Bernhard Stroh

Bernhard Stroh (born April 20, 1822 in Kirn , Rhine Province , Kingdom of Prussia , † June 23, 1882 in Wayne County , Michigan ) was a German brewer and founder of the Lion's Head Brewery , which later became known as the Stroh Brewery Company .

biography

Bernhard Stroh was born in Kirn an der Nahe in 1822. His parents were Georg Friedrich and Juliana Stroh (née Nonweiler). He was the youngest of three children. His family ran a small brewery and restaurant. Here Stroh learned the craft of brewing from his father.

He emigrated to the USA during the German Revolution . There he took a job at the Barnitz Brewery in Harrisburg for two years . During this time, he learned English and became familiar with the US brewing business. In the fall of 1850 he came to Detroit on his originally planned route to Chicago and decided to stay there.

In 1850 he founded his own brewery on Catherine Street, the Lion's Head Brewery (also known as the Lion's Crest Brewery or The Lion Brewing Company ). He chose the lion on the company logo as a reminder of the coat of arms of the Kyrburg near his home town. The lion, the heraldic animal of the Wild and Rhine Counts , is still part of the company logo today. He started making Pilsen beer , which had only become popular a few years earlier.

In the Detroit City Census of 1852, Stroh's name is given as Bernard Straw . It is unclear whether he intentionally wanted to anglicize his name or whether this was due to the census officials.

Stroh used copper brew kettles, which made his beer lighter without affecting the taste. During the first few years, Stroh went door to door in a cart selling his beer. Only later could he afford horses and wagons.

Business with his brewery was so good that a decade after it was founded, he bought a piece of land near Catherine Street and built a new brewery, which was completed in 1867.

Straw died in Wayne County , Michigan, in 1882 . He is buried in Elmwood Cemetery , Detroit . His son Bernhard Jr. took over the management of the company.

Today, straw beer is sold by the Pabst Brewing Company .

family

Bernhard Stroh married Eleonora Hauser on March 28, 1853 (* February 20, 1833; † 1868). The marriage had eight children, two of whom died early:

• Bernhard Jr. (born June 15, 1854; † 1916)
• Julius (born February 3, 1856) ∞ Hettie Melchers, 1883, daughter of Julius Theodor Melchers
• Laura (May 14, 1857 - December 15, 1858)
• Cornelia "Nellie" (* 1859)
• George Bernhard (born April 5, 1861)
• Emil (born September 23, 1862)
• Rose (born September 2, 1866)
• Robert (July 2, 1868 - May 3, 1869)

In 1870 Stroh married Clothilde Welcker, with whom he was married until his death in 1882.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c} Ancestors of Bernhard Stroh (English), accessed June 29, 2013
2. ↑ ^{a b c} Find A Grave: Bernhard Stroh, Sr. (English), accessed on June 29, 2013
3. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g} Peter H. Blum: Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830 , pp. 59–62 Available online on Google Books , accessed on June 29, 2013
4. ↑ Stroh Brewery Company: History  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed June 29, 2013  
5. ↑ Other sources state that he spent his first years as an emigrant in Brazil.
6. ↑ Funding Universe: History of The Stroh Brewery Company , accessed June 29, 2013
7. ↑ Stroh Brewery at Beer Collections ( Memento of the original from December 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed June 29, 2013  
8. ↑ Other sources give July 28th as the wedding date.