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Publisher: Adolph Meckert, 1868.
Hard Cover, 288 pages, 8 x 10.75.
Item #1400
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Talk about rare! Here is an item you won't likely see available ever again. It is a bound volume of the complete first year (1868) of Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer (The American Brewer) trade journal. Contains the complete inaugural year of 24 bi-weekly issues from Issue No. 1 (January 1, 1868) through Issue No. 24 (December 15, 1868). This is down-and-dirty American brewing history. In 1868, New York City was the nation's beer capitol with dozens of lager beer breweries, including most of the country's largest. Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer was begun by publisher Adolph Meckert at 5 Frankfort Street in New York to serve the rapidly growing industry. "Manufacturers and Businessmen connected with the Brewing Industry," wrote the publisher, "will find it in their interest to patronize this scientific and practical periodical." Every issue is published entirely in German because, of course, the great majority of the nation's lager brewers were recent German immigrants, many of whom who had not yet mastered the English language. In New York, men like George Ehret, Jacob Ruppert, Maximilian & Frederick Schaefer, Emanuel Bernheimer, August Schmid and many others had already planted the seeds of their brewing empires, and all certainly were subscribers to Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer. At the end of each year, it was customary for brewers to gather the year's trade journals, have them bound into protective covers, and use them as reference material in the operation of their breweries. The publisher even supplied an index and cover page for the year's issues, meant to be bound at the front of the volume. This 1868 volume includes both the index and the title page. It is likely that this volume has survived from the reference library of some early American brewery. During that initial year of 1868, a Bohemian immigrant named Anton Schwarz came on board as the magazine's technical writer. Within a few years, he had purchased the journal and spent the rest of his life devoted to the scientific advancement of the brewing industry through Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer and the United States Brewers' Academy, which he founded in New York. When he died in 1895, he was regarded as one of the great pioneers of brewing science in America. The magazine continued on for many years afterward. Each issue of Der Amerikanische Bierbrauer contains about 12 pages filled with a variety of items, including scientific articles, production figures, industry news from around the globe, and 2-4 pages of advertisements from all sorts of suppliers and manufacturers — hop dealers, cork makers, coopers, barley merchants, and makers of all kinds of equipment from hydrometers to early beer refrigeration units.
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