JF Wiessner & Sons Brewing Company

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Renovated main building of the JF Wiessner & Sons Brewing Company (2009)

The JF Wiessner & Sons Brewing Company is a former American Brewery in Baltimore . It was founded in 1863 and closed with the beginning of Prohibition .

history

In 1853, John Frederick Wiessner, born in Uehlfeld , Bavaria, emigrated to the USA. He found a job as a master brewer at the George Rost Brewery in Baltimore . With his brother-in-law, George Baurenschmidt, he made the decision to open his own brewery. In order to raise capital for the foundation, Wiessner traveled back to Germany in 1862 and returned a year later with enough money to lease a piece of land on 1700 North Gay Street, a district that at the time was mainly dominated by German immigrants. He also received a loan grant from malt dealers Levi and Henry Straus, who were also indirectly involved in founding the National Brewing Company . On this property, Wiessner founded the John F. Wiessner Brewing Company with an attached pub and beer garden. The almost five-meter-high statue of the brewer's patron Gambrinus at the front of the brewery complex was striking for the cityscape . When it was founded, the production volume was around 1,500 barrels per year. Opposite the brewery was the relatively large house of the Wiessners, in which not only the family but also a number of brewery workers recruited by Wiessner from Germany lived. As is usual in many breweries, he took care of board and lodging for his employees.

Over the years the Wiessner brewery developed successfully, so that in 1877 a new main building was built. Nine years later, a loan of $ 10,000 was taken out to increase the brewery's production capacity - the architect and builder Charles Stoll built a five-story brewery. In 1891 Wiessner found his sons mature enough to join the company. His son John Jr. trained as a master brewer at a very early age. He was hired together with his brothers George F. and Henry F. As a result of this company entry, the company was renamed JF Wiessner & Sons Brewing Company . The upswing continued in the following years and technical innovations such as mechanical cooling were introduced piece by piece (1885) and the brewery complex was expanded and renovated (1887). In the meantime, the production capacity was around 100,000 barrels per year and the Wiessner brewery was one of the largest in Baltimore, although it did not fully utilize its capacities: in 1899, around 70,000 barrels of beer were produced.

On June 4, 1896, the ownership of the property on which the brewery stood was recorded for the first time, as it had been a purely verbal lease until then. In 1900 a bottle filling plant and several horse stables were built to make room for brewery horses - distribution via trucks was only introduced in 1909. After 34 years as president, the company's founder John Frederick Wiessner died in 1897 - the management of the brewery was given to his son John Jr. In the same year, the Wiessner family decided against joining the brewery conglomerate of the Maryland Brewing Company. That decision later paid off, and the brewery defied stiff competition from the Maryland Brewing Company. In 1901 the annual production capacity was 150,000 barrels. John Wiessner Jr. died in 1906 and his brother George took over management of the company.

In 1919 the output was 110,000 barrels, which was the peak of production. At that time there were about 61 employees in the brewery. With the beginning of Prohibition , the Wiessners had to switch to the production of low-alcohol light beer . However, this transition was unsuccessful and the brewery closed in 1921. George Wiessner died in 1925, the last brother of the founder's sons, Henry, took over the company, although he was actually only responsible for managing the property and the building. In 1931, the brewery complex was sold to the American Malt Company, which modernized it and used it as a production site until 1973 under the name American Brewery .

In 1934, attempts were made to revive the JF Wiessner & Sons Brewing Company, but this failed.

In 1973 the brewery complex was added to the National Register of Historic Places . The main building stood empty until 2004, when a non-profit organization moved in and renovated it until 2009.

Individual evidence