Griesedieck Brothers beer
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Griesedieck Brothers Beer is a historic St. Louis beer brand that has been reintroduced after years of absence. The Griesedieck family once owned three St. Louis area breweries, Griesedieck Brothers Brewery, Griesedieck Western Brewery Co. in Belleville, Illinois (producers of Stag beer and the Falstaff Brewing Corporation, producer of Falstaff Beer.
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[edit] A family brewing tradition
German immigrant Anton Griesedieck brought his family brewing tradition (dating from 1766 in Stromberg, Germany) to St. Louis in about 1866. He owned a series of breweries, employing his four sons, including Henry Jr. and Joseph "Papa Joe," and nephew Henry L. Griesedieck who would later found Griesedieck Western Brewery Co. The four sons established the National Brewery Co. in 1891, which later became part of the Independent Breweries Company in 1907. Henry Jr. ran IBC for four years until he quit to help his five sons Anton, Henry, Raymond, Edward and Robert found Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Co. in 1911. GB made non-alcoholic beer and soft drinks during Prohibition, but closed its doors by 1920. For the next 13 years, the Griesedieck Brothers would anxiously bide their time before they could once again brew what would become the most popular beer in St. Louis.
[edit] Post-Prohibition
After prohibition ended, the heirs of Henry Jr. kept Griesedieck Brothers while the heirs of Papa Joe ran Falstaff. Starting in 1947, Griesedieck Brothers sponsored the St. Louis Cardinals radio broadcasts with Harry Caray until August A. Busch Jr. bought the team in 1953.
When Edward Griesedieck, the last remaining original Griesedieck Brother passed away in 1955, the company looked at its options. In 1957, Griesedieck Brothers was sold to its cousins at Falstaff and production under the GB name stopped almost overnight. The Griesedieck brewery, at that point, was the most updated brewery in the nation, with a capacity of over 1,000,000 barrels per year. Falstaff thus moved all production into the former GB plant.
Falstaff's peak production year was 1966 at 6,000,000 barrels, declining thereafter. When Falstaff got hit with court costs involving the acquisition of Narragansett beer, the company had to sell. Paul Kalmanovitz purchased the company in 1975 and moved the headquarters to California. By 1977, the old GB plant was closed down. Through various mergers and acquisitions, Pabst Brewing Company eventually acquired the Falstaff brand, but quit production in 2005.
St. Louisian Steve DeBellis resurrected the Griesedieck Brothers label in 1987 but the project ended in 1991 when his contract brewer went out of business. DeBellis is the current president of the new Lemp Brewing Company.
[edit] Present-day
Family descendant Raymond A. Griesedieck, son of Henry A. Griesedieck (the last president of the original Griesedieck Brothers), incorporated the new Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company in 1992. By 2002, he and his third-cousin Alvin F. Griesedieck (from the Falstaff branch of the family) re-introduced Griesedieck Brothers Beer to St. Louis.
Raymond A. Griesedieck owns the GB trademark. Griesedieck Brothers Brewery has provided draft beer - brewed under contract - to various St. Louis area restaurants since 2002 and expanded to bottled beer in fall 2006 to local bars, restaurants and supermarkets in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, St. Charles County, and Jefferson County.
The original Griesedieck Beer was a classic American lager. The current incarnations are Golden Pilsener (a German pilsener beer) and Bavarian Wheat (an unfiltered German hefeweizen).
[edit] References
- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 14,2006, page. B1.
[edit] External links
- History of Falstaff http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/interest.htm
- History of Griesedieck http://www.gb-beer.com/gbbeerhistory.html
