Indiana

Indiana

Question: Who was Sneaky Pete?

The Great Lakes, on the left, is one of three known cans with the words Premium Beer in white,and is not pictured in the USBC book.

"The Man's Brand

is Twenty Grand"

The Home Beer is the book can. The Home Ale was purchased off eBay and has no top or bottom. I will get it rolled with the proper fan tab (info from the USBC can owner) but I never seem to get around to doing it.

The Redtop Beer on the left is from Redtop Brewing and is better than the book can. "Red Top, Worth Any Man's Money"

In 1924 Prohibition (that grand experiment) held the United States in its grip. Not so in Drewery's Canadian home province of Manitoba where brewing real beer once again became legal. Since this is what they were set up to do - that's exactly what they did. Sales Boomed! It wasn't their job to monitor where their products eventually ended up being consumed. The flood of liquid crossing the U.S./Canadian border never equaled that of Niagara Falls but you get the idea. Enterprising young men (bootleggers) made huge profits for the next nine years. Indiana, Chicago, Detroit and the citizens of the midwest developed a fondness for Drewery's Beers and Ales. After F.D.R. (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) won the 1932 Presidential Election, Drewery's began plans to open a plant and brew their products in America. In 1933 the Sterling Brewery in Evansville brewed Drewery's but after two short years the brewing operations were relocated to South Bend. An excellent choice as Drewery's sale and profits thrived. In 1951, Drewery's merged with Chicago's Atlas Brewery (which also operated the Schoenhofen Edelweiss Brewery) giving Drewery's three successful Stateside brewing facilities. Profits soared and Drewery's was on a roll of doing everything right until 1960. East Coast money bought into Drewery's and eventually gained control of the board of directors. by 1963 the new management team expanded operations by buying three east coast breweries (Hampden-Harvard, Fitzgerald, and Piels) and also closed the Atlas Brewery in Chicago but they did keep Schoenhofen Edelweiss running. At the end of 1965, Drewery's (South Bend) was merged into Detroit's Associated Brewing Conglomerate. By 1972 Associated was bleeding red ink and sold part (including Drewery's South Bend) of their failing empire to the G. Heileman Brewing Company of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. Production ceased in November 1972.

The Gold Coast (Atlas Brewing, Chicago) and the

Golden Stein (Schoenhofen Brewing, Chicago)

were two labels Drewery's brought back home to

South Bend in 1963 to expand their product line.

Evansville Cook's in 1955 the Union employees voted to strike for higher wages. Management decided to close the brewery for good but briefly re-opened it to bottle 6,000 barrels of beer that was brewed and properly aged still inside the plant. Cook's labels were picked up by city rival Sterling. Sterling celebrated it's 100th Anniversary in 1963. By marketing a wide-mouth non-returnable bottle but success was limited. In 1964 Associated Brewing (Detroit, MI) took control of Sterling's Evansville Plant and labels. When Associated Brewing split up in 1972, G. Heileman (LaCross, WI) brought and operated this facility until closing it in 1988.

When the Renner Brewing company in Youngtown, Ohio closed in 1962,

Old Crown Brewing Company of Fort Wayne, Indiana picked up their labels

which they distributed back into eastern Ohio. Fort Wayne used the term

"Lazy Aged" due to allowing their products extra time to age (to develop

better flavor) after brewing. They placed a sleeping elf on the side of their

cans. Fort Wayne closed in 1973.

Chicago Labels that Drewery's brought back to Indiania to brew:

1. All American 6. Gold Coast 11. Nine O Five

2. Atlas Prager 7. Golden Stein 12. Old Crown

3. Bavarian Select 8. Great Lakes 13. Old Dutch

4. Cold Brau 9. Home 14. Regal

5. Dorf (pink stein) 10. Katz 15. Van Merritt