CATALYSTS THAT BEGAN TO CHANGE THE BREWING INDUSTRY

Throughout the 19th century, the industrial revolution transformed the American landscape. Beginning around the 1820s, the rise of steamboats escalated Cincinnati's growth. The telegraph was in use by the 1840s, railroads from the east coast were serving the Ohio region by the mid-1850s, and the telephone gained popularity in the 1870s and 1880s. These changes, combined with a westward population movement, caused the Cincinnati area to boom in the three decades both before and after the Civil War. Between 1830 and 1890, the population of Cincinnati ranked between the sixth and ninth largest cities in the U.S. This growth was due in no small part to German immigrants. They liked beer, too, and the number of breweries in the area swelled.

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Beginning in the mid-1800s, an alternative way to brew a previously unusual type of beer—called a lager—became much more popular. It was a lighter style of beer that had become very popular in Germany, and subsequently in America.  Compared to the ales that dominated the market at the time, lager had a somewhat lower alcoholic content and was more easily digestible, so it could be consumed in greater quantities. However, unlike ale—which could be made in a couple of days with top-fermenting yeast— brewing lager was a difficult process, requiring bottom-fermentation with cooler temperatures and a longer fermentation period of up to multiple weeks. This required lager to be fermented in cool, underground stone cellars. Lager also needed to be made in the cooler winter and early spring months, and stored with ice cut from lakes and ponds so that there would be enough beer to last through much of the year.  Consequently, the size of breweries producing lager beer before and just after the Civil War were all relatively small, each usually making from a few hundred to several hundred barrels monthly. Until the 1870s and before more industrialization, this complicated brewing process typically restricting the distribution and sale of lager beverages, usually in kegs and kept within a local area. 

 

However, two inventions in the 1870s brought revolutionary changes to the brewing industry: pasteurization and ice making.  Louis Pasteur invented a process to pasteurize substances in 1873, which prevented beer from spoiling and made the bottling of beer more practical. This made it easier for individuals to consume beer at home or in public places beyond those that served beer out of kegs.  In addition, ice-making equipment in the 1870s not only allowed lager beer to be made more easily throughout the entire year, but it also enabled breweries to ship their beer over longer distances.  Of particular importance, ice making made it more practical for homes to use iceboxes year-round to help preserve food - and beer.  These two important technologies, pasteurization and ice making, allowed brewers to more easily brew and distribute their lager beer at any time in the year. This also made it possible for brewers to expand their regional market reach. Brewers willing to make the necessary capital commitments could "export" their beer in refrigerated railroad cars to areas outside of their local town into a region, or even become national in scope. However, given the high national per capita consumption for beer in the Greater Cincinnati area— two or three time the national average due to its German heritage - the larger local brewers could make attractive profits without having to invest more capital to "export" their beer.  Further, before Prohibition, most of the local Cincinnati area brewers were not located in places that made it easy were to bring railroad spurs into their breweries. This made it more difficult for Cincinnati brewers to transport beer outside of the their region via rail.

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The technological changes affecting the brewing industry occurred in the 1870s just as many immigrants were arriving in the United States and beginning to establish new lives in America. One such German-American was William Riedlin.

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WILLIAM RIEDLIN'S EARLY YEARS

William Riedlin emigrated from Baden, Germany, to America in 1870 at the age of 20. He arrived in Cincinnati with only $1.15 and first lived with his mother, who had previously emigrated and settled in an area of the city known as the Over The Rhine (OTR) Area.  She had six brothers, most of whom had emigrated to America before her; some of her brothers may have arrived around 1848 and could have been part of the “Forty-Eighters” discussed previously. Her brothers fought for the Union Army in the Civil War, with only three surviving.  Although William's father died when he was only eight, he learned the same trade as his father—blacksmithing—and had worked in that industry in Germany.  When he arrived in America, William followed in his father's craft working first as a blacksmith. However, after a couple of years he began to work for the McNeale & Urban Safe Company.  By the time he married Emma Hoffman in 1877, he was operating a grocery store at 12th and Main streets. A year later, he became the proprietor of Tivoli Hall, a beer hall and saloon located in OTR at 469 Vine Street (1313 Vine Street today.) According to the 1880 Census, the Riedlins were one of three families living next door to Tivoli Hall, at what was 467 Vine Street, (and now 1311 Vine Street). These structures remain as shown in the photo.  Learn more about the Riedlin Family.

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Former Riedlin Residence & Tivoli Hall.  Their addresses today are 1311 & 1313 Vine St., Cincinnati, OH. Today they are respectively known as Union Hall (a facility supporting start-up firms), and Krueger Tavern. Apparently, there was a former brewery on the site of of Tivoli Hall and/or the building to the right with a lager cellar below, which is where the first lager beer may in Cincinnati may have been brewed around 1850. This cellar has been converted into a bar and music venue known as Ghost Baby.

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WILLIAM RIEDLIN ACQUIRES AN INTEREST

IN THE BAVARIAN BREWERY CO. 

As discussed under The Beginnings, the ownership of the Bavarian Brewery had changed several times since it was first established in 1866 and suffered a bankruptcy in 1877.  John Meyer acquired an interest in the brewery about a year or two after it was emerging from bankruptcy. By 1880, he had become a proprietor along with the brewmaster, Charles Ruh. However, only about a year after the two formed their partnership, Charles Ruh suffered fatal injuries in a carriage accident. Charles was succeeded as brewmaster by his brother Anton, and Meyer acquired the ownership interest that had belonged to Charles from his widow.  Even though Meyer expanded his ownership interest in the brewery, a substantial lien against the brewery remained with the Deglow family that had originally founded the brewery.  It amounted to what was a one-half interest in the brewery.  Either unable or unwilling to obtain complete ownership of the brewery, John Meyer was interested in obtaining an investor and partner.  In 1882, William Riedlin sold his interest in Tivoli Hall to purchase an interest in the Bavarian Brewery from Meyer. By late 1882, William had moved his family to Covington, KY, with his three-year-old daughter Emma and one-year-old son William Jr., to begin working at the brewery.  In February, 1883, the family had a third child, Mary Anna Marie (or Mayme), who was born in Covington.

 

The Rieldin & Ruh Families

It’s unknown exactly how William heard about an investment opportunity at the small Bavarian Brewery in Covington, KY.  He may have heard about the opening through word-of-mouth conversation at his Cincinnati saloon - Tivoli Hall. Another possibility is  that he learned about the opportunity through his previous acquaintances with the Ruh family, who had worked at the Bavarian Brewery as brewmasters. William was evidently very good friends with Ferdinand (Ferd) Ruh.  He is shown standing with Ferd in some Bavarian Brewery photos, and received the stein from Ferd shown below.  Like William, Ferd was also from Baden, Germany. There is even a possibility that William and his family knew the Ruh Family before they emigrated to America, and/or shared common German acquaintances. The small villages they lived in were only several miles away from one another.

 

Ferd's son Charles had worked as the brewmaster of Bavarian Brewery in the 1870s before he was succeeded by his son Anton (Tony) around 1880. Incidentally, the middle names of both of William's sons, William Jr. and Walter, were Ferdinand. So, perhaps Ferdinand was chosen for the middle name of his sons because of his close relationship with Ferd. In addition, Riedlin's son Walter Ferdinand was born in 1887—the same year that Ferd gifted the stein (shown on the right) to William and his wife. This suggests that there may have been a previous relationship between the Ruh and Riedlin families before they began working together at the Bavarian Brewery in Covington, KY.

​​Note: Besides Ferd Ruh, who was about a generation older than William, Ferd also had a younger relative that shared the same first name.

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Above are portraits of Wm. Riedlin & Anton Ruh, and an 1887 Stein - given to the Wm. Riedlin family by Ferdinand Ruh, father of Anton Ruh. Anton Ruh was the Bavarian Brewmaster from 1880 until 1917. 

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MEYER & RIEDLIN OBTAIN FULL CONTROL OF THE BREWERY

The August 23, 1884 edition of the Cincinnati Enquirer ran a notice about a local business transaction: John Meyer and William Riedlin had purchased the outstanding half-interest in the Bavarian Brewery that remained from a descendant of J.H. Deglow, the original founder of the brewery. The ownership and management of the brewery was now controlled by these two men.

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Since Deglow also owned a tannery next to the brewery, he had decided to concentrate solely on that business.  An early photo of the brewery workers and signs promoting their Celebrated Meyer & Riedlin's Lager in 1884 is shown below.  Various individuals are identified in the text that accompanies the photo when this picture is clicked.

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Meyer-Riedlin 1884 Photo. Beginning second from the left are J.H. Kruse (who became Secretary/Treas.), William Riedlin Sr. (co-owner who became Pres.) & his son William, Jr., Anton Ruh (who was brew master & became V.P), Joseph Ruh, Ferdinand Ruh and John Meyer (co-owner). The plaques in the photo advertise the Meyer & Riedlin's Celebrated Lager Beer. The Meyer and Riedlin partnership was the beginning of a long and successful relationship between William and many other employees who worked at this brewery. One such relationship was formed between the Ruh and Riedlin families. Please click on the photo for additional names. 

 

 

THE BAVARIAN BREWERY AROUND 1884

The Bavarian Brewery was established on a 50 foot wide lot in the middle of a block between W. Pike/11th Street on the north and W. 12th Streets on the south, and between Main and Bullock streets on the east and west. (Please see the map below from 1886, which was probably compiled a year or two earlier.) The brewery was situated in the middle of a block containing both residential and industrial uses, and the immediate surrounding area was mostly residential.  Before the advent of motorized vehicles, which didn't begin to appear until around 1900, it was common for places of work to be located next to residential areas. This allowed residents to simply walk to work. The proprietors often desired to live close to their business as well. The owners of the Bavarian Brewery were no exception: John Meyer lived next to the brewery at 244 W. Twelfth Street and William Riedlin lived across the street at 241 W. Twelfth Street. 

 

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1886 Sanborn Insurance Map. The structures identified as Ice Ho's (Houses) above had some lager cellars under them. The brick buildings were shaded in pink, but most of the brewery structures shown on this map were frame, as indicated by their yellow shading. However, the structures mentioned below and built after this map was published were made of masonry in order to be less susceptible to fire. Undoubtedly the newer brick buildings were provided with lower insurance rates than if they were all frame.

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As shown on the above map, the brewery was situated between two ice ponds, with water that was supplied from Willow Run Creek. (Please click the map, or any of the images, for an enlargement.) On either side of the creek off Pike Street was the business known as the Deglow Tannery.  The Malt and Brew houses were brick structures on Pike Street, shown in the photo in The Beginnings. But by the mid-1880's there were other brewery structures extending south to 12th Street, all of frame construction. Behind the Wash House there were some Ice Houses with lager cellars beneath. The ponds were used in winter to cut out blocks of ice, which were then stored in the Ice Houses and cellars to maintain a cool temperature for fermenting and storing lager beer. The dotted lines extending from the ponds seem to represent conduits that provided drainage from the melting ice in cellars into the ponds.​​

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A Bavarian Brewery Lager Cellar. American brewers built lager cellars from around 1850 until the 1880s. In the Cincinnati area, they were typically made of river or creek stone and were about 15 feet wide with an arched ceiling of about 15 feet high.  Bavarian had several lager cellars located under frame ice houses and buildings situated north of 12th Street.  The one cellar from the Bavarian Brewery still remaining, shown on the left, is typical of other cellars that existed at this brewery, as well as those located at breweries in the OTR area of Cincinnati. This remaining cellar extends north to south for about 100 feet just west of the former Brew/Mill Houses. After it was no longer used for storing and fermenting lager beer, this lager cellar was used as a tunnel to access the Bavarian Brewery Boiler House. (See the Brewery Tunnels.)

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THE BREWERY EXPANDS

Within a couple years after Meyer - Riedlin acquired the outstanding interest in their brewery from the Deglow family, expansion steadily occurred. Both proprietors must have been keenly aware of the newly developed inventions involving pasteurization and ice making, discussed above. In order to stay competitive, it was necessary for them to integrate these technologies into their brewery. This required changes to create more functional structures and facilities, as follows:

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A.  The Original Brewery Building, converted to a Malt House. This brick structure located on W. Pike Street was used as a brewery beginning around 1866, but may have actually been built nearly a couple decades earlier.  After a new Brew House was built (see C below), the original brewery was evidently converted this structure to a Malt House.  Besides being used to store grains for brewing lager beer, this structure was also used for dealing in the trading of hops, because Meyer & Riedlin were also maltsters.

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The expansion of the brewery and technological advances required the building of the following ancillary buildings

B.  Malt Mill.  This brick three-story structure was built around 1886. It seems that the brew kettle may have been situated in this building, if only for a short time.

C.  Brew House.  Even with a Malt Mill addition, the brewery needed a more efficient and dedicated building for brewing purposes. Around 1888, a four-story building with a copula designed for brewing was added next to the Malt Mill. It appears some ice-making equipment was added for brewing purposes in this structure. Doing so eliminated the need for any of the ice ponds, and also made the lager cellars less useful.

​D. Engine Room. This building is thought to include refrigeration equipment and was built around 1888 or 1889

​Boiler Room. This masonry structure was next to the built the same time as the Engine Room. ​

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The original brewery plant, and portions of the two adjoining and additional buildings mentioned above, are shown below. They extended south from Pike Street. These buildings formed the heart of the brewery, with other supporting  structures located behind and around these core buildings. They are respectively indicated on the Lithograph below as A, B and C. 

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