Because it is in general an approved
fact that the first lager beer in the United States of America was brewed in
the city of Philadelphia, thus, so to speak, there stands today the cradle of
this magnificent industry, it will be of interest, to learn, what circumstances
therefore linked the men who played the leading role.
I, who have had both friendly and business relationships with many of our
brewers for a generation, have been given the honorable mandate by some of them
to tell the story of the development of their trade, and I look forward to
doing this task as best I can.
My source is none other than Mr. Charles Wolf, himself one of the first
brewers and a former partner in the Engel & Wolf company.
If the wanderer in the city of brotherly love along Girard Avenue turns his
steps westward, past the institution of the noble donor of the same name, he
will in a short time reach Brewerstown. A little more than
forty years ago, nature shone here in all its opulence: moorland and marshland
bordered gently sloping hills and the trees of the high forest proudly
stretched their tops upwards. Today there is a
place of industry there which, although still in its infancy, is looking for
its equal in the world.
It was then when a few simple men undertook to practice their trade, which
they had learned in the old fatherland, because they brewed the first Bavarian
beer; They also wanted to found their own, independent home for
themselves and their families. At any rate, they
recognized even then, apart from the desire to feast on a good drink, the
beneficial influence that a healthy drink must have on the inhabitants of this
country.
How small their beginnings were and what
tools they had to use, some of them still have a story to tell. After all, one of those brave pioneers cooked his first beer in a sugar
pan; one sugar barrel served as a mash tun and the cut off
heads of another served as reefer vessels. He was all in all,
master and servant, coachman and a noble steed himself.
It would not correspond to our present
purpose and we would have to indulge ourselves in repetitions if we wanted to
climb the stages of development of this wonderful brewing beer; one thing is certain, however, that even the highest expectations of the
first brewers were not in the slightest proportion to the gigantic successes of
their company; those small, inconspicuous brewer's huts have grown into
palaces, and where once one represented everything in everything, now hundreds
of industrious hands are moving.
I
take the following information from the mouth of Mr. Charles Wolf:
At the beginning of the forties (1841 or
'42), John Wagner, who lived on St. John near Poplar Street, had returned
from a trip to Germany, brought the first bottom-fermenting yeast with him from
his homeland, dissolved it and brewed the first lager Beer in the kettle of the brandy distiller Jacob Mersinger, a neighbor.
George Manger, himself a German brewer who was currently working at the Haas
& Wolf sugar house, * and was a friend of Wagner, with whom he had worked
in various breweries in the old fatherland, received a small part of the yeast
from the latter as a gift. The importance of this yeast for German brewers at
that time can be seen from the fact that a young German brewer tried to acquire
a small part of the yeast by breaking into Wagner’s cellar, but was caught and
sentenced to two years in prison. He is said to have been pardoned before his
time was served, by being able to distinguish between a real criminal and a
young man who acted only out of brashness.
Charles Engel, also a brewer, who had just
arrived from Germany, stayed with Wolf as a guest. Together with Manger, he made a brew in the sugar pan at Haas & Wolf,
and lager was obtained. The winning beer, of
excellent quality, was drank among friends. Encouraged by the success, they
were given the air to go into the brewing business using the bottom-fermenting
method known in Germany. However, Charles Engel
soon left again to travel further around the country.
George Manger remained with brewing and
took a job with a brewer of Dünnbier, named Bossinger, who had his shop at Front
above Brown Street. He used the yeast from
the sample made in the sugar house, and was successful. A short time later he
entered into business with Charles Psotta, on New, above Second Street, on a small
scale. In order to take account of the rapid growth of their business, they had
to increase their labor and as a result sold all their old equipment after two
years of use to Charles Engel, who had meanwhile returned. He set up his little
shop on Dillwyn, below Callowhill Street (still known today as “Die
Wolfschlucht”) and later connected with his friend, the aforementioned Charles
Wolf, under the firm name Engel & Wolf. They got fresh yeast from Hofmann
(brewery of “Alten Sonne”) in Mannheim, which was brought over by a young
brewer named Louis Mayer, who emigrated to America.
The taste and demand for the
Philadelphian lager spread more and more, especially in the city of New York,
so that Hermann Wolf, brother of Mr. Charles Wolf, under the direction of Mr. Charles
Engel, intended to build a brewery on Staten Island. The rock cellar for this
was already built and ready to hold beer; but that undertaking
stopped due to the sudden death of Hermann Wolf, which was caused by an
accident.
Mr. Engel & Wolf built the first
lager cellar in America on Fountain Green, near the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad, on the Schuylkill River, below the Columbia Bridge. For twenty-eight years they ran the business jointly; Mr. Charles Engel later got in touch with Gustav Bergner, from which today's
Bergner & Engel’s Brewing Co. emerged.
The beginnings of this industry, which
today is so big and huge, were small. The overwhelming
influence it exerted in the economic as well as in the social sphere is plain
to see; it is also irresistibly pushed over into the realm of
politics, by the courage to persecute blind zealots of glorious hypocrites. The time is not far off when the club, the United States Brewer no longer stands alone in his struggle against those dark
powers; He will form the nucleus of a party which, with “common
sense” on its banner, will force itself to recognize its most sacred inalienable
rights; Man is strengthened in the constant tenacious struggle
for his right and the endangered domestic hearth, and in advance the courageous
fighter is certain of his victory.
Involuntarily I strayed from the goals I
had set before me, and taking up the broken thread again, I still have to
mention in the end:
Of these brewing pioneers,
John Wagner, George Manger and Charles Psotta are already resting in the earth; the gentlemen Engel and Wolf enjoy a happy, sprightly existence.
*) The
Old Sugarhouse was on the south-east corner of Nicholson and Race Streets; it was
torn down two years ago to make way for the machine factory of Js. O.
Colladay. Nicholson Street is between 6th
and 7th and Race and Cherry streets.
-Ernst Dercum c.1885