St. Louis has been highly influenced by German culture and is home to thousands of ancestors of German immigrants. One of these prominent and influential German families in St. Louis is the Griesediecks. Since the late 18th century, this family name became equated with quality German brews. By the 1950’s the family was producing over one million barrels per year. To better understand the influence of this brewing family, let us take a closer look at their history in the Gateway to the West. The goal of this blog is to further explore the impact of the Griesedieck family on St. Louis history and culture, as well as address how they achieved success in revolutionary and inventive ways.

The Griesedieck family has an extensive tradition of brewing beer, which begins in Germany.  Johann Heinrich Griesedieck established a brewery in Stromberg, Westphalia in the year 1766 (“Our Story”). One century later, in 1866, three of his grandsons, Anton, Heinrich, and Franz, decided to travel to America to start a new life in St. Louis, Missouri. The grandsons brought their family lager recipe and soon opened up several breweries in the area (Leonard). Franz was the first to open an establishment called Brinkwirth & Griesedieck Brewery. Together, Anton and Heinrich opened other breweries including Griesedieck & Co. Brewery, Phoenix Brewery, as well as Independent Breweries Company. Joseph Griesedieck, son of Anton, even attend the U.S. Brewers Academy in New York. He went on to complete an apprenticeship at the Weinerstephan Brewery in Bavaria from which he returned in 1884. With his brothers, Bernard and Henry, he eventually established National Brewery Company in 1891, which began production with about 150,000 barrels per year (Leonard).

The following is a family tree that shows the different breweries established and positions held within the family. Please note that only family members that held positions in breweries were recorded, hence mothers and sisters were left out.

Because St. Louis was home to many German immigrants, the demand for German malt beverages began to increase. But St. Louis was ideal for selling beer in more ways than one. Lemp Breweries, a competitor of the Griesediek breweries, began to take advantage of Missouri’s famous underground caves to store their lagers and keep them cool and dry during the fermentation process (“St. Louis and Beer”).

The Griesediecks not only opened a number of breweries, but they also took leadership in brewing associations in St. Louis. St. Louis Brewers Association formed in 1889 and Anton Griesedieck became a stockholder. Every brewery in St. Louis joined this association other than Lemp and Anheuser-Busch, as they remained independent due to their overwhelming national success. After St. Louis Brewers Association disbanded a few years later, Independent Breweries Company, or IBC, opened in 1907, which merged nine local breweries. Joseph Griesedieck became IBC’s manager and his cousin, Henry Jr., became president (Leonard). IBC only held together for several years until it failed in 1911, at which point Henry Jr. decided to create his own brewery. He established the original Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company in the same year (“Our Story”). One of his own five sons, Anton, eventually became company president. After IBC, Joseph Griesedieck, also opened his own brewery which he named Griesedieck Beverage Company. Joseph Griesedieck eventually came to be known famously as “Papa Joe” by family and friends.

 

 

 

This ad was originally published in the St. Louis Post Dispatch on June 16th, 1917.

Just as the Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company and Griesedieck Beverage Company both started business, World War 1 began effecting American industries. The food industry, in particular, had to conform to new regulations in order to conserve for the war effort. Suddenly, beers could no longer contain more than 2.75% alcohol. Use of grains for alcohol was also capped. It not only became more difficult to produce and sell beer with this restriction on ingredients, but it also became problematic that beer was viewed as “too German”.

“Germanness” became associated with anti-American sentiment and by the 1920’s this equated to anti-prohibitionists (Orkent). By the time the National Prohibition Act was passed, brewers faced two large problems: they needed to produce a drink with no more than 0.5% alcohol as well as project a less German image. Joseph Griesedieck at the Griesedieck Beverage Company attempted to solve this issue by creating a drink called Hek, inspired by an ancient Egyptian non-alcoholic beverage. Hek could out-compete other “near beers” because of Joseph Griesedieck’s novel dealcoholizing techniques. The product of this revolutionary process had a far more authentic taste compared to beers that were only partially fermented (Leonard).

Along with changing product production, prohibition was reason for another turning point in Griesedieck Beverage Company history. Lemp Brewery, creator of Falstaff beverages, had become the second largest brewery in St. Louis, just after Anheuser-Busch, and was even the first brewery in the Midwest to ship their beer nationwide. Despite their success, Lemp was forced out of business due to the harsh prohibition regulations (Mittelman). Griesedieck Beverage Company purchased the Falstaff trademark for $25,000 and rebranded Hek with its recognizable name. St. Louis Magazine states that the Griesedieck family “turned an extinct label owned by the ill-fated Lemp family into a multi-million-dollar company traded on the New York Stock Exchange” (“A History of Falstaff”). Eventually, Falstaff became the “family’s most successful brewery” (“A History of Falstaff”).

Additionally, Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company was forced to shut down during prohibition but reopened after the 21^st Amendment was ratified (“Our Story”).

Joseph Griesedieck’s Falstaff Brewing Company barley survived prohibition but was highly prepared to begin brewing once again and was met with a large success in 1933 (Leonard). Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company was also able to reopen and began to thrive. Griesedieck Brothers gained recognition from the St. Louis Cardinals baseball team as their official sponsor in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The sponsorship was taken over by Anheuser Busch in 1955 (“Our Story”). Around the same time in the 1950’s their annual production reached a high peak of over one million barrels. Unfortunately this great success was short lived since Griesedieck Brothers was driven out of business after Anheuser Busch began underselling their Bavarian beer. With Henry A. Griesedieck– the great-grandson of Anton Griesedieck– as the last company president, the brewery decided to consolidated with their cousins at Falstaff Brewing in 1957 (“Our Story” and “St. Louis and beer”).

After Falstaff bought out Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Company, their sales reached a high of seven million barrels in 1966 (“St. Louis and Beer”). By 1977, Falstaff became the 11^th largest brewery in the nation. Alvin, son of Joseph Griesedieck, became head of the company after his father’s death and was eventually handpicked by Anheuser-Busch to be one of 45 breweries nationwide to join Brewing Industry Inc. Alvin Griesedieck was even placed in one of the nine company director positions (Mittelman).

In 2010, Raymond, son of Henry A. Griesedieck, started up production of Griesedieck Brothers once again. Anton’s great-great-grandson now distributes the family beer to select bars, restaurants, and grocery stores in the St. Louis area (“St. Louis and Beer” and “Our Story”).

Picture provided by: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_caray_1951

 

This is an ad from the 1970’s for Griesedieck Malt Liquor.