Charles D. Kaier Company

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The Charles D. Kaier Company was an American beverage company in Mahanoy City that acted as a whiskey bottler and brewery . The company was founded in 1862 and sold to the Henry F. Ortlieb Brewing Company in 1966 .

history

founding

The Charles D. Kaier Company was founded in 1862 by the German émigré Charles D. Kaier under the name The Chas. D. Kaier Company founded. Kaier emigrated to the USA with his parents in 1857 . In the beginning, the company was mainly active as a bottler, packer and distributor for various whiskey distilleries and breweries. Whiskey was blended there and sold as "Kaier's Special 'A' Whiskey".

In 1880 Kaier persuaded his cousin Franz Kaier, who was still living in Germany, to follow him and work for him as a master brewer. This marked the beginning of the Chas' independent brewing activity. D. Kaier Company. In 1891 the name became Chas. D. Kaier Brewing Company changed. Until 1894 this was the only time in the company's history in which the brewery was also mentioned in its name. In 1892 the company was expanded to include cooling systems and the bottling plant expanded. In 1894 the name was changed to a neutral variant: Chas. D. Kaier Co. Ltd.

In 1895 there was a break between company founder Kaier and his operations manager Philip Henry Fuhrmann. When Fuhrmann returned from a trip to Germany, he sued Kaier, alleging that he had run the company poorly in his absence. At the time, Fuhrmann owned approximately $ 25,000 of the company's capital stock, which was less than 5%. The lawsuit was unsuccessful. Kaier then bought Fuhrmann's shares - he then moved to Shamokin and became the owner of the Fuhrmann & Schmidt Brewing Company there .

Turn of the century and prohibition

Company founder Kaier passed away four years later - the management of the company was passed on from Kaier's widow Margaret to the children Mary and Charles. A year later, the Schuylkill Brewing Company tried to buy the Kaier brewery, but failed. Another attempt by businessman DM Graham in 1903 also failed. At that time, the brewery's annual output was around 100,000 barrels of beer.

When Margaret Kaier died in 1913, a brief argument broke out between Mary and Charles over their will. This dispute led to Mary taking over the management of the brewery, while Charles took care of the opera house, which his father had bought. Mary appointed her husband Lloyd Fahler as the new president of the brewery.

During Prohibition , the brewery had to stop bottling whiskeys. In order to keep afloat economically, low-alcohol light beer (eng. "Near beer"), ice and lemonades ( ginger ale , root beer and others) were produced.

In addition to this legal activity, the brewery also brewed and sold beer with illegally high alcohol content. To avoid the danger of jail time, the Fahlers had the company run by straw men , two men named Shalleck and Zack. A man named Bill Dewey was also involved, to a lesser extent than Shalleck and Zack. The legal light beer was made by distilling regular whole beer . However, the brewery piped parts of the full beer output into a barn on Mahanoy Creek , where it was hidden in secret cellars and driven away. "Spotters" were employed to keep an eye out for federal police vehicles on the streets leading to Mahanoy City and to make a warning phone call to the brewery if necessary.

Growth and decline

After the end of Prohibition, regular brewing operations were resumed under the name Charles D. Kaier Company and under the owners Mary and Lloyd Fahler. In 1936 the Frackville Brewing Company was acquired, demolished and its facilities relocated to Mahanoy City. In the late 1940s, the Chas reached. D. Kaier Company has an annual output of over 200,000 barrels, which is the production highlight in the company's history.

In 1950 a new warehouse was built and new packaging equipment was purchased. That year the brewery won first prize in a beer competition in Brussels .

The price war forced by national breweries as well as their massive advertising campaigns led to the Kaier brewery losing market share. In 1966, due to this competitive pressure, the brewery was sold to the Henry F. Ortlieb Brewing Company for $ 500,000 . In 1968 the brewery in Mahanoy City was finally closed.

The production of Kaier beer was relocated to the location of the Fuhrmann & Schmidt Brewing Company, the brewery of the former operations manager Philip Henry Fuhrmann.

The brewery buildings were not demolished and can still be seen today.

literature

  • David G. Moyer (2009), American Breweries of the Past , Bloomington (Indiana): AuthorHouse, pp. 54–55 (English)

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ One source gives the year 1854.