Schmidt vs Hamm's vs Grain Belt (Breweries)

Paging @jesskidden

 

Employment numbers aren't typically found in most industry reference sources.

The Hamm brewery had the largest capacity (3m bbl/yr around the time they were bought by Olympia) and had, far and away, been the largest brewing company out of MN - reaching the US Top 10 by the late 1930s, the 1m bbl mark by the 1940s, staying in the TOP 20 until the 1970s. They peaked at #5 in the mid-50s with their highest barrelage years in the mid-60s with over 4m bbl/yr.

Those stats, of course, include Hamms beers brewed at breweries they owned in TX, MD and 2 in CA (LA and SF) at various times. They were actually tied as the #2 brewer in California briefly in the mid-1960s, with 12% market share (Coors #1), so selling more beer there than AB, Pabst or Schlitz, all of which also operated breweries in CA.

Grain Belt would only reach 1m bbl/yr by the late 1960s.

Jacob Schmidt was brewing under half a million barrels a year when they were bought by Detroit's Pfieffer Brewing Co. in the mid-1950s, after which most brand stats aren't usually available. In the mid-60s it became part of the Associated Brewing Co. when Pfeiffer merged with Drewrys (Piels, Fitzgerald), and then part of Heileman after they bought most of Associated in 1971. The brewery was rated at 1.5m bbl/yr as part of Heileman in the 1970s.

Minnesota Market Share:
1962
Hamm - 31%
Grain Belt - 26%
Schmidt - 14%
1971
Grain Belt - 32%
Schmidt - 20%
Hamm - 10%

Probably lots more info in The Land of Amber Waters, easily one of the best state brewing history books, but I was too lazy to go to other room and pull it off the shelf...

 

Any idea what the Gluek's numbers were?

 

Pretty small, compared the other 3. 1956 - 1960 they were brewing around 100k-110k bbl/yr, dropping to under 100k in the early '60s (so, nearly 4% of the MN market) before selling the brand to Heileman. But that still put them at the #4 brewery in MN.

(Was looking at some Minneapolis/Grain Belt Beer ads from the 1930s that often including this:

and I thought, "Yeah, so-- bigger than Gluek? What about Hamm's and Schmidt City Club next door?")

40 years ago or so, I worked with a guy who moved to NJ from MN and he overheard me talking about beer. He mentioned that his father or grandfather once worked for a small brewery in Minneapolis and I said, "Oh, yeah - you mean Gluek?" and he almost fell off the bench at the picnic table we sat at on break.

That was during the late '70s beer can craze when lots of stores carried all sort of brands that weren't regularly distributed in state. I bought a couple Heileman-brewed cans once, stuck 'em in my lunch bag and kept them cold in the breakroom fridge, and as we walked to our cars after work one summer, I said, "Damn sure was hot today in that warehouse, makes a person wish they had a cold Gluek's!"

He laughed, and then I pulled out 2 cans of Gluek's I picked up.

Sad that Cold Spring kinda ruined that brewery's rep (well, maybe Gluek Stite did that for an earlier generation).

 

And now here we are over a year after the big Gluek's relaunch and they're marketing themselves to hipsters and yogis. Who would've guessed they would have gone from the blue-collar-every-man crowd to the too-hip-for-the-room people?

 

This is a great thread. When I was young and the neighbors would get together at the house each one would bring a case of the beer they wanted to drink. The smack tossed back and forth about whether Hamm's or Grain Belt was the best beer was considerable. In the 00's had a Hamm's in San Francisco at a bar made to look like a MN north woods lodge. First one I'd had in decades. Ah the beer refreshing.

 

Teenage years in the '80's, and young adult in the 90's, Grain Belt was an extinct brand, while Hamm's lived in almost mythical proportions across the country. Especially on the west coast. "From the land of sky blue waters". A buddy and I would always buy "off brands" to take to parties, because it was less likely to be swiped by moochers. Hamm's and Red, White, and Blue were our favorites. RW&B more so because no one ever heard of it except we brought it into the store I worked for one customer.

 

If you really wanted to discourage the moochers, you would have brought a case of Pfeiffer.

 

I grew up in Geneva MN, back in the early 80’s it was considered the Grain Belt capital of the world due to the bar selling more Grain Belt per capita than anywhere else. Of course there were only about 400 residents in town......

 

Probably because it was $5.99/case...

 

I recall Meister Brau being $3.99 for a case of returnables back then. Good (cheap) times!

 

Well, "near extinct" might be a better way to put it. Heileman continued to brew and market the brand through the 1970-80s after buying it in 1975, but the barrelage collapsed from a near 1M bbl to under 25k in 1991, when the brand was sold off along with the former Schmidt brewery to the newly created Minnesota Brewing Co.

Red, White & Blue was a strange label. Created by Pabst in the late 1890s as a discount brand, it was pretty surprising when Heileman took the brand (along with the Blitz-Weinhard and Lone Star brands and breweries and Pabst's GA brewery) in the infamous 1983 Pabst/Olympia/Heileman merger/spin-off.

"What, you mean Heileman needs another "popular-priced" brand? Old Style, Blatz, Black Label, Schmidt, Weidemann, Stag, Grain Belt, Sterling, National Bohemian, Old Style, Falls City, Heidelberg, Drewry's, Bergermeister, Rainer, Blitz-Weinhard and Pfieffer don't quite have that market tied up?"
(Did I miss any? Most likely - plus didn't list the premium-priced or malt liquor brands.)

 

Meister Brau was marketed briefly as “tastes as good as Budweiser, at a better price”! We drank a lot of Heileman’s Special Export, the green death.....Schmidt big mouth bottles were also a favorite.

 

Perhaps: "(one of) the green deaths" - 'cause the sobriquet was used for a number of other, usually higher ABV, beers in different regions, such as Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor, Gluek's Stite Malt Liquor, Mickey's Malt Liquor, Midnight Dragon, Ballantine Ale (and IPA) and Rainier Ale.

Maybe just about any domestic beer that came in green bottles?

 

Still have a couple Pfeiffer returnable cases with stuff in it. Nice and strong with handles. Not sure what happened to the bottles but my guess i used them for homebrew in the 80s.

 

I’m Minnesota, Special Ex with its distinct green can, is The Green Death. It always tasted skunky to me, but my buddies step dad loved it, so we drank are fair share.