LATE SUMMER, 1844. Milwaukee, Wisconsin Territory. Phillip Best elbowed his way along plank walkways jammed with barrels, boxes, pushcarts, and people. He was headed for the canal, or the “Water Power,” as locals called it, a mile-long millrace powered by a tree-trunk-and-gravel dam on the Milwaukee River. Plank docks punctuated its tumbling flow and small manufactories—a few mills, a handful of smithies and wheelwrights, a tannery or two—lined its length. Best was searching for a particular business as he pushed his way past more carts and crates, and dodged horses pulling wagons along the dirt street and laborers shouldering newly hewn planks and bags of freshly milled grain. He had been in the United States only a few weeks, and Milwaukee’s bustle marked a sharp contrast to the drowsy German village where he and his three brothers had worked for their father, Jacob, Sr., a brewer and vintner.

Phillip finally arrived at the shop owned by A. J. Langworthy, metalworker and ironmonger. He presented himself to the proprietor and explained that he needed a boiler—a copper vat—for his family’s new brewing business. Would Langworthy fabricate it for them? The metalworker shook his head no. “I [am] familiar with their construction,” he explained to Best, “. . . but I [dislike] very much to have the noisy things around, and [I do] not wish to do so.”

Wrong answer. Best possessed what the historian of his brewery later called a “fiery” personality and an irresistible fount of aggressive determination. Best cajoled Langworthy, argued with him, badgered, and perhaps even begged. The metalworker may have been surprised at the passion that poured from the otherwise unassuming man before him, a slender twenty-nine-year-old of medium height, whose prominent ears and blond hair framed deep-set gray eyes and a ruler-straight nose. Overwhelmed and overrun by the man’s persistence, Langworthy finally consented.

That obstacle behind him, Best prodded Langworthy to hurdle the next: lack of materials. Milwaukee, frontier town of seven thousand souls, contained only two sheets of metal. Langworthy needed eight or nine plus a bucket of rivets. Left to his own devices, he might have abandoned the commission; with Phillip Best breathing down his neck, that was impossible. Langworthy headed south, first to Racine, then to Kenosha, and finally on to tiny Chicago. It was an exercise in frustration: He could not find enough material for even one section of the boiler. There was nothing for it but to dispatch an order to Buffalo, New York.

Eventually the goods arrived, and Langworthy and his employees set to work transforming metal sheets and rivets into an oversized pot. They worked on a nearby dock, where what the metalworker called the “music of riveting”—racket is more like it—drew an enormous crowd. “[A]ll came to see it,” said Langworthy, “and I think if the roll had been called at that time that every man, woman, and child except the invalids, would have answered ‘here.’” The finished product was a squat rotund vat, about four feet in diameter and four feet high, big enough to hold three to four hundred gallons of water.

When the boiler was completed, Phillip returned to the ironmonger’s shop, this time lugging a cloth bundle of coins—so many that the two men spent more than an hour tallying the value. The task revealed the truth: Best did not have enough money. He explained that his family had spent nearly all of their funds— two hundred dollars—on a piece of property on Chestnut Street, where they planned to build their brewhouse. Phillip had commissioned the vat in expectation of a forthcoming loan, but the money had failed to materialize. The bundle of coins represented his family’s only remaining cash. Phillip asked Langworthy to keep the boiler until he could scrounge up the balance.

What happened next is a credit to A. J. Langworthy’s generosity and Phillip Best’s integrity. Langworthy was but a few years older than Phillip. Like Phillip, he had left the security of the familiar—in his case, New York—for the adventure and gamble of a new life on the frontier. Perhaps he glanced through the door at the mad rush of people and goods flowing past unabated from daylight to dusk. He was no fool; he understood that business out in the territories would always be more fraught with risk than back in the settled east. But what was life for, if not to embrace some of its uncertainty?

He eyed the man standing before him. He knew about the family’s decision to sell their winery and brewery and venture to the new world. He had come to understand that Best’s “love for dramatic speech and action” stemmed not from swaggering braggadocio, but from the depths of a “born leader.” The debt would never be paid until Best made some money, and the boiler was useless unless filled with steaming malt and hops.

Take the boiler and get busy, he told Phillip, and pay the balance when you can. Langworthy recalled years later that the man “was filled with great joy, and ever after my most ardent friend.” Best promised his creditor not just the family’s first keg of beer, but free brew for the rest of Langworthy’s life. (The promise outlived Best himself. On his deathbed in 1869, Phillip reminded his wife of the pact and charged his sons-in-law with the task of upholding the family’s end. In 1896, Langworthy, well into his eighties, was still drinking free beer.)

It’s not clear how Phillip transported his treasure the half mile or so from Langworthy’s shop to the family’s brewhouse. Perhaps his new friend provided delivery. Perhaps Phillip persuaded an idling wagoner to haul the vat with the promise of free beer. Perhaps one or more of his three brothers accompanied him, and they and their burden staggered through Kilbourntown—the German west side of Milwaukee—and up the Chestnut Street hill. But eventually the vat made its way to the Bests’ property—the location of Best and Company, and the foundation of their American adventure.

OVER THE NEXT FEW YEARS, Phillip Best would lay the groundwork for what stood, fifty years later, as the largest brewery in the world. But in 1844, he was just one anonymous drop in a stream of humanity that poured into the United States in the mid-nineteenth century. A mere 600,000 immigrants landed during the 1830s, but starting in 1840, that trickle swelled like a creek in early spring: 1.7 million in the 1840s and another 2.6 million the following decade. Seventy-five percent were Irish and German (the rest hailed mostly from England and non-German northern Europe). Many of the Germans were cut from the same mold as the Bests: They arrived in possession of a bit of money and a craft that would earn them more. Most of the Irish, however, were impoverished peasants fleeing the famine that destroyed that sad island’s main source of food and, before it ended, killed a million people. The million or so who survived the trip across the Atlantic (many succumbed to the vomit, feces, and filth of steerage) were mostly peasants, uneducated, unskilled, and carrying nothing more than the clothes on their backs.

The Bests had emigrated from a village called Mettenheim, where a Marley-like chain of war and poverty, taxes and regulations, shackled their ambitions. In the early 1800s, warfare and political turmoil left German-speaking Europeans, whether Prussian, Bavarian, Rhenish, or Austrian, exhausted, disabled, or angry. Explosive population growth and bad harvests added deprivation and poverty to the mix. Tyrannical princes and dukes suppressed political expression and individual ambition. Phillip and his countrymen yearned for a “true” Germany, a people united under one government that granted its citizens basic freedoms. No one believed it would happen anytime soon. The chain’s grip tightened in the 1830s, when the price of coffee and tea plummeted, and customers abandoned beer for the intoxicating novelty of caffeine. Others embraced potato-based schnaps, a throat-burning, alcoholic jolt that was cheaper than beer. Hundreds of brewers emptied their vats, damped their fires, and shut their doors.

Copyright © 2006 by Maureen Ogle.

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INDEX

A

Sol Abrams • Russell Ackoff • Acme Brewing Company • Jane Addams • additives • adjunct brewing • adulteration • attitudes toward alcohol • alcoholism • ale • All About Beer (periodical) • amendments • American Brewer (periodical) • American Brewer's Review (periodical) • American Can Company • American Federation of Labor • American Homebrewers Association (AHA) • American Issue (periodical) • American Specialty Craft Beer Company • Anchor Brewing Company • Percy Andreae • George T. Angell • Anheuser Brewing Company • Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association • anti-Prohihition movement, emergence of • Anti-Saloon League (ASL) • Arizona Brewing Company • Armadillo World Headquarters (Austin) • (Mrs.) Sue F. Armstrong • Association Against the Prohibition Amendment (AAPA) • Association of Brewers • Atlantic Garden • Austin City Limits • Aztec Brewing Company

B

Patrick Baker • Ballantine Brewing Company • Karl Balling • Don Barkley • barley • Richard Bartholdt • Bartholomay Brewing Company • Bass Ale • Tom Bates • Ruby Baumann • Bavarian Brewery • Lyman Beecher • beer, American preferences in • beer, bland • beer can • beer, changing attitudes toward • beer, consumption of, per capita • beer gardens • beerhalls • Bergner & Engel Brewing Company • Best Brewing Company • Carl Best (brother of Phillip) • Charles Best (son of Carl) • Henry Best • Jacob Best Jr. • Jacob Best Sr. • Lorenz Best • Phillip Best • Phillip Best (brother of Carl) • Bevo • Bielefeld Garden • Joseph Billigheim • Black Hawk Stout • bland beer • Albert Blatz • Blatz Brewing Company • Valentin Blatz • Blitz-Weinhard Brewing Company • Blue Heron Pale Ale • Blue Moon Belgian White Ale • Bohemian lager • bootlegging • John Borger • Boston Beer Company • Boston Braves • Boston Celtics • Boston Consulting Group (BCG) • Boston Red Sox • bottled beer • Boulder Brewing Company • Gordon Bowker • Stewart Brand • John Braun • Peter Brehm • breweries, number of • Brewers Association of America (BAA) • Brewers Digest (periodical) • brewers, small • brewing industry • brewing process described • Brewmaster Brewing Company • brewpubs • Arthur Brisbane • Brooklyn Brewery • Bubbles La Brew • Bill Buck • Buckeye Brewing Company • Bohemia Budweis • Budweiser beer • Budweiser Brewery • Budweiser Garden • Buffalo, New York • Byron Burch • Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) • Burgermeister Brewing Company • Adolphus Busch • Adolphus Busch Jr. • Adolphus Busch III • Alice Busch • August Busch (brother of Adolphus) • August A. Busch Sr. (son of Adolphus) • August A. "Gus" Busch Jr. • August A. "Augie" Busch III • August A. Busch IV • Clara Busch • Lilly Busch (Anheuser) • Peter Busch (son) • Ulrich Busch (father) • Ulrich Busch Jr. (brother) • Wilhelmina Busch (daughter) • Busch-Sulzer Diesel Engine Company • Business Men's Moderation Society (New York)

C

Sam Calagione • California • Camp Spring Brewery • Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) • Paul Camusi • canned beer • Carling Brewing Company • Carlsberg Laboratories • Andrew Carnegie • Jimmy Carter • Cartwright Brewery • Bill Casper • Celestial Seasonings • Celis Brewing Company • Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) • Bennett Cerf • The Chemical Additives in Booze • Ernest Cherrington • Chicago • Chicago fire (1871) • Chicago Law and Order League • Julia Child • Cincinnati • Civil War • Jean de Clerc • coffee • Columbia Brewing Company • Columbian Exposition • Committee for Real Ale (CRA) • Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism Prevention, Treatment and Rehabilitation Act (1970) • Congress • Carl Conrad • Consumer Reports (periodical) • contract brewing • Gary Cooper • Adolph Coors • Joseph Coors • Pete Coors • William Coors • Coors Brewing Company • corn • Vince Cottone • Charles Courey • Shirley Courey • Rowland Cox • craft brewing • Cream City Bottle Company • Crop Improvement Bureau • Joseph Cullman III

D

Rodney Dangerfield • DeBakker Brewery • Tom DeBakker • Delmonico's • Delta Cooperage Company • Democratic Party • depression • diet beer • Diet for a Small Planet • dieting, impact of on beer sales • distillers • Dock Street Beer Company • Dogfish Head Craft Brewery • Neal Dow • Sir Francis Drake • drinking styles • Drewry's Brewing Company • IrŽnŽe Du Pont • Lammot Du Pont • Pierre Du Pont

E

E. & B. Brewing Company • Eating May Be Hazardous to Your Health • Fred Eckhardt • Anna Ehret • George Ehret • Eighteenth Amendment • Merlin Elhardt • Elk Mountain Amber Ale • Empire Brewery • Sam Ervin • extreme beers

F

Falstaff beer • Falstaff Brewing Corp. • Farmer Mugee • Arthur B. Farwell • Federal Alcohol Administration Act (1935) • Fetzer Winery • Marshall Field • Mickey Finn • Fleischmann's Yeast Company • Gerald Ford • Forrest Brewing Company • Fort Pitt Brewing Company • Hugh Fox • Foxhead Brewing Company • Norman Franks • Froedtert Malt and Grain Company • Fuhrman & Schmidt Brewing Company • Fyfe & Drum beer • F.X. Matt Brewing Company

G

Gablinger's beer • David Geary • Genesee Brewing Company • George Wiedemann Brewery • German culture, beer in • German immigrants • German-American Alliance (GAA) • German-Americans, wartime prejudice against • Fred Gettelman • Gilded Age • glucose • Gold Label beer • Golden Grain Company • Baron Paul von Gontard • Good Beer Guide • Jay Gould • J. Peter Grace • W.R. Grace & Company • Grain Belt beer • Grand Army of the Republic • Bert Grant • Rocky Graziano • Great American Beer Festival • Great Depres ion • Great Falls Breweries • Green Mountain Grainery • A.E. Gregory • Thomas Gregory • Alvin Griesedieck • Joe Gricsedieck • Griesedieck Brothers Brewing Company • Ken Grossman

H

Haberle Congress Brewing Company • Hamm Brewing Company • happy hour • Harpoon Brewery • J. Vining Harris • Fred R. Haviland Jr. • Harry Hawes • Mrs. Hawes • Heffenreffer Brewing Company • Heilman Brewing Company • Heineken beer • Hell Gate Brewery • Charles Henning • Charles Hexamer • Jacob Heyl • Gilbert Hitchcock • Richmond P. Hobson • Hoffman Beverage Company • Home Fermenter's Digest (periodical) • home market • homebrewing • Herbert Hoover • hops • Horn Palace Saloon • Howdy Doody Show • Huber Brewing Company • R.A. Huber • Hudepohl Brewing Company • Hudepohl-Schoenling • William E. Hull • Hubert Humphrey

I

ice harvesting • immigrants • imported beer • income tax • Independent Milwaukee Brewery • industrial development • Institute for Fermentation and Brewing Studies (IFBS) • Interbev (company) • International Brewers' Congress (Chicago, 1911) • interstate commerce • Iron City beer • Iroquois Brewing Company

J

Michael Jackson • Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company • Michael Jacobson • Harry Jersig • Elise John (Miller) • Harry "Buddy" John Jr. • Harry John Sr. • Joseph Schlitz Beverage Company • Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company • Henry Bourne Joy • Phillip Jung • Edmund Jungenfeld • The Jungle

K

Rhonda Kallman • Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation • Paul Kalmanovitz • Joseph Keller • Gregory Kelly • Ethel Kennedy • Fred J. Kern • Ken Kesey • Knickerbocker beer • William King • Kingsbury Brewing Company • John Klein • Norman Klug • Charles Joseph Koch Jr. (father) • Jim Koch (Charles James) • Louis Koch (great-great-grandfather) • Koehler's beer • Marvin Kratter • Krueger Brewing Company • William Krueger • August Krug • Fred Kuh • Roy Kumm

L

Labatt Brewing Company • John Labatt • labor unions • Otto Lademan • lager • lager, Bohemian • Lager Beer Riot • A.J. Langworthy • Frances Moore LappŽ • Latrobe Brewing Company • alicia bay laurel [sic] • Michael Laybourn • Frank Leahy • legal beer, return of • Bill Leinenkugel • Leinenkugel Brewing Company • Jacob Leinenkugel • Jake Leinenkugel • Adam Lemp • Lemp Brewing Company • William J. Lemp • Michael Lewis • Alfred Liebmann • Liebmann Breweries, Inc. • Julius Liebmann • Philip Liebmann • light beer • Walter Lippman • Sir Thomas Lipton • liquor, per capita consumption of • Living on the Earth • local option laws • Lone Star Brewing Company • Los Angeles Brewing Company • Louisville • Lowenbrau • Lucky Lager beer

M

Maine law • Maltose Falcons • Manhattan Brewing Company (Chicago) • marijuana • Master Brewers Association of America • Increase Mather • Matt Brewing Company • F.X. Matt • Nick Matt • Charlie Matzen • Manufacturers' Railroad (St. Louis) • Fritz Maytag • Jack McAuliffe • Larry McCavitt • Gordon McDermott • John Meier • Meister Brau • Mendocino Brewing Company • mergers • Merry Pranksters • John Metzler • Richard Meyer • Miami Dolphins • Michelob beer • The Mickey Mouse Club • microbrewing • Miller Brewing Company • Clara Miller (daughter) • Elise Miller • Ernest Miller (son) • Frederick A. Miller (son) • Frederick C. Miller (grandson) • Frederick C. Miller Jr. (great-grandson) • Frederick J. Miller (founder) • Miller Genuine Draft beer • Miller High Life beer • Miller High Life Open golf tournament • Miller Lite • Milwaukee • Milwaukee Opera House • Minneapolis Brewing Company • Minnesota Brewing Company • Otto Mittenzwey • Calvin Moeller • Greg Moeller • Christian Moerlein • Molson Brewing Co. • Robert Mondavi • J.P. Morgan • Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) • Lorraine Mulberger • John Murphy

N

Ralph Nader • Charles Nagel • Naropa Institute • Narragansett Brewing Company • National Association of Commerce and Labor (NACL) • National Brewing Company • National Temperance Society (NTS) • Natural Light beer • "near beer" • neo-temperance • Franz Neukirch • New Albion Brewing Company • New Amsterdam Brewing • New Brewer (periodical) • New Brewer's Handbook • New Deal • New Republic (periodical) • New West (periodical) • New York, brewing in • New York Evening Mail (periodical) • New York State Board of Health • Bill Newman • Paul Newman • Richard M. Nixon

O

Ohio Anti-Saloon League • Old Heidelberg beer • Old Milwaukee beer • Old Style beer • August Olinger • OPEC fuel embargo • Oregon Ale and Beer Company • Oregon Craft Brewers Guild • Organic Farming & Gardening (periodical) • Henry F. Ortleib Brewing Company • Joe Ortleib • William O'Shea • Oshkosh Brewing Company • Outward Bound • Joseph Owades

P

Pabst Blue Ribbon beer • Pabst Brewing Company • Frederick Pabst • Pabst Jr. Frederick • Gottlieb Pabst • Pabst Grand Circle (restaurant and theater) • Gustav Pabst • Pabst Harlem (restaurant) • Pabst Hotel • Pabst-Premier Corporation • packaged beer • Palm Garden • A. Mitchell Palmer • Panic of 1857 • Charlie Papazian • pasteurization • Paul Masson Mountain Winery • Tom Paulus • Pearl Brewing Company • Pepsi-Cola United Bottlers • Peregrine Golden Ale • Harris Perlstein • Peter Hand Brewing Company • Pfeiffer Brewing Company • Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition (1876) • Philip Morris • Phoenix Brewery • Pickett & Sons Brewing Company • Joe Pickett • Pickett's Premium beer • Piel Brothers Brewing Company • Bohemia Pils • Pilsener beer • Pittsburgh Brewing Company • Plank Road Brewery • Portland, Maine • Premier Malt Products • Frank Prial • price wars • price-fixing • Procter & Gamble Company • Progressive Party • Prohibition • prohibition movement • Prohibition Party • Prohibition, repeal of • Prospect Brewing Company • prostitution • pure food movement

Q

Quality Brewing: A Guidebook for the Home Production of Fine Beers

R

Rahr Green Bay Brewing Company • Ranier Brewing Company • rationing, wartime, prohibition movement and • Red Tail Ale • Red Top Brewing Company • Red Wolf Lager beer • Redhook Ale Brewery • reform movements • refrigerated rail cars • refrigeration • Matthew Reich • Kurt Reisinger • Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID) • Renner Brewing Company • Republican Party • Retail Liquor Dealers' Association of Ohio • Simon Reutelshofer • Rheingold • rice • Dorothy Richardson • Richmond, Virginia • River City Brewing Company • Charles Rixford • Rochester Standard Brewing Company • John D. Rockefeller • Robert Rodale • Rolling Rock beer • Franklin D. Roosevelt • Theodore Roosevelt • Royal Amber beer • Mike Royko • rum • Edward A. Rumely • Ruppert Brewing Company • George Ruppert • Jacob "Jake" Ruppert • Jacob Ruppert Sr. • Howard Hyde Russell • Russian River Brewing Company • Babe Ruth

S

St. Louis, brewing industry in • St. Louis Cardinals • St. Louis Refrigerator Car Company • saloonkeepers • saloons • Salt Lake Brewing Company • Samuel Adams lager • San Antonio Brewing Association • sanitation • Saranac beer • Roy Satchell • John Scahill • W.F. Schad • F. & M. Schaefer Corp • Maximilian Schaefer • Rudolph Schaefer (founder) • Rudolph Schaefer • Ella Schandein • Emil Schandein • Schandein, Lisette (Best) • Louise Schandein • Schell Brewing Company • Jim Schleuter • Schlitz Brewing Company • Schlitz Hotel • Joseph Schlitz • Schlitz Park • Edward Schmidt • Helene Schmidt • Schmidt's beer • Schultz and Dooley • E.F. Schumacher • Anton Schwarz • Charles Scribner • Seipp Brewing Company • Sheboygan Beverage Company • Morris Sheppard • Shiner beer • Paul Shipman • Shipyard Brewing Company • Siebel Institute • John E. Siebel • Joseph Sieben • Sieben's Brewery Company • Mo Siegel • Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. • Sixteenth Amendment • Upton Sinclair • slavery • Small Brewers Committee • Al Smith • Bubba Smith • soft drinks • Sonoma, California • South Side Brewery • speakeasies • Special Export beer • Mickey Spillane • Irwin Sproule • Standard Oil • Starbucks • Alexander Stausz • St. Charles Hotel (Milwaukee) • Steam Beer Brewing Company • Lawrence Steese • Suzy Stern • Brooks Stevens • Stevens Point Brewery • Otto Stifel • stock market collapse (1893) • stock market collapse (1929) • Stoney's beer • Carol Stoudt • John Strange • Stroh Brewing Company • Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) • V.H. Stum • Barry Sullivan • Sunshine Brewing Company • Sweden, official beer classifications in • Syndicates, British

T

William Howard Taft • taxes • temperance movement • Texas Brewers' Association • Texas Brewing Company • John Boyd Thacher • J.F. Theurer • William Thompson • Thousand Oaks Brewing Company • Tivoli Brewing Company • trademark law • Trading with the Enemy Act (1917) • Allen Treadway • "A Treatise on Lager Beer" • Trommers Brothers Brewery • Harry S Truman • Tuborg Brewery • Barbara Tuchman • Turnvereine • Twenty-first Amendment

U • V

Joseph Uhrig Brewing Company • Joseph Uhrig • Alfred Uihlein • August Uihlein • Edward Uihlein • Erwin Uihlein • Henry Uihlein • Joseph Uihlein • Lorraine Uihlein • Robert Uihlein (son of August) • Robert A. "Bob" Uihlein Jr. • Underground Brewers' Club • Union Brewery • United Breweries Group • United States Brewers' Academy • United States Brewers' Association (USBA) • Utah • Utica Club beer • James Vardaman • Jacqueline Verrett • Vienna International Exposition (1873) • vinegar manufacture • Nancy Vineyard • Vinylite • vodka • Volstead Act (1919)

W

John Wagner • Wahl-Henius Institute • Wainwright and Company • Billy Wales • Jimmie Walker • Washington [D.C.] Times (periodical) • Watergate • Alice Waters • Webb-Kenyon Act (1913) • Wehle family • Robert S. Weinberg • West End Brewing Company • Mae West • Western Brewer (periodical) • Western Brewery • Westside Brewery • Wayne Wheeler • Whig Party • whiskey • The Whole Earth Catalog • wholesalers • Wickersham Commission • Widmer Brothers Brewing Company • Kurt Widmer • Harvey W. Wiley • Kaiser Wilhelm • James Wilson • Woodrow Wilson • wine • Wine and the People • Julius Winkelmeyer • women • Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) • Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform • World Guide to Beer • World War I • World War II • World's Columbian Exposition (1893) • World's Fair • Wurzberger beer

Y • Z

Yakima Brewing Company • youth • Yuengling Creamery • D.G. Yuengling & Son Inc. • Dick Yuengling Jr. • Dick Yuengling Sr. • Frank Yuengling • Jane Zimmerman • Zymurgy (periodical)

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