery was bought by the saloon owner Charles Scheidt. Charles' brother Adam emigrated from Germany to the United States in 1878 to join his brother's company.
Together, the brothers built a new brewery with its own ice house under the name C. & A. Scheidt Company . The annual production capacity at that time was around 1,500 barrels . In the years that followed, offices in Norristown and Baltimore and a bottling plant (1882) were built.
Charles Scheidt died in 1884 and his brother Adam took over the management of the brewery. Six years later, he officially registered the brewery under the name Adam Scheidt Brewing Company with an initial capital of 125,000 US dollars . Following registration, the brewery was expanded to a production capacity of 60,000 barrels. In 1891 the first acquisition of a foreign brewery was carried out: The AR Cox Brewery at 257 West Main & Markley Street in Norristown was operated as a subsidiary until 1896.
By 1904, the Scheidt brewery had already achieved an annual output of over 100,000 barrels due to its increasing popularity. The brewery complex consisted of the brewery, a power station, a bottling plant, a warehouse, a storage cellar, three artesian wells and an ice house. The malt used in the brewing process was imported from Germany. The most popular brands of the time were Lotos Export Beer and Twentieth Century Ale. The Scheidt brewery was the tenth largest of a total of 50 breweries in the Philadelphia region . In the following years Scheidt introduced his son Adam Scheidt Jr. into the business.
During the time of Prohibition , the Scheidt brewery remained in the market with various products. Instead of regular full beers, a low-alcohol light beer ("near beer"), malt, ice and lemonades were produced. Adam Scheidt Sr. died in 1933. His son Adam Scheidt Jr. took over the management of the brewery.
On April 7, 1933, the company began regular brewing operations again - one minute after midnight that day, a crowd of around 5,000 people is said to have gathered in front of the gates of the brewery to be able to buy regular beer again. The popular brands of the time were Valley Forge Beer, Ram's Head Ale, and Prior Beer.
During the Second World War , the brewery had to accept rationing measures on grain, increased taxes on beer, and the collection of 15% of the output volume for the war effort. This prevented the brewery from expanding during the war. With the end of the war, however, a new bottling plant was built for around 2 million US dollars.
The Scheidt brewery profited from the economic upswing in the post-war period. In 1952 an annual output of 494,000 barrels was achieved. On June 16, 1954, it was bought by C. Schmidt & Sons . These continued brewing under the Scheidt name until 1960, when the brewery was renamed Valley Forge Brewing Company . Five more years later the name C. Schmidt & Sons was chosen.
Labor disputes and a difficult market situation led to the Scheidt brewery being closed on December 31, 1974. At that time she had 250 employees.
The brewery complex was not demolished and can still be seen today. It has been converted into an office park called the Stony Creek Office Center.
literature
- David G. Moyer (2009), American Breweries of the Past , Bloomington (Indiana): AuthorHouse, pp. 78–79 (English)
Web links
- Beer, Breweries, and Breweriana of Upstate New York: Adam Scheidt Brewing Company , accessed January 1, 2016.
- Adam Scheidt's biography , accessed January 1, 2016.
- Pennsylvania Brewery Historians: Scheidt Brewery images , accessed January 1, 2016.
- Scheidt Brewing Company Added To Norristown Economy For Century , accessed January 1, 2016.
Coordinates: 40 ° 7 ′ 7.2 " N , 75 ° 20 ′ 40.7" W.