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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.

     Consolidations such as this one were the order of the day in the 1880s and 1890s among breweries across America. In need of additional plant facilities to keep up with consumer demand, the large beer producers, rather than making huge capital investments of their own, bought out smaller breweries to increase output. At the same time, British syndicates buying up breweries throughout the United States were initiating price wars, a practice that was proving to be very costly for syndicate and non-syndicate brewers alike. In order to oppose these syndicates and compete with the larger breweries, local brewers formed their own combinations.

As Stanley Barron explains in his book, Brewed in America:
    " In the particular case of the brewing industry, there had been a huge outlay of capital between 1880 and 1890 for new equipment, new buildings, new processes, new personnel. Only the most soundly based firms could survive this investment so long as price cutting was not restrainable." ( 10 )

     In Grand Rapids, the merger of six local breweries into the Grand Rapids Brewing Company provided the new enterprise with capital for the construction of new, modern facilities and created a combine large enough to compete with brewers from outside the West Michigan area.

     The Grand Rapids Brewing Company opened for business on January 1, 1893. The officers of the new company had been prominent for many years in the local beer-brewing industry. Charles F. Kusterer was president; Jacob Veit, vice president; Frederick A. Tusch, secretary; C. E. Kusterer, treasurer; and Adolph Goetz, brewmaster.

     On Wednesday, August 7, 1895, the cornerstone of the Grand Rapids Brewing Company's "splendid plant" was laid during an official ceremony described in glowing detail by the Grand Rapids Evening Press:

"Yesterday afternoon the cornerstone of the Grand Rapids Brewing Company's fine new brick building was laid with all the due pomp and ceremony appropriate to the occasion.... William Wisner Taylor, ex-city attorney, as master of ceremonies, delivered an address appropriate to the occasion, the exercises beginning promptly at 5 o'clock. On closing his address, Mr. Taylor first took a handful of barley, one of the necessary ingredients for the manufacture of lager beer, and scattered the grain into the niche containing the tin box, and next a handful of hops was added to the collection. He then concluded the ceremonies by breaking a bottle of beer over the cornerstone, which act was followed by three cheers for the success of the Grand Rapids Brewing company." ( 11)

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Revised: December 30, 2006