William Gretz

William Gretz (* 1852 in Stuttgart ; † 1930 in Philadelphia ) was a German brewer and co-owner of the Tivoli Brewery in Philadelphia (from 1909 Reiger & Gretz Brewing Company ), which later became known as the William Gretz Brewing Company .

biography

Gretz emigrated to the USA in 1868 and initially settled in Boston . In 1880 he moved to Philadelphia where he found employment at Louis Bergdoll's City Park Brewery. At the same time he produced and sold beer under his own name. As early as 1881, Gretz became business partners of Leonard and Frank Reiger, who took over the brewery on the corner of Germantown Avenue and West Oxford Street, which had been unused since 1876. The three of them ran the brewery under the name Tivoli Brewery .

Until the turn of the century, the brewery was constantly expanding. In 1909 the name was changed to Reiger & Gretz Brewing Company . His sons William Jr. and Charles took up a job in the brewery at this time. During the prohibition the brewery had to switch to the production of low-alcohol light beer . Gretz died in 1930. Three years later, his sons bought the shares of the Reiger family and renamed the brewery the William Gretz Brewing Company .

The Gretz brewery remained active under this name until 1958, when it had to close due to increasing cost and competitive pressure from nationwide breweries such as Anheuser-Busch and Schlitz .

family

Little is known about Gretz's family. He had two sons: William Jr. and Charles W.

The Gretz family is still in the beer business today. The Gretz Beer Company acts as a wholesaler for Anheuser-Busch and various microbreweries .

literature

• David G. Moyer (2009), American Breweries of the Past , Bloomington (Indiana): AuthorHouse, pp. 44–45 (English)

Web links

• Hidden City Philadelphia: What's Up With The Gretz Brewery? (English), accessed on August 26, 2015.
• Preservation Alliance: Application for the monument protection of the Gretz Brewery , accessed on August 26, 2015.