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385:, tried with the aid of some local unions to force saloon-keepers to stop carrying Heurich's products. The effort failed, partly because many local unions did not see why labor should aid one group of businesses in forcing a price-fixing agreement on another. Moreover, Heurich had a better relationship with the local unions than the other brewers. Of course, the saloon-keepers favored Heurich's lower prices. By 1907 the "Beer War" had petered out, and Heurich's Brewery remained the largest in DC.
289:(1873–1879). He improved and expanded the brewery, employing twenty men and a half-dozen delivery teams by 1878. In July 1878, he threw a party for a thousand guests to celebrate his vastly expanded brewery, still on 20th Street. The long hours and hard work took their toll on Christian and Amelia. She suffered a long series of illnesses, and in 1884, Amelia died of pneumonia at age forty-four. Devastated, Heurich lost himself in his work. He also began taking trips to Europe to
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suffering from a series of illnesses and was injured when thrown from a horse-drawn carriage. Mathilde died at age thirty-three in
January 1895, leaving Heurich a widower for a second time even as his brewery continued to prosper and expand. The brewery had several fires, including a major one in 1892 that convinced Heurich that he needed to build a larger, fire-proof facility. The area around the brewery on 20th Street NW was rapidly
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496:, which were becoming increasingly popular. In 1940 Heurich celebrated his 75th anniversary as a brewer (counting his years as an apprentice and working before he came to DC.) Almost 100 years old, he was now DC's only brewer and one of the most prominent businessmen in town. Senate Beer dominated the local market; Senate Ale and Senate Bock were also popular.
381:. He also fought several battles with labor unions and his fellow brewers. Heurich usually hired union labor but balked at being told what to do. In 1904 the other DC brewers united against him in a "beer war" when Heurich abandoned an agreement not to sell his beer below a specific price. For three years, the other brewers, especially Albert Carry's
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with a sister and her husband, then spending time in
Chicago, Kansas, and St. Louis before returning to Baltimore. Heurich wanted to start his own brewery but debated where the best opportunity existed. The growing popularity of lager beer was matched by an increasing number of German-owned breweries
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were slowly making the state dry through local referendums and licensing laws. Heurich reacted the same way many other brewers did, by trying to market his product as a healthy beverage, and trying to make beer appear family-friendly. In late 1913 Heurich introduced a low-alcohol product, Home Beer.
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neighborhood. His old brewery, which no longer fit in the area, was demolished, and the land was sold. Heurich, now a successful businessman in his 50s, married for a third time to a niece of his first wife. Amelia Keyser was thirty-three when they married in 1899. In this marriage, Heurich fathered
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was filled in, roads were paved, and sewer and water lines were installed. The frantic pace of improvement soon attracted the ire of
Congress, and the independent DC Government was eliminated. However, Shepherd's improvements did make the city more attractive to newcomers, including Heurich and as
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Heurich's new brewery opened in 1895 on Water Street in Foggy Bottom. It had a total capacity of 500,000 barrels a year, although even at its height, it did not produce that much. It also included an ice plant that could make 150 tons of ice daily, used for lagering his beer and servicing a home
476:, reopened. Unfortunately for consumers, many breweries, including Abner-Drury, rushed their products to market too soon, and the resulting "green (insufficiently aged) beer" turned off customers. Heurich waited for his beer to age properly, soon becoming DC's only remaining brewery. When the
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night 1917, DC went dry. Heurich noted, "my brewery business was wiped out in that single gesture . . . an investment of over a million dollars was hamstrung." Not wanting to throw his employees out of work, Heurich kept the brewery running to make ice and even won the contract to supply the
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In 1887, Heurich married again. His second wife was
Mathilde Daetz, the sister of August Daetz, the brewery's secretary and treasurer. A German native, Mathilde had moved to the U.S. in 1886. The couple enjoyed a happy marriage, although when Mathilde lost her unborn child in 1889. She began
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First, he had to deal with vats full of
Liberty Apple Champagne. It had too high an alcohol content to sell under the new rules, and only a vinegar company was interested in buying it. Too proud to sell his product as vinegar, Heurich had it dumped into the sewers to drain into the
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to found his own. Heurich's sister
Elisabeth moved to Washington from Baltimore to help her brother run his new company. She also pressed her brother to marry. He proposed to Amelia Mueller Schnell, George Schnell's widow. She accepted, and the two were married in September 1873.
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The brewery remained closed from 1917 until 1933, with only the ice plant operating. Heurich was seventy-five years old when it closed. He was the city's biggest landowner, aside from the federal government. He had a farm in
Maryland which he enjoyed, raising
488:. Now he could start making beer again. The brewery began producing the pre-war brands: Senate Lager, Heurich Lager, and Maerzen Beer. It also produced the spring Bock beer and even Home Beer. Soon, however, Senate Beer became the brewery's mainstay, its
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passed a law making DC dry as of
November 1, 1917. Heurich tried making a non-alcoholic apple drink named "Liberty Apple Champagne." Something went wrong, however, and the drink fermented in storage, making it illegal to sell. As of midnight,
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in the U.S., but many of the major cities already had several existing breweries. Partnering with a fellow German immigrant and coworker, Paul Ritter, Heurich decided upon
Washington, DC. The city had expanded radically in size during the
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and added new equipment to replace the old. Heurich did the brewing while Ritter managed the business. The partners soon had a falling-out for reasons neither fully explained. Heurich took over the brewery, while Ritter moved to
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were gaining support in their campaign to ban making and drinking alcoholic beverages. Heurich had little regard for them, thinking them fanatics, but they were making inroads into his market, particularly
Virginia. Virginia's
468:, passed on March 21, 1933, legalized the sale of beer and wine with an alcohol content of no more than 3.2% by weight, to be effective April 7, 1933. Breweries rushed to start producing beer again before April 7,
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The Christian Heurich Brewing Co. closed in 1956, "because of a decline in sales and because of the knowledge that the government would seek to acquire the site of the brewery for the approaches to the new
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in 1986. He developed a Foggy Bottom label and reproduced the Old Georgetown and Senate beers produced by the old company. The Olde Heurich Brewing Company would ultimately shut down in 2006.
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239:(1861–1865), and a new city government worked to improve the capital city, to make it a world-class capital city. Led by Vice-chair of the city's five-person Board of Public Works, "Boss"
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By the mid-1890s, Christian Heurich was the largest brewery in the nation's capital. Incorporated in Virginia, it sold Senate Lager, Heurich Lager, and Maerzen Beer, as well as a
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and spending time with his children and grandchildren. However, he resented the closing of his business, and when Prohibition grew less popular, he considered reopening it.
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working at breweries throughout what is now Austria, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic. In 1866 he migrated to the United States, first living in the
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now stands. The Heurich brewery was the largest in Washington's history, capable of producing 500,000 barrels of beer a year and 250 tons of ice daily.
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as well as to build a new mansion as a home for Mathilde. Construction on both began in 1894, but Mathilde died soon after her new home was completed.
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It contained less than 2% alcohol and was marketed as suitable for women and "others with a weak stomach." In 1914 the brewery began offering a
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staged productions in the former brewery, which it nicknamed "The Old Vat." The brewery and all of its buildings were torn down in 1961.
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sold in the spring. Heurich's new mansion on New Hampshire Avenue was completed and joined the other mansions in the now upscale
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and Tavern on 20th Street NW between M and N Streets for $ 1,600 a year. Founded by George Schnell in 1864, the brewery produced
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472:. Heurich did not rush, and when beer was legal again in DC, his was not ready. Only one of his pre-Prohibition competitors,
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728:"Last Call for The District's Hometown Beer Heurich Leaves, Citing a 'Disappointing' Lack of Local Support for Foggy Bottom"
492:. In late 1938 Heurich introduced a Senate Ale. In late 1939 the brewery began packaging Senate Beer, Ale, and then Bock in
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the children he long wanted, including his oldest, Christian Heurich, Jr., who took over the brewery when his father died.
845:
Benbow, Mark. (2015). "Cheesecake vs. the Home: The Contradictions of Brewery Advertising in the Early Twentieth Century"
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Benbow, Mark (2015). "Cheesecake vs. the Home: The Contradictions of Brewery Advertising in the Early Twentieth Century".
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for free in exchange for coupons that came with each case of beer. The back cover of the cookbook advertised Home Beer.
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and industrial facilities such as breweries no longer fit the area. Heurich decided to build a new, larger brewery in
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and Baltimore. His business centered in DC, Virginia, and Maryland, and Heurich did not become one of the large
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Heurich's grandson, Gary Heurich, would resurrect the Heurich brand as the Olde Heurich Brewing Company in
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delivery ice business. In 1897 he added a bottling line. Heurich also set up bottling plants in
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was ratified in December 1933, breweries began producing beers with higher volumes of alcohol.
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Heurich's brewery expanded and prospered, despite the economy of the 1870s suffering from the
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in limited qualities, mostly sold and consumed at the brewery's attached restaurant and
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Heurich, Gary F. (1976). "The Christian Heurich Brewing Company, 1872–1956."
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Heurich, Gary F. (1976). "The Christian Heurich Brewing Company, 1872–1956."
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Such efforts were in vain. In 1914 Virginia voted to go dry in a statewide
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that defined "intoxicating" as ½ of one percent alcohol by weight. The
788:"German Immigrants in the United States Brewing Industry (1840–1895)"
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was a Washington, D.C., brewery founded in 1872 and incorporated by
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in 1895 after a major fire. The new brewery was located along the
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Capital Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in Washington, D.C
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Benbow, Mark (Winter 2010). "The Old Dominion Goes Dry".
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on 20th Street NW, it expanded to a much larger site in
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Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1973–1974
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Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1973–1974
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In the autumn of 1872, Heurich and Ritter rented the
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839:Benbow, Mark. (2010). "The Old Dominion Goes Dry"
901:Beer brewing companies based in Washington, D.C.
755:"The Olde Heurich Brewing Co.: Where Is It Now?"
906:Defunct brewery companies of the United States
523:List of defunct breweries in the United States
418:beginning in November 1916. In March 1917 the
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856:(vol. 49). Washington, D.C. p. 604-615.
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831:: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (
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365:In 1900 Heurich and Amelia traveled to the
181:at 26th Street and D Street NW, where the
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602:"Old Heurich Brewery To Close January 31"
847:The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs
693:The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs
636:(vol. 49). Washington, D.C. p. 604-615.
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44:Heurich Brewery at Foggy Bottom in 1910
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864:. Charleston, SC: The History Press.
518:List of breweries in Washington, D.C.
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395:Woman's Christian Temperance Union
293:, returning to Germany to visit a
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600:Briney, John (January 10, 1956).
452:Prohibition did end in 1933. The
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267:. The new partners switched to
252:many as a dozen other brewers.
210:Christian Heurich, a native of
821:. German Historical Institute.
794:. German Historical Institute.
726:Fisher, Marc (March 4, 2006).
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654:. German Historical Institute
569:. German Historical Institute
373:and another gold at the 1907
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500:Olde Heurich Brewing Company
222:and butcher, then spent his
169:in 1890. First located near
56:(20th Street NW) until 1895
247:which ran down what is now
58:26th Street and D Street NW
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819:Immigrant Entrepreneurship
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27:Defunct American brewery
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214:, was born in 1842. He
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478:Twenty-First Amendment
813:Benbow, Mark (2014).
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760:Washington City Paper
763:. September 28, 2010
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460:. Still, it was the
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375:Jamestown Exposition
349:DC's Largest Brewery
274:Cumberland, Maryland
815:"Christian Heurich"
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607:The Washington Post
563:"Christian Heurich"
474:Abner-Drury Brewery
466:Cullen–Harrison Act
393:Groups such as the
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249:Constitution Avenue
193:." For five years,
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849:(vol. 29) p. 48-74
399:Anti-Saloon League
371:Liège World's Fair
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237:American Civil War
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767:February 6,
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420:US Congress
311:gentrifying
265:beer garden
243:, the foul
228:Fells Point
216:apprenticed
195:Arena Stage
146:Senate Bock
895:Categories
658:August 22,
618:August 30,
573:August 22,
529:References
447:dairy cows
416:referendum
303:Saxe-Gotha
299:Elgersburg
269:lager beer
224:Wanderjahr
206:Foundation
713:158243762
699:: 61–66.
588:Peck 2014
494:beer cans
430:US Senate
425:Halloween
355:bock beer
232:Baltimore
827:cite web
800:cite web
512:See also
432:and the
409:cookbook
261:WeiĂźbier
230:area of
140:Pale ale
79:Owned by
50:Location
780:Sources
456:banned
440:Rebirth
339:Schlitz
323:Norfolk
201:History
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281:Growth
220:brewer
130:Märzen
71:Closed
63:Opened
709:S2CID
341:, or
331:Pabst
329:like
301:, in
245:canal
218:as a
866:ISBN
833:link
806:link
769:2022
741:2022
660:2017
620:2008
575:2017
161:The
150:Bock
101:Type
98:Name
74:1956
66:1872
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