Any info on Zeman Brewing Co., Mundelein/Gilmer, IL 1942-64?

Here's Zeman's listings in industry directors for the periods shown:

30k bbl. capacity = probably a larger brew-size than 10 bbl. I'd guess.

---1962 - Zeman brewed 8,657 bbl. making them #151 of 157 breweries in the US.

re: the Zeman brewmasters:

Carl Ebner is listed as owner and brewmaster of Carl Ebner Brewing Co. in Ft. Atkinson, WI in 1945 - 15,000 bbl. capacity brewery that bottled the "Good Old Fashioned Lager" brand.

James Vernoch was brewing for Atlas in Chicago in 1957-58.
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As you're finding, the draught-only breweries in the post-Repeal era are difficult to research.

And the history of Fox Deluxe Brewing, Foxhead Brewing and Peter Fox Brewing Companies is real confusing last time I looked.

 

Oops - missed the "k" in your comment. Other than that 1962 barrelage figure, can't find any other sales figures for Zeman.

Oops again - wrong reading glasses this morning.

James Vermock was the brewmaster at Atlas in the period of 1957-1960 (by which time Atlas was a Drewrys owned brewery).

Also, Zeman is not listed in a 1960 directory I have - but that might be because they didn't list keg-only breweries (Anchor is also absent but Anchor did go in and out of business in that period). Too bad, because that directory listed sales for the period 1956-1960. Still, as I noted, the 1962 barrelage figures I have does list Zeman.

 

Ha yeah...nice photo. And I was just talking about a Ballantine neon like that one in the window...

Well, even if they were only cranking out a few thousand barrels a year, someone had to carry it - and since it was a keg-only brewery, the only advertising they'd normally be able to do would be with/for on-premise accounts. (I've found a few newspaper ads, drop me your email address and I'll send you jpegs. My email's on my Profile Page).

And '58 was still a bit before the era of "huge breweries dominating" the beer market, I'd say (although, granted, well on their way to that) - #1 AB and #2 Schlitz both had under 8% of the US market. But Illinois - being between St. Louis and Milwaukee - and with Chicago as the "second city" an attractive market, was an early stronghold of the national breweries. Still, according to records, the IL beer market in '57 broke down as:
National - 41%
Multi-Regional - 25% (like Hamm's, Falstaff & Carling)
Regional - 20%
Local - 5%

With and "out of state to in-state" ratio of 80-20.

 

Call 'em or e-mail them first. Or: http://www.lmhistory.org

Almost forgot -- there's a series of historical books about all of the towns around the area, pretty sure there's one on Mundelein -- I'll have to check the local library.

 

Here you go: http://www.arcadiapublishing.com/9780738577326/Mundelein

It's at my local library, may have to check it out.

 

Some more digging:
http://lakecountyhistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/besleys-brew.html

Funny that there's no other info on Zeman on the web site.

 

Another find from 1989:
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1989-02-20/news/8903060815_1_incorporation-gilmer-lake-forest

 

Funny side note -- if you Google The Zeman Brewery, Gilmer, IL and click to Images -- Jess' avatar is the first picture.

 

Guru -- is the CN Railway that crossing just south of Midlothian on Gilmer? Right where Google maps shows Alpha Omega Pet Products? Looks like Kingsford Fasteners would be right about where you're pinpointing the brewery.

I haven't been out that way in a long time, but I was telling Jess that there's an old tavern on the corner of Gilmer and Midlothian, just northwest of the pinpoint, called Gilmer Roadhouse. Have to wonder if there was a connection at one time.

Out of my own (local) curiosity, why are you looking into this?

 

Well jeeze, I think this is quite the interesting find. Then again, I live right down the road from where the brewery was and I've always had a nostalgic interest in my area.

I hope you find more info. Might be worth contacting Tighthead Brewing in Mundelein to "suggest" a tribute beer. According to the obit Jess has Zeman was a Czech immigrant. I smell a Pilsner wort boiling already!

I'll be headed to the library toward week's end, so I'll look into that book about Mundelein and report back.

 

In neon, no less!