Found an old bottle opener...

I have one like that with the classic brewery Krueger embedded into the metal.

 

Nice find!!
My old opener is my favorite. Works great! Don't know how old it is. From my wife's grandfather and it is simple but made to last.

 

Check out what l just posted on a thread the other day...! Wieland's was from San Jose -my little town of a million. I'm super jealous! If you need any amount of bottlecaps and/or a local beer and are willing to part with that, let me know!

 

I found this ... http://sf.curbed.com/2012/4/27/10376190/then-now-wieland-brewery

Back in the day, San Francisco was full of breweries (76 to be exact). The Wieland Brewery was located on a block of 2nd Street, between Howard and Folsom, from 1856-1920, and housed all the brew tanks, bottling facilities, and offices. John Wieland, gold miner, baker and beer baron, bought the already thriving Philadelphia Brewery, eventually becoming its sole owner and renaming it Wieland, and building it into one of the most successful and largest breweries on the west coast. Wieland died in a fire in 1885, and the brewery was sold to San Francisco Breweries LTD (but continued to operate under the name Wieland Brewery), who also owned three other breweries in town.

The building was badly damaged in the 1906 Earthquake, but rebuilt on the same site. They tried to restart after prohibition in 1920, but never got into production. By the 1930s, the brewery moved to San Jose, where it remained in production until 1956. Today the original site on 2nd Street is occupied by the Marine Fireman’s Union, which was constructed in 1957.
. SF Brewing History [website]

 

You're welcome...I just hope l can be so lucky on my next hike!

 

The Wieland's brewery didn't "move to San Jose" - John Wieland bought the Fredericksburg Brewing Co. of San Jose before Prohibition. After Repeal, that brewery was purchased and reopened under new ownership as the Pacific Brewing & Malting Co. 3 years after Repeal, Pacific revived the Wieland's brand, which became their flagship brand.

That brewery was bought and became Falstaff's first west coast facility* in 1952 and it remained opened until 1973.
(* Falstaff later bought the old Burgermeister brewery in San Francisco in 1972, which had been previously owned by Schlitz and then Meister Brau, and soon announced they would close San Jose).

Some breweriana sources claim that PB&M in San Jose went by the name "Wieland Brewing Co." right before being purchased (1951-1952). That appears to have been only a dba, since that is not what appeared in the news reports.

 

...and a John Wieland's crown from my collection...

 

Just under 6000 different beer caps, almost half being from the U.S.. No soda, wine coolers, non-alcoholic beer, etc.

 

Wire bottle openers are the best for opening bottles with crowns that you want to preserve. And by the way, I could always use a Wieland's crown.

 

Do tell of this "wire bottle opener"! Really, l'm not sure what that is. It sounds interesting. as far as the Wieland's cap goes, now, let me go see..

 

It's the type of opener in the OP. What the hobby calls a "Type E - Wire Formed Opener" - some popular styles shown below (from THE 2012 HANDBOOK OF UNITED STATES BEER ADVERTISING OPENERS AND CORKSCREWS):

 

Not sure what this refers to, but the history of the connection between the San Jose brewery (known as "Fredericksburg" pre-Pro and Pacific Brewing & Malting after Repeal) and SF's Wieland's is easy to trace using contemporary sources. They were both part of the San Francisco Breweries, Ltd. one of the many so-called "British syndicates" that swept the US brewing industry in the late 19th century, and they even had brewmasters who might have been related (Alois had a son, Frank A., also listed as a "brewer" in geological sources). Alois continued as the brewmaster at the SJ brewery after it was re-opened as Pacific Brewing & Malting following the 21st Amendment.

As noted in the ad above and the list below, Pacific, did not initially brew "Wieland's" beer after Repeal. So, the Wieland brewery did not "move to San Jose" as claimed, although one could say that the "Wieland" brand did, and by the '40s, it was PB&M's flagship brand.



Also of note, the PB&M's vice president, August Geoffroy, appears to have been the pre-Pro brewer at another San Jose brewery, Garden City Brewing Co. It seems PC&M used the "Garden City" name as a dba for their short-lived "Old Joe's Steam Beer"*, although some sources also have SF's Milwaukee Brewing Co. (which became Burgermeister) used it as a dba, too.

* (Contrary to Anchor's history, several other "steam beers" were revived after Repeal).

Falstaff's purchase of the Pacific brewery and their shutting it down is equally as well documented.

 

this is the greatest website in the world, lol.... how did you find this

 

"historians don't always get it right"...this is true. For instance, by many local accounts, The Fredricksburg Brewery in San Jose was actually at The Alameda and Lenzen Avenue...not Cinnabar St.