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This article was originally published in the Grand River Valley Review Vol. VIII, Number. 1

It later appeared in the Fall 1991 edition of NABA's
The Breweriana Collector magazine

All brewery photos & portraits, unless otherwise noted, compliments of Dr. Wilhelm W. Seeger, The Grand Rapids Public Museum, or the Michigan Room of the Grand Rapids Public Library. Dr. Seeger also wishes to thank Gordon Olson, The Grand Rapids City Historian for his help.

Beer has been a popular beverage in the United States ever since the days of the earliest colonists to these shores. In 1620, the Mayflower, which carried the Pilgrims to the New World, stocked a goodly supply of beer on board, not only to satisfy crew and passenger thirst, but also as a measure for preventing scurvy. The English colonists in Virginia and all along the eastern seaboard chose beer as a healthful alternative to the dangers of drinking the water.(1) The Dutch who settled New Netherland in the early part of the seventeenth century were even fonder of the foaming brew. The Dutch colony of New Amsterdam, founded in 1626, had a population of 350 by 1629; about three years later the Dutch West India Company, proprietors of the colony, built a brewery not far from the fort. (2)

Seventeenth-century Philadelphians were beer drinkers, too. So was their leader, William Penn, whose conversion to Quakerism did nothing to dull his appreciation of good food and drink and who maintained a brewhouse at his Pennsbury estate.(3)

Although hard cider emerged as a serious rival in the eighteenth century, beer retained much of its earlier popularity. Such founding fathers as John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison drank beer, and George Washington was so fond of porter that he had a supply sent regularly to his Mount Vernon home (4)

After the American Revolution, the new nation favored the production of beer or cider over the manufacture of hard liquor as a means of encouraging temperance among the population. And local breweries enjoyed state and federal government support in the form of tax relief and protection from foreign competition.

Beginning in the early years of the nineteenth century, substantial numbers of immigrants from Germany, Austria-Hungary and the Netherlands made their way to the United States, bringing with them their love for beer and creating an expanding market for the products of the brewer's art. German-born immigrants began arriving in Grand Rapids in the 1840s, and within a decade Germans were one of the city's largest immigrant groups. Their growing presence increased the local demand for beer and led to the need for more breweries and trained brewmasters to run them.

Braumeisters continued

Revised: December 30, 2006