THE BEGINNINGS
- Of Bavarian Brewery
THE BEGINNINGS
- Of Bavarian Brewery
ADS - From Newspapers
CHARGERS and
Beer & Tip TRAYS
To advertise their beer, brewers had trays and chargers produced and given to saloons and other establishments serving their beer as promotional or advertising items. The chargers were displayed on walls, while the trays were used for waiters/waitresses to cary primarily smaller glasses of beer. There were also smaller trays used for tips, that were left next to the cash register, or sometimes on tables. Thus far, only those types of trays and chargers illustrated below have been found for Bavarian Brewing Co.
PRE-PROHIBITION CHARGERS
c. 1900. Chargers and trays with pictures of ladies and other designs that advertised a beer were fairly common around the turn of the 20th Century. The companies that made these would sometimes furnish some examples with stock images to their customer before the printing on an order for a quantity of chargers or trays was determined and added. The charger in center below is believed to be such a sample. Besides being given to saloons, chargers were also displayed in the offices or the tap room of a brewery. Those items like those below with the saying Bavarian Beer? were displayed in the Bavarian Tap Room, as can be seen in the background of a photo below.
The Above Chargers Behind the
Bavarian Tap Room Bar. The photo on the side was taken around the early 1950s. Shown on the Bavarian Tap Room walls are similar chargers to those depicted above. The gentleman behind the bar is Ray Hoffman, the General Manager of Bavarian Brewing beginning in the mid 1940s for about a decade. The other men at the bar are unidentified. Note the small ball knobs on the lower right to dispense draft beer. (See Ball Knobs and Tap Room.) Click the photo for an enlarged image.
PRE-PROHIBITION SOUVENIR TIP TRAY
1912. This item was a souvenir for the Bavarian Brew House that was completed in 1911, but dedicated the following year. It was made by American Art Works in Coshocton, OH. This firm could make custom artwork, but also had stock images that could be selected. So, different brewers could sometimes have the tray illustration. The name of the woman is indicated to be Mildred. Unlike the above charger, the "tip tray" was typically smaller and instead of being hung, as its name implies, it was used by customers to leave tips, often at the cashier or on a serving tray. Please see Brewereiana Affeciando for more information about Am. Art Works.
c. 1938 - 1946. Before 1946, the draft beer for Bavarian Brewing Co. was simply called Bavarian Beer. This was also one of the brands used by the brewery before Prohibition. A Post Prohibition tray for this beer is shown below before WWII. The back of the tray is a dark blue like the rim, and was plain with no printing. Note that after WWII the type face for the brand was changed to an old style font and Bavarian's was used instead of Bavarian for the name of the beer.
c. 1953 - 1956. To differentiate the name of the beer from other brewers that had a Bavarian "Type" or "Style" beer, Bavarian Brewing Co. changed the name of their brand to "Bavarian's Old Style Beer" in 1946. They also changed the print type, color and logo associated with the brand as shown on both sides of the tray below. There are at least two versions of this tray. An older version in the late 1940s and early 1950s says "Schott Ale" on the top side and "Bavarian's Old Style Beer" on the bottom side. A new version around 1953 say "...A Man's Beer ... And Hers Too! on both sides.
