The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-17
s1xTTErH ANNIVERSARY
Of the Brewing of Lager Beer
 America --..-.-zz-.

or the Brewing or Lager Beer
 America.
 This is the sixtieth anniversary of the brewing of lager beer fin the United States. Everybody knows that beer and sle have been brewed in New York ever since the Dutchmen came over from Hol- land and founded the colony of New Netherlands, but it is not 30 we'll known that the brewing of lager beer In the United States is So: recent that at least ten of the original brewsrs are still living.
 The first brewery in New York was established more than 250 years ago, when old Governor Van Twiller built a brewery on the West Indies Company's farm. which was on the west side of town, near Hudson Street Another brewery was started in Albany about the same time, which has continued brewing ever since. These breweries and others ran along for 200 years before lager beer was made. They brewed ale. table beer-or small beer-and what Is now known as barley wine, but they did not brew lager beer, or hopped malt beer, which Is the kind of beer now commonly used, 1t is pretty well settled that the brewing of lager beer in the United States began fin 1S43, and about the same time in New York and Philadelphia. The Philadelphia brewery was a small building in the suburbs, while the New York brewery was at Broadway and Nineteenth Street, opposite the old Goeiet house, where a big carpet store stands now.
 The books of this original New York lager beer brewery are still in existence, and they tell a number of interesting things about the early methods and sales Of beer. Sebastian Sommers used to own the brewery, where he made ale and small beer, but not lager beer. He sold the brewery before lager beer was brewed. J. F. Luther was the first customer on September 8. 1s4S. He bought five gallons of beer and paid 50 cents for it. at a rate of ten cents gallon. At that time a brewery did a retail business, and the customer would call for his beer and take it home with him in a pail or tub. Peter Stoltz was the second customer He bought a dollars worth, or ten gallons. Daniel F. Tiemann and William F. Have meyer each of them afterward Mayor of New York city, were among the first GUS toners. Lager beer was a novelty, and it soon became fashionable drink, as the names on the books of the old brew cry show. The swell families would bring bucketful to serve with their Sunday dinner on state occasions. It was not the cheap and popular drink that 1t is now Whiskey sold at so low a price then that 1t and other hard liquors were more fin common use
 It took some time for lager beer to be. come popular. and the early sales of the brewery were not large. The owners worked with their two or three men tc turn out $10 or $15 worth of beer a day which was sold to customers who called for it. In a few years the business grew and the brewery moved over to Seventh Avenue, near Seventeenth Street, where the first lager beer saloon was opened ir with the brewery. Seventh Avenue and Seventeenth Street were fl the suburbs then, and there was no other saloon for some distance. People would make an excursion there to taste the new drink.
 Lager beer did not become popular un til the introduction of ice to keep 1t cool Before the use of ice the beer was kep in vaults under ground until it was sold More brewing was done in the winter, anc more beer was sold then than In the sum mer. The use of ice caused the abandon ment of the old vaults and enabled the brewing of a big summer supply which has been growing rapidly every year. The American taste demands a beer colder than the German taste In Germany the beer Is rarely put on ice. and it is drunk at the temperature at which 1t comes from the vaults.
 The old account books. hesides telling about the beer and its sale. gave the wages of the laborers. The foreman of the brewery got 80 month. The wages ran down from hts to sl a mouth. The average pay of a workman seems to have been about $9 a month. which he would draw in installments of 50 cents and H as he needed the money. Accounts were kept with every lsborer separately, orediting him with his wages and charging against him the sums drawn from time to time.
 In this practical school several of the big brewers of today learned their trade. Even in California one of the most suc- cessful brewers is man who worked in his first lager beer brewery fin New York city,
 It was not for years after the brewing