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Revvy

Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc
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I love old beer ads...from back in the day when men were men, men wore hats and horses didn't fart on television.

I miss the daily vintage beer ads post of a few months ago, though I thought it would have worked better if it was one cohesive thread. It would probably have been less likely to fall into HBT obscurity.

I found a bunch of old ads, Jpeged, so I thought I'd start a thread. And see if anyone else liked old beer ephemeria...And also hoped that people had some of their own...Especially you HBT'ers across the pond.

I'd loke to see how beer was marketed back in the day in Europe or Down Under.

Enjoy!

Some from Ballantine's Ale...

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In the 40's while the men were off to war, many beer companies tried to fill the void by trying to capture the tastes of the war brides and "Rosie the Riveters."

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Like most breweries in the 50's and 60's when faced with declining sales (actually beer never quite recovered from prohibition until the 70's.) Ballie's tried to market to women, and their desire not to gain wait from beer.

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Thanks Ohio! :mug:

Okay...this is one I've never heard of... Barbarossa?? Anyone heard of it? The ads are dated 1946 & 7.

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Here's a little bit of info,

Moerlein beer tapping showcases links to the past
Cincinnati Business Courier- 2008

Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. will launch its latest beer with a ceremonial tapping of the first keg at Arnold's Bar and Grill downtown on Thursday. On hand to do the honors and mark the return of Barbarossa lager will be Bob Pohl, former president and CEO of Hudepohl Brewing Co.

Pohl resurrected Cincinnati's historic Christian Moerlein beer brand in the early 1980s when he created one of the first nationally distributed all-malt beers -- now commonly referred to as "craft" beers -- and the only American beer at the time to pass the "Rheinheitsgebot" Bavarian Beer Purity Law of 1516.

Hudepohl was later merged into Schoenling Brewing Co., and the combined Hudepohl-Schoenling brands -- including today's growing line of Moerlein beers -- are now owned by Greg Hardman's Christian Moerlein Brewing Co.

Barbarossa Double Dark Lager is Moerlein's latest year-round beer, a Munich style beer with a lower alcohol content than the company's recent seasonal beers. The name is a tribute to the first beer marketed by the German immigrant founder of the original Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. in the 1850s. There was also a Barbarossa beer produced by Cincinnati's Red Top Brewing Co. in the 1950s.

The tapping of the new Moerlein Barbarossa will take place at 5:30 Thursday at Arnold's. Limited edition posters of the Moerlein Barbarossa label will be distributed, and Cincinnati artist Jim Effler will be on hand to sign the commemorative prints.

The image depicts Frederick the First, the 12th century German emperor known as Barbarossa, sitting in his enchanted mountain cavern and being served a goblet of beer while awaiting the signal for his triumphant return.

A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Over-the-Rhine Foundation
 
During Prohibition many breweries tried to stay open producing "near beer," soft drinks, and even ice cream. Anheiser Bush Began Producing and marketing such products in the late 1800's...

Some of AB's Non alcoholic Product Ads....Nary a farting horse in the bunch...

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Remember Blatz? I always wondered if the name had anything to do with the sound the drinker makes after a few.

The original 1879 Blatz Ad
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A whole bunch from the 40's catering to the women left behind...

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Johann Braun opened City Brewery in 1846. Valentin Blatz established a brewery next door in 1850 and merged both breweries upon Braun's death in 1852. The brewery produced Milwaukee's first individually bottled beer in 1874. It incorporated as the Valentin Blatz Brewing Company in 1889, and by the 1900s was the city's third-largest brewer.

During Prohibition, Blatz produced non-alcoholic beverages, from 1920 to 1933. In 1933, Blatz was issued U-Permit № WIS-U-712, granting permission to resume brewing beer.

In 1958, Pabst Brewing Company, then the nation's tenth largest brewer, acquired Blatz, the eighteenth largest, from Schenley Industries. In 1959, the federal government brought an action charging that the acquisition violated Section 7 of the Clayton Act as amended by the Celler-Kefauver Anti-Merger amendment. The sale was voided in 1959 and Blatz closed that same year. In 1960, the assets of Blatz, including its labels, were sold to Pabst.

In 1969, Blatz was acquired from Pabst by the G. Heileman Brewing Company. Heileman, in turn, was acquired by the Stroh Brewery Company in 1996. On 8 February 1999, prior to its dissolution in 2000, the Stroh Brewery Company sold its labels to the Pabst Brewing Company and to the Miller Brewing Company. By 2007, Blatz was once again part of Pabst.

Innovation
While the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was "the beer that made Milwaukee famous," Blatz Brewing Company was, in fact, the first to take its product national. Two famous Blatz/Milwaukee beer marketing slogans were "Blatz—Milwaukee’s Finest Beer" and "Blatz—Milwaukee’s Favorite Premium Beer." In later years, the brewery described its product as “Draft Brewed Blatz.” The most famous jingle from the 1950s to early 1970s had the words, "Kegs, Cans, or Bottles, all taste the same. The three best is one beer - Blatz is the name," playing on the fact that many other beers had a different taste when bottled and canned from how they tasted fresh from the keg.

The Blatz Brewery Complex and Valentin Blatz Brewing Company Office Building in downtown Milwaukee are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The brewing company’s office building has been converted into condominiums. The former Blatz bottling facility is now the Campus Center Building for the Milwaukee School of Engineering. The office building has been converted into the school's Alumni Partnership Center.[1]

Today

The "Blatz" beer label currently is produced by the Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee, under contract for Pabst Brewing Company, managed by CEO, Charles Thomas Blatz who coincidently shares the last name of the previous founder.

The Blatz Brewery Building was purchased and converted to condos in 2005-2006. The Blatz building's downtown location has made it a premier place to live in Milwaukee. In 2008, Blatz Beer made its return to the brewery building. Rather than being brewed there, however, it is merely available for purchase from the Blatz Market & Liquor.
 
Great stuff, Revvy. I really enjoyed the ads. As for Barbarossa, it may be coincedental, but Christian Moerlein makes a "double-dark lager" with the same name. From their website: the beer's name honors "Fredrick I, Emperor of Germany, known as Barbarossa." I'd be interested to know if the Barbarossa in those ads was a Cincinnati beer.
 
The story of the Blue ribbon is a fascinating bit of marketing...

Here's the version in the PBR marketing stuff...

The famous "Blue Ribbon" label did not get started until 1882. Prior to 1882, Phillip Best Brewing Company had received awards for their beer. In 1876, Pabst won both the highest awards for bottled beer and a gold medal. In 1878 at a Paris World’s Fair, Pabst again won more medals.

In 1882, bottling became significantly important to the brewing business. When bottles were first used, these were generally plain and were not appealing to the public. Pabst decided to add pieces of blue ribbons tied around the necks of Best "Select" beer bottles. It didn’t take long before the public continued to ask for "The beer with the blue ribbon." By 1892, this special packaging idea became so popular that the company was purchasing 300,000 yards of silk ribbons, which workers tied by hand around each bottle. In 1895, words "Blue Ribbon" were eventually added to the label of Select Beer, and in January 1898, the Blue Ribbon label was first used.

But, To the contrary, there is evidence to suggest that no such award was given, as contemporaneous accounts indicate that many vendors were frustrated by the fair's refusal to award such prizes. One account says that the only prizes awarded by the executive committee were bronze medals in recognition of "some independent and essential excellence in the article displayed," rather "than merely to indicate the relative merits of competing exhibits.

The whole dirty tale is in chapter 3 of Maureen Ogle's fantastic and eye openning history of American Brewing, http://www.ambitiousbrew.com/

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Notice the wine goblets, to make PBR "classy."

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Pabst cheese, another product to survive prohibition.

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This is from a series from the 40's of people with blue ribbons covering their eye...but they remind me of S/m erotica more than anything...

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like this...

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This looks like it was run in a comic book...

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I tried to avoid it as long as possible, but you can't ignore a certain brewery's contribution to beer history without mentionning them...

1904
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1905 (is that clear bottles I see???)

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This is wild....I just heard about this guy...It turns out that the US's smallest national park designated site, is the apartment that he lived in during the revolutionary war. There is a park ranger on duty in the tiny place where maybe they get one visitor a day.

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1935 this might be the first clydesdale ad...

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During both world wars anti german sentiment really turned their attention on the German Brewers. A/b more than any....It was becasue of that that AB went out of their way to come off as the ulta patriotic "America's Beer," kinda ironica now isn't it?

Where other breweries ad's targeted the women's market during that time, AB's emphasized how much they were helping the war effort...(They had to, during both wars there was intense scrutiny on the Busch family, there were even attempts to see AB assets and property to prevent money being sent to Germany...Part of the problem was that some of the Bush family had married into German aristrochracy...and some of the spouses were very pro nazi).

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According to Maureen Ogle, AB pioneered a lot of refrigeration technology that allowed their beer not to be limited to strictly regional markets, like their competitors...

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Notice the first image of Bud in aluminum cans....

(1948)
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1951....the idea of the "Lawnmower Beer."

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A few more Bud ads, before I move on to other...

I really like this one...I think the woman just looks stunning in a 1950's sort of way...

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This isn't Nichel Nickols from Star Trek is it?

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The Duke, in 1950

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Whoever did this one in 1976 was doing acid...WTF?

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this is cool....it shows the evolution of the beer can.

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1981...the first Bud Light Ad???

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Interesting how Carling made a distinction between beer and ale...

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And here it is 1954....."Hey Mabel...."

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Mabel was pretty hot here in her little nurses outfit.

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A 1970's Red Cap Ad...I figured Red Cap got phased out by Carling when they brought in Black Label....anyone know?

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Carlsberg.

Carlsberg was founded by J. C. Jacobsen; the first brew was finished on November 10, 1847. Exportation of Carlsberg Beer began in 1868; foreign brewing began in 1968 with the opening of a Carlsberg brewery in Blantyre, Malawi[4]. Some of the company's original logos include an elephant (after which some of its lagers are named) and the swastika. Use of the latter was discontinued in the 1930s because of its association with political parties in neighboring Germany. Carlsberg founder J. C. Jacobsen was a philanthropist and avid art collector. With his fortune he amassed an impressive art collection which is now housed in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in central Copenhagen.

Jacobsen set up the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875 which worked on scientific problems related to brewing. It featured a Department of Chemistry and a Department of Physiology. The species of yeast used to make pale lager, Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, was isolated at the Laboratory and was named after it. The concept of pH was developed there as well as advances in protein chemistry. The laboratory was part of the Carlsberg Foundation until 1972 when it was renamed the Carlsberg Research Center and transferred to the brewery.

Carlsberg Pilsner or Carlsberg Lager is the beer most people expect when ordering a Carlsberg. A German style pilsner, first brewed in 1904. In Denmark the beer is often known as HOF (court) due to its Royal Warrant. This nickname was adopted into the brand in 1931 but discontinued in 1991.

1954
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1956
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1957
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Drewrys was originally Drewry's Lake of the Woods Brewery in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It was formed in 1877. After prohibition, they started brewing Drewrys in the United States at the Sterling brewery in Evansville. They sent the first case of U.S.-brewed beer to President Franklin Roosevelt.

Anyone had it?

1948
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1960
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1961
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1963
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Erlanger Beer.

Erlanger was a signature beer manufactured by Michelob in the 70's evidently. Later it was snatched up by Stoh's. I can find little info on it...I wonder what it tasted like....The bottles sure are cool though!

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These ads are from the '80's

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Fall's City

The Falls City Brewing Company was based in Louisville, KY and operated from 1905-1978. The company was organized by local tavern and grocery store owners and the name taken from the original name of Louisville, because it is on the site of the only large waterfall on the Ohio River south of Pittsburgh. This company was a bit different than most breweries in the USA as it was not family owned. It was organized to break a local monopoly on beer production by the Central Consumers Company. Central Consumers also owned the taverns (or tied houses) located in neighborhoods where they could be operated profitably. The brewer, acting as landlord and supplier at the same time, caused the tavern operator to be at their mercy. This practice, while common in the UK, was later outlawed in the US.

1946
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1954
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1963
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1970
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The Duke, in 1950
The Doodletown Pipers? I love the Doodletown Pipers!:D

Whoever did this one in 1976 was doing acid...WTF?
I remember that campaign. It actually ran for quite awile in both print and TV ads - kinda like the Fruit Of The Loom guys, except they were stuck inside a mouth. You can still find them on You Tube.

Erlanger Beer...I wonder what it tasted like?...
I actually drank this stuff quite a bit one summer during my college years. At that time, it was pretty good stuff - a premium brand created to rival Michelob. If I were to have it today, I'd probably hold a different opinon, but back then, I considered it good.;) It didn't last more than a couple of years, IIRC.

BTW, the last two ads for Country Club ML were Pearl Brewing's version out of San Antonio. I still have some of those cans in my brewery! Remnants of my old beer can collection from high school (along with Falls City and Red Cap.):)
 
The Doodletown Pipers? I love the Doodletown Pipers!:D


I remember that campaign. It actually ran for quite awile in both print and TV ads - kinda like the Fruit Of The Loom guys, except they were stuck inside a mouth. You can still find them on You Tube.


I actually drank this stuff quite a bit one summer during my college years. At that time, it was pretty good stuff - a premium brand created to rival Michelob. If I were to have it today, I'd probably hold a different opinon, but back then, I considered it good.;) It didn't last more than a couple of years, IIRC.

BTW, the last two ads for Country Club ML were Pearl Brewing's version out of San Antonio. I still have some of those cans in my brewery! Remnants of my old beer can collection from high school (along with Falls City and Red Cap.):)

Thanks for the info....You should take pics of your can collection. I never saw 8 ounces cans til I came across those ads.:mug:
 
The cans I have are 12oz. cans. I have seen 8oz. cans, but even back then, they were hard to come by. IIRC, they only sold them in a few states.

The only pic I have of my collection is this one, which isn't great.
 
Fox Head Brewing Company.

I can't find any info on these guys except that their former brewery in Waukesha, WI is now a hazardous waste site...

These ads are from 1947 & 1948

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Tennessee's Gerst Brewing Co.

Moerlein Gerst Brewing Company- 1890-1893
William Gerst Brewing Company, - 1893-1954

Notice the emphasis on being "all grain" this was at the time that certain well known breweries were using adjuncts in their products....knowhatimean?

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Goebel Brewing Company was a brewing company in Detroit, Michigan from 1873 to 1964 eventually acquired late in their existence by Stroh Brewery Company. The beer was locally popular in Detroit from the company's inception, but grew in popularity and was eventually available in many states for a brief period in the 1940's, with an ad campaign in Life magazine that featured restaurant ads from many famous eateries around the country using Goebel beer as an ingredient. The beer, billed as a "light lager", was golden in color, and was noticeably drier than most everyday beers of the era. Their longtime mascot was a bantam, called Brewster Rooster, who wore attire with Goebel's logo, and the beer was a long-time sponsor of Detroit Tigers baseball broadcasts on radio.

In the mid 1960's, Goebel began advertising that their beer was "real" (unpasteurized) draft beer. Normally, bottled and canned beer had to be pasteurized to kill the active yeast left in the beer after brewing was completed, otherwise the buildup of gasses in the bottle would explode them on store shelves, let alone ruining the taste of the beer. This does not affect draft beer, which is kept at refrigerator temperatures from brewery to tap. Goebel's method of achieving this was a bacteria cultivated by the company's chemists that acted specifically on the yeast in the beer, then died harmlessly when the yeast was all consumed. Sales spiked, as people liked the "draft-like" flavor of the beer, but the technique was short-lived, as the bacteria became prevalent everywhere in the brewery, affecting other aspects of the brewing process negatively, and it had to be discontinued. The beer never regained it's previous popularity after that point, exacerbated by the gradual changing of tastes in a new generation of beer drinkers who preferred a lighter, sweeter beer.

I remember Goebel's even in the 1980's when I just was barely old enough to drink. And the joke about it was that it made everyone fart. Now that I have an understanding about yeast farts and it's relationship with "living" beers like homebrews, I can now see why. I remember being in an elevator to a skyscraper in Chicago during a college radio conference with a bunch of kids from my station, after we had consumed several bottles of that stuff. It was a nasty gassy ride.

1942

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Through the mid 40's the beer ads began to include recipes from major hotels and resorts...evidently to show how Goebel's was a classy, gourmet beer.

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