 This year’s Haunted Brewery Tour features clues about local beer baron John Kauffman. In 1880, brewer John Kauffman sent his brewmaster on a two-year journey through Europe where he brought back a secret recipe that allowed his brewery to become one of the most successful in Cincinnati. That secret recipe is locked away in a safe, and during the Haunted Tour, your goal is to survive your trip through the haunted brewery and solve the puzzles to figure out the combination. Your ghoulish tour guide will lead you through the historic Kauffman Brewery and current Christian Moerlein Brewery, including down to the very bowels of the building in cellars long ago abandoned.
To prepare to crack the safe during your interactive tour, we thought we’d give you a little history about Kauffman. Kauffman Grows His Brand John Kauffman was born in Lorraine, France in 1830 and immigrated to the United States when he was 15. He came to Cincinnati and started working for his uncle (also named John Kauffman) who owned the Franklin Brewery in Deer Creek. His uncle died in 1856 and Kauffmann bought the company with partners George Eichenlaub and Rudolph Reinboldt. He was only 26. He married George Eichenlaub’s daughter, Marianne, shortly after they bought the company. In 1863, the company was renamed the Kauffman Brewery. By 1877, Eichenlaub and Reinboldt had both retired and Kauffman retained complete control of the company. He set out to expand his brand and to make a better beer than his competitors. He acquired information from some of the best brewers around the world and sent one of his master brewers on a two-year tour of breweries in Europe. He purchased some of the best raw ingredients available internationally by importing Bohemian malt and Sanzer Langot hops from Saaz, Bohemia. Kauffman’s Marketing Genius Kauffman was years ahead of his time when it came to marketing. In 1882, he began advertising for the company’s Bohemian beer before its release. Though it is common practice today to advertise before the release of a new product, this was unheard of back then. Kaufmann’s ad boasted of beer stored for seven months in “immense arched cellars,” kept at “near-freezing temperature” to deliver a “pale, mild pleasing beer” containing some of the “world’s finest ingredients.” Kaufmann also painted his beer barrels green so bar patrons could see the beer was on tap when they ordered. Because of his marketing ideas, sales for the company had increased by 12,000 barrels within the next year. With his success came risk, however. With the success of his Bohemian beer in the green barrels, competitors in Milwaukee started imitating the green barrels for their inferior product called “Milwaukee Corn Beer.” Though Bavaria’s Reinheitsgebot (a strict food purity law) was not established in the United States, Cincinnati’s beer barons had a gentlemen’s agreement to follow its guidelines for brewing. The law restricts the contents of beer to water, barley malt, yeast and hops. Following this was considered a code of honor among Cincinnati’s German brewers. Kauffman ran an ad campaign against the Wisconsin brewery, accusing them of using corn and therefore was producing an inferior beer. In January 1886, Kauffman returned home from Erie, Pennsylvania after attending a funeral. Thinking he only had caught a cold while on the trip, his health turned for the worse. He became very ill and he began coughing blood. He died on January 15, 1886. Prohibition Ends an Era Kauffman’s wife Marianne took over the operations of the company. By 1890, production expanded to 55,000 barrels and peaked in 1894 at 70,000. The brewery plant covered five acres of land and its malt house held 150,000 bushels of barley. Kauffman was sold in the Nashville, Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Savannah and New Orleans markets. Like many other Cincinnati breweries, the company closed in 1919 with the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the manufacture, transportation and sale of intoxicating liquors. The Haunted Brewery Tour: Can You Crack the Safe? Get into the Halloween spirit again this year with beer, fear and fun with the Haunted Brewery Tour every Friday and Saturday during October. The first of its kind in the country, this tour connects you with the people, places and stories of the brewing industry. It also raises funds in support of the Brewery District Community Urban Development Corporation (BDCURC) along with the Brewing Heritage Trail. Co-partners of the Haunted Brewery Tour include Christian Moerlein Brewing, Escape Room Family and Cincinnati Landmark Productions. Tickets and Tour Details Tickets are available online at HauntedBreweryTour.com and cost $25 each. Use code BHTSAFE to save 20 percent off your tickets, but hurry. The best times and dates will be sold out soon. All tours begin and end at the Christian Moerlein Malthouse tap room, located at 1621 Moore Street in Over-the-Rhine, 45202. There is limited street and private parking available adjacent to the tap room. We suggest parking in one of the public garages/lots located in Over-the-Rhine and walking to the brewery. Most garages are less than a 10-minute walk away. The tap room is also located next to a number of bus stops as well as two blocks away from the Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar’s Liberty Street station.
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 Get into the Halloween spirit again this year with beer, fear, and fun with the Haunted Brewery Tour every Friday and Saturday during October. The event takes those who dare on a trip back in time to meet actual colorful (and doomed!) characters in Cincinnati’s brewing history. At each stop along your route, there are clues and hands-on, interactive puzzles to help you crack the safe. Will your group solve the puzzles to find the combination to the brewer’s safe correctly? If you do, a prize and your place in history await you.
It’s All for a Good Cause The first of its kind in the country, this tour connects you with the people, places and stories of the brewing industry. It also raises funds in support of the Brewery District Community Urban Development Corporation (BDCURC) along with the Brewing Heritage Trail. Co-partners of the Haunted Brewery Tours include Christian Moerlein Brewing, Escape Room Family and Cincinnati Landmark Productions. Tickets and Tour Details Tickets are available online at HauntedBreweryTour.com and cost $25 each. Use code BHTSAFE to save 20 percent off your tickets, but hurry. The best times and dates will be sold out soon. All tours begin and end at the Christian Moerlein Malthouse tap room, located at 1621 Moore Street in Over-the-Rhine, 45202. There is limited street and private parking available adjacent to the tap room. We suggest parking in one of the public garages/lots located in Over-the-Rhine and walking to the brewery. Most garages are less than a 10-minute walk away. The tap room is also located next to a number of bus stops as well as two blocks away from the Cincinnati Bell Connector Streetcar’s Liberty Street station. About The BHT The history of beer and brewing are important not only to telling Cincinnati’s story but also to tell America’s story. The Brewing Heritage Trail salutes the people, places and history of Cincinnati’s beer-brewing legacy in the Over-the-Rhine neighborhood. That is why the Brewing Heritage Trail and the preservation of the stories, buildings and culture of brewing need your support. Become a part of this engaging story of America by visiting the Trail or supporting our educational and preservation efforts. For details about the Haunted Brewery Tours and other beer heritage activities, visit the Brewing Heritage Trail’s website or call 513-604-9812.  You’ve heard about Prohibition – a time of speakeasies and bathtub gin – when alcohol was illegal in America and mobsters like Al Capone rose to power. The word prohibition means the action of forbidding (or prohibiting) something. Prohibition was a time in U.S. history – from 1920 to 1933 - when the production, importation, transportation and sale of alcohol was forbidden. But why did Prohibition begin and how did it end? Here we dive deeper in the history of Prohibition and relate a few stories about Prohibition’s impact in Cincinnati.
Who wanted Prohibition? With social drinking playing a big role in American culture today, it’s difficult to imagine a time when alcohol was illegal. However, in the early 1900s there was a vocal group of people who felt alcohol was causing too many problems in society like violence and corruption. Led by the Women’s Temperance Christian Union and the Anti-Saloon league, many people lobbied for a ban on alcohol. Although there was resistance to their movement from the brewery industry and many Americans, Congress passed the 18th Amendment and it went into effect January 17, 1920. What happened in Cincinnati? Cincinnati was hit hard by Prohibition. It killed the thriving Cincinnati brewery industry and all the jobs that went with it. Large breweries including Christian Moerlein, Windisch-Muhlhauser and John Hauck shut their doors. As you can imagine, a lot of people didn’t take kindly to being told they could not buy a drink. When the bars, breweries and distilleries closed, it paved the way for underground speakeasies and bootleggers. The most famous bootlegger from Cincinnati is George Remus. Originally from Chicago, he relocated to Cincinnati and built an empire that earned him the name, “King of the Bootleggers.” Remus and his wife were known for throwing lavish parties at their mansion in Cincinnati’s Price Hill, which was on Hermosa Avenue between West Eighth Street and St. Lawrence Avenue. Remus is also rumored to have inspired the character Jay Gatsby from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel, “The Great Gatsby.” How did Prohibition end? Prohibition was unpopular and wasn’t working. Alcohol was still being created and consumed, but because it was happening outside the law – the government couldn’t tax it. Congress passed the 21st Amendment in February 1933, which repealed Prohibition. How You Can Tour Cincinnati’s Famous Pre-Prohibition Breweries On a Brewing Heritage Tour, you’ll experience Cincinnati during its Pre-Prohibition heyday. These guided tours include special access to locations that are not typically open to the public, such as subterranean lagering cellars. Most of our Brewing Heritage Tours start and end at our new Tour Center located at 1939 Race Street in Over-the-Rhine, Cincinnati’s historic neighborhood or at our satellite location, the Moerlein Lager House House, located next to Great American Ballpark. Although the Christian Moerlein brewery closed during Prohibition, the brand was resurrected in the 1980s and then bought by Cincinnati resident Gregory Hardman in 2004. It’s now a thriving craft brewery. We have many different guided tours typically offered Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. After deciding on the type and date of your tour, you can easily purchase tickets online. We also offer private and group tours, which are perfect for special occasions and corporate gatherings. Be sure to check us out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or LinkedIn for our latest updates! |
AuthorA repository of third party articles about Cincinnati's brewing heritage and the Trail project Archives
November 2019
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