Question: Name the Fox Head “Fox”

 

Bonus: Fox Head displayed the number "400" on their products, Why?

 

The Appleton Adler Brau and the Kellers Holiday are Book cans.

 

Kingsbury - "Fit for a King"

 

The Fox Head cans had connections to Chicago under-world figures - even into the late sixites.

Holiday Beer was outselling Potosi's regular brand and in 1956, Edward Armanetti requested Potosi to can his own private label for Holiday Beer to sell in his chain of Chicago liquor stores. In 1962, Potosi agreed to use the same Armanetti label and can Kellers Holiday Beer for Elmer Keller to sell in his chain of stores in the Milwaukee area. This lasted until the early 1970's.

When Adam Gettelman died in 1925, his oldest son William took control of the brewery which was making Near Beer during Prohibition. In 1929, William turned the Brewery over to his younger brother Fritz (Fred). The Depression hit that same year and coupled with prohibition, you Fritz was caught betwwen a really big Rock and an extremely hard place. Necessity is the Mother of Invention and Fritz got to it. He developed the "Steel Keg" which was approximately 60 pounds lighter than a wood keg but still another major advantage was the wide center band for ease of handling. He turned down a million dollar offer for exclusive manufacturing rights because he had given his word, earlier, to another man for the same right. He invented a high speed snow plow, played major role in the development of the huge glass lined storage still used by today's brewers. He invented pasturizers for both beer and milk and perfected a bottle washer using a jet of steam that greatly reduced bottle breakage. Fritz died in 1954 and his two sons Fred Jr. and Tom ran it until Miller Brewing bought their company in 1961.

Get...Get...Gettelman

 

Answer: The Sly Fox, know-it-all, was named Headly

 

Bonus Answer: The LC&N (Chicago and Northwestern)

Railway boasted their trains ran the "400" miles between

Chicago and St Paul Minn. in "400" minutes. They selected

Fox Head as the beer they would serve on these Express

Lines. Thus the Fox Head Brewery placed "400"

on their beer and breweriana items.

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At its apex Heileman's based in Lacrosse became the Nation's third largest brewing conglomerate behind only Anheuser Busch and in-state rival Miller. Heileman's formula for expansion was based upon buying the labels of recently closed breweries and placing their own fine products into nearly identical bottles and cans to be re-issued back into each of the breweries home regions. The list is impressive: Black Label, Blatz, Blitz, Drewery's, Falls City, Fox Head, Gluek, Grain Belt, Lone Star, National Boh, Olympia, Schmidt's (Philadelphia), Wiedemann, and Weber were all part of their domain. However their "Shining Star" was Rainier brewing which they purchased in 1977. Heileman itself was in dire financial straights while Rainier was performing very well allowing Heileman to stay afloat. In 1987 Alan Bond (Australia) made a leverage buyout of the House of Heileman Brewing Company saddling them with enormous debt. Heileman declared bankruptcy in January 1991. Under federal bankruptcy protection, they hobbled on until Stroh's Brewing (Detroit) acquired them in 1996. Stroh's was also struggling financially and brewing in Lacrosse ceased in August 1999.

 

In 1969 Heileman had a set of six metal storage tanks erected in Lacrosse. Each tank had a capacity of holding 22,220 brarrels of beer. Heileman had the tanks painted to look like their red, white and blue Old Style beer cans. Heileman called them "The World's Largest Six Pack".

 

The Special Export cans (green - 2 known, red - 3 known) are test cans. They are the USBC2 cans and their provenance is known back to the brewery. Heilemans advertised their Special Export Beer and Malt Liquors to be the Best in the World and featured a globe on their beer cans. Special Export was aged up to nine months giving it a heavy body. It was high in alcohol content and Krausened for a smooth body. Personally, this is one brew I would have really liked to sample.        

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