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DuBois Brewery Label


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Found this about the DuBois Brewery searching for something else...very interesting.

 

The Brewery

There seems to be some debate as to exactly when Frank Hahne came to DuBois and broke ground on his own facility. One source claims 1898, another 1897. It seems most likely that this occurred between April and the end of 1896. It was on April 16, 1896, that the DuBois Weekly Courier reported: "Some new developments in connection with the brewery may be looked for in the near future."

 

There were a number of reasons Hahne chose the DuBois site for his facility, but the most frequently cited was the excellence of the water supply. He purchased 2300 acres surrounding the local reservoir to protect the watershed from pollution.

 

By 1906, the brewery had four products on the market: DuBois Wurzburger, Hahne's Export Pilsener, DuBois Porter and DuBois Budweiser. The Budweiser name would be at the center of controversy for 60 years between DuBois Brewing and Anheuser-Busch.

 

The DuBois brands soon traveled far and wide for a brewery of its size; ranging up to 150 miles away and selling well in Buffalo, Erie and Pittsburgh. The brewery's 300 barrel kettle was kept busy churning out brands, while the left-over grain materials were pressed and sold for cattle feed and grist mills in the rural areas surrounding DuBois.

 

As with many other American breweries, DuBois Brewing moved right along until 1918 and the advent of Prohibition. The brewery shifted production to "near beer", soft drinks and opened H&G Ice Company. The ice house still stands and shows the significant date of 1919. According to the April 7, 1933 DuBois Courier the brewery won the honor of being one of only two breweries in the entire nation that had never violated or been suspected of violating the Prohibition laws since the 18th amendment became effective. As a result, DuBois Brewing Company was issued license number G-2 allowing them to resume brewing immediately on Repeal. Other breweries had to wait varying periods as a form of punishment. On the first day of beer production, DuBois products sold at between 10 and 15 cents per pint bottle. A glass at local taverns was 10 cents.

 

Frank Hahne died in 1932 and the brewery was passed to his son Frank Jr. Frank Jr. was the only son. He had a son who died in infancy denying the family an heir. The tragedy of this was not realized until 1967. Frank Hahne Jr. sold the brewery to Pittsburgh Brewing in 1967.

The new owners of the Budweiser name reportedly "settled" with Anheuser-Busch to the tune of a $1 million dollar profit for Pittsburgh Brewing. Five years later, in May of 1972, the brewery was closed forever, leaving 100 workers out of a job.

 

http://www.worldlingo.com/ma/enwiki/en/DuBois,_Pennsylvania

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When the brewery closed for good in 1972, a friend & I were working for the 2 local gentlemen who purchased it for the real estate and scrap value.  We went into a place that, for all practical purposes, had just closed the doors and turned out the lights.  The pub, in the basement of the office building still had beer on tap and since the electric was still on, the refrigeration still worked, keeping the beer cold.  Naturally, being good, upstanding Penn State boys, we ate our lunches in the tap room and did our best to empty the kegs.

 

We worked that summer scrapping tanks, pipes, machinery.  This went on for several years, and we worked weekends while we were back in class, as well as Christmas vacation.  We knocked the holes in the side of the brew house so that the large brew tanks could be removed.  I remember how we moved those things to the holes, hitched them to a crane provided by H. Shakespeare, and then lowered them to the ground.  After rigging the first tank or two, we got brave enough to ride the tanks down.

 

There are a lot more stories to be told, but, to protect the guys we worked for, I dare not tell them on a public forum!  Talking like this, about something that's now some 38 years ago, makes me feel like an old geezer!  

 

As a post script, I looked at the brewery site in 2005 as a possible relocation site for my business.  My interest was converting the remaining buildings into an industrial use once again, and restoring/maintaining the old office building.  The city was able and willing to deal, but the ceramic business that owned part of the property was not.  End result was once again some DuBois historical properties ended up demolished.

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Here's another oldie. Marketing genius from days gone by...."Brewed as a Food and Tonic"........ "Especially for Family Use"

 

Posted Image

This was a label used during prohibition. Alcohol was still produced during prohibition but you needed a prescription from a physician. DuBois Brewery was one of 2 breweries in the nation to never receive a prohibition violation. When alcohol production began again in 1933 they received license #2.

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