Rheingold Breweries

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Tray with Rheingold logo

Rheingold Breweries is a former American brewery in New York City . Between the 1940s and 1960s, it was one of the city's most successful breweries with its main product Rheingold Extra Dry .

history

founding

As a result of the German Revolution , the innkeeper and brewer Samuel Liebmann emigrated with his family to the USA in 1854. His eldest son, Joseph Liebmann , had emigrated in 1850 and settled in Brooklyn . Shortly after the family arrived, Samuel Liebmann signed a one-year lease for the Maasche Brewery on Meserole Street in Williamsburg and renamed it S. Liebmann Brewery . After the lease expired, Liebmann and his sons Joseph , Henry and Charles built a new, larger brewery at the intersection of Forest and Bremen Street in the nearby Bushwick district , which ran under the same name.

In 1868, Samuel Liebmann retired from active business. The company had grown steadily since it was founded. At the same time, Joseph Liebmann and his brother-in-law David Obermeyer opened the Obermeyer and Liebmann Havana Brewery , which subsequently operated independently of the S. Liebmann Brewery. In 1872 the company founder Samuel Liebmann died and the management of the brewery was taken over by his sons. The name was changed to S. Liebmann's Sons Brewing Company . At the time, the company was one of the first Brooklyn breweries to have a mechanical cooling system. At this time the Liebmann family began to work for the construction of roads and canals in their district.

In 1877 the Liebmann Brewery was the largest brewery in Brooklyn, with an annual production of 39,000 barrels of beer. The third acquisition of a brewery was made in 1878: JP Schoenewald Brewery in Brooklyn was bought. In 1883 the Rheingold brand was introduced, which became the flagship of the brewery in the 20th century. In 1895, Joseph Liebmann's daughter married the hop trader Samuel Simon Steiner. This family connection to the Steiner family contributed to the rise of the brewery. Seven years later the Claus Lipsius Brewery was acquired. Thus the production capacity of the Liebmann brewery was already 200,000 barrels per year.

Prohibition and Ascension

In 1903 the three Liebmann brothers retired and handed over the management of the business to six of their grandsons. After the death of the brewery owner Johann Grauer, the new board of directors bought his Ridgewood Park Brewery . By 1914 the annual output rose to 700,000 barrels. During the First World War, the business suffered due to the prevailing resentment against the family's German roots.

During the Prohibition era , the brewery sold lemonade and heavily alcohol-reduced light beer . The Obermeyer and Liebmann Havana Brewery was incorporated into the company in 1924. At that time the brewery name was changed to Liebmann Breweries . After the end of Prohibition in 1933, the brewery began again to produce its portfolio of whole beers.

At the same time, the Liebmann grandchildren succeeded in hiring the former managing director of the Löwenbräu brewery, Hermann Schülein . As a Jew, he had emigrated to Germany because of the anti-Semitic propaganda that was emerging. His experience in the beer business helped the company to grow strongly in the years that followed. Under him and the great-grandson of the company founder, Philip Liebman, a new marketing strategy was implemented that focused on the Rheingold brand. It was marketed as Rheingold Extra Dry via posters, print advertising and catchy radio commercials ("Rheingold, the dry beer - think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer."). In addition, there was the newly introduced "Miss Rheingold" beauty contest , which quickly became popular locally. The first Rheingold girl was the model Jinx Falkenburg in 1940. In 1947 the John Eichler Brewing Company was bought.

Despite the promising marketing strategy, World War II marked a difficult time for the company due to the public's reservations about a German company. After the end of the war, the brewery profited greatly from the national economic boom and Rheingold became one of the most popular beer brands in New York. Up until the 1960s, Liebmann Breweries held a market share of up to 35% in the local market. In the 1950s, two Acme Breweries production sites in California ( Los Angeles and San Francisco ) were taken over and the John F. Trommer Brewery (1950) was acquired. At the same time, Liebmann Breweries became a regional sponsor of the Nat King Cole Show , the first television show hosted by an African-American.

In 1960 the Liebmann Breweries hired the master brewer Joseph Owades , who developed a recipe for a “light” beer. This was sold under the name Gablinger's Diet Beer . It was later sold to the Master Brau brewery , which in turn sold the recipe to Miller in 1972 . From this, they developed the extremely popular Miller Lite in 1975.

Decline and sale

Despite its successful history, the company could not withstand the increasing competitive pressure on the American beer market of the 1960s and 1970s. Larger, nationwide breweries such as Anheuser-Busch , Miller and Coors were able to exploit economies of scale thanks to their much larger production volumes and penetrated the New York beer market. In 1957 the company sold its Los Angeles location to the Theodore Hamm Brewing Company , and in 1959 the San Francisco location. In 1961 they separated from the Eichler brewery. The Liebmann Breweries were sold to the Pepsi Bottling Group in 1963 and renamed Rheingold Breweries in 1964 . In 1965 the Rheingold Breweries were the eighth largest brewery in the USA with an annual output of 4,236,000 barrels.

In the period that followed, the Rheingold brand changed hands several times. In 1974 the coffee maker Chock full o 'nuts bought the brewery. He stopped production of the Rheingold brand in 1976 and closed the brewery in Brooklyn. In 1980 the brand was sold to Christian Schmidt Brewing Company . In 1981 the Bushwick brewery was demolished. The G. Heileman Brewing Company later bought the company. When the Heileman Brewery was bought by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1996, the company took over the rights.

Reintroduced in 1998

In 1996, the president of Rheingold Breweries, Michael Mitaro, decided to lease the Rheingold brand, which had been inactive since 1976, back from Stroh Brewery Company in order to attempt a relaunch of the brand. Together with Walter Liebman, a descendant of the company's founder, and the former master brewer, Joseph Owades, the production of Rheingold beer was resumed in 1998 at the FX Brewery in Utica . Rheingold became the official beer sponsor of the New York Mets and was served at Shea Stadium . At the same time, the "Miss Rheingold" competition was reintroduced. Despite the much-advertised reintroduction, the brand did not succeed in entering the largest customer segment of 21 to 27 year olds. In 2005 the Rheingold Breweries were bought by the Drinks Americas holding company .

In 2013 the real estate company "Read Property" presented plans to convert the old brewery complex in Bushwick into a residential complex.

"Miss Rheingold" competition

Miss Rheingold 1949

The Liebmann Breweries have held an annual beauty contest for women since 1940. The winner for the coming year was the official "Miss Rheingold" and thus the advertising face of the brand. The competition was very popular and helped the brewery gain popularity. In 1964 the competition was discontinued because the brewery could no longer raise the financial means for its event due to the decline of the brand.

The names of all winners between 1940 and 1964 are listed below:

year Surname
1940 Jinx Falkenburg
1941 Ruth Ownbey
1942 Nancy Drake
1943 Sonia Gover
1944 Jane House
1945 Pat Boyd
1946 Rita Daigle
1947 Michaele Fallon
1948 Pat Quinland
1949 Pat McElroy
1950 Pat Burrage
1951 Elisa Gammon
1952 Anne Hogan
1953 Mary Austin
1954 Adrienne Garrett
1955 Nancy Woodruff
1956 Hillie Merritt
1957 Margie McNally
1958 Madelyn Darrow
1959 Robbin Bain
1960 Emily Banks
1961 Janet Mick
1962 Kathy Kersh
1963 Loretta Rissell
1964 Celeste Yarnall

With the relaunch of the brand in 1998, the competition was reintroduced.

Rheingold in pop culture

Rheingold beer can be found in a number of plants:

  • In the film Der Pate (1972), a Rheingold delivery truck stands in the background of the scene in which Sonny beats up his brother-in-law Carlo.
  • In the film Sophie's Decision (1982), Nathan throws his friend Stingo a Rheingold.
  • In the film The Last House on the Left (1972), Junior Stillo and Sadie get a Rheingold in the bathroom.
  • In one of the first scenes of the film The Werewolf of Tarker Mills (1985) the character Arnie Westrum sings the promotional song of the brewery.
  • In Eartha Kitt's song I wanna be evil she says at the beginning: "I was made Miss Rheingold though I never touch beer." ("I was elected Miss Rheingold, although I never drink beer.")
  • In Stephen King's novel Carrie , the character Billy Nolan drinks Rheingold beer.
  • In the book 'Tis , Frank McCourt writes that Rheingold was one of the first beers he had seen in America.
  • In the Oscar-winning film The Green Book , the character Tony Vallelonga has a Rhine gold tapped at the bar.

Web links

Movie

ARD Prost and L'Chaim , November 7, 2016, 8:15 p.m., 44 min., From 31 min., Accessed on November 12, 2016

literature

  • Bernhard Purin : "My Beer is Rheingold - the dry Beer". The Liebmanns, Hermann Schülein and Miss Rheingold . In: Lilian Harlander, Bernhard Purin (ed.): Beer is the wine of this country. Jewish brewing stories , Volk Verlag, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3-86222-211-7 , pp. 207––229.

swell

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ From the sources it is not clear whether the German or the Americanized name was used. It can be assumed that the name "Liebmann" was shortened over the decades to the Americanized version "Liebman".