At the turn of the century, Ashtabula, Ohio, was a busy port town on the great shore of Lake Erie, located about 60 miles east of Cleveland. Its inhabitants were rugged sailors, railroad men and mill workers who enjoy good food and beer at the end of the day. Ashtabula had dozens of saloons and bars and enjoyed its reputation as one of the toughest ports in the country.

Many regional brewers saw Ashtabula as a prime spot to market their brews and opened branch offices there. Among them, they included Jackson Koehler’s Erie Brewing Company, Leisy, L. Schlather, and Cleveland & Sandusky Breweries of Cleveland, the Finlay Brewing Company of Toledo, and the huge Windisch-Mulhauser Lion Brewery of Cincinnati. Many local saloon owners and businessmen were discussing the possibility of building a local brewery, owned by Ashtabula business interests.

In December, 1904, a group from Ashtabula met with some investors from Cleveland and decided to build a brewery in the city. By the next month, the Consumer’s Brewing Company was formed with Dr. O. Mueller as President and Thomas A. Dillion as Secretary. The brewery had a capital stock of $200,000 and shares were offered at a price of $100 each.

The contract for the brewery was awarded to the Joseph Schneible Company of New York . Schneible was in the process of constructing similar breweries in Indianapolis and Cincinnati and was well-known for their architecture. Work was scheduled to building this 45,000-barrel annually brewery as soon as the weather permitted and to be completed by September 1, 1905. Plans called for a "strictly up to date outfit" and a model brewing facility following the Schneible Pneumatic System. The building itself was to be of massive construction with a glazed brick interior to make it as fireproof as possible.

The investors immediately began searching for a suitable location. First, a plot of land on the east side of Ashtabula was purchased. By June 1905, three months before the brewery was supposed to be completed, drilling for a water source had failed. Luckily, construction of the brewery had not been started and another site had to be found.

Now with abundant water supply at the top of their list, another tract of land was purchased for the brewery. The new site was located next to the Crystal Spring, at the foot of Topper Avenue. and was said to have "living water in abundance." The water from the Crystal Spring had been sold on various railroads for their mineral characteristics. The New York Central, Nickel Plate and other railroads that ran in the vicinity raved Crystal Spring’s water to be "delicious and wholesome."

Beer Wars

In early September, 1905, the Lion Brewery of Cincinnati and the Consumers Brewery locked horns in a beer price war. The Consumers brewery was able to lure Windisch-Mulhauser’s local agent, John Finn, to distribute their beer from $7.50 to $7 a barrel. The Consumers ally in the war was the newly built Ohio Union Brewing Company in Cincinnati (which used the same Schneible System and was nearly identical to the Consumers plant). Ohio Union brewed Consumers’ beer while the Ashtabula brewery was being built. The Lion Brewery responded by lowering its price to $5 a barrel and said that they would meet the price of the Consumers even if it meant giving beer free to the dealers. The local saloon owners took advantage and saw large profits during the beer war because the standard price of 5 cents a glass was not affected. The price war was only between the Lion and Consumers breweries as other breweries watched with great interest; their products were not affected. There is little known how low the price of beer was sold that September, but Lion eventually withdrew from the Ashtabula market.

Construction Begins

On August 24, 1905, the cornerstone was laid amidst a gala celebration of local businessmen, citizens, and guests. The cornerstone was put into place with mortar mixed with Consumer’s beer and handled with a special nickel trowel. In the top of the stone was a pocket in which was placed a copper box as a time capsule. The box was passed through the crowd and everyone had a chance to place something inside before it was placed in the stone and sealed. Work on the brewery continued at a steady rate with two shifts and as many as 40 men working at a time.

In October 1905, an investment group of capitalists from Cleveland attempted to buy out the stockholders of the Consumers Brewing Company and seven other independent breweries in Northeastern Ohio and Northwestern Pennsylvania in an effort to form a brewery syndicate and control the beer output and cost over that area . The breweries involved were the Consumers in Ashtabula; the Smith and George Renner breweries in Youngstown; Alliance Brewing Company of Alliance, Ohio; Crockery City Brewing and Ice Company of East Liverpool. Ohio; the Standard Brewing Company of New Castle, Pennsylvania; the Meadville Brewing Company of Meadville, Pennsylvania; and the Union Brewing Company of Sharon, Pennsylvania. The Consumers’ stockholders met on October 24th and held a heated discussion concerning the proposed buyout. The stockholders from the Cleveland area were in favor of the buyout and saw an opportunity to make a profit on their short investment. On the other hand, the Ashtabula stockholders were united and fought against the buyout. They saw the buyout as a loss of permanent income for themselves and the city. The Ashtabula stockholders were out-voted by their Cleveland counterparts and a price of $150 per $100 share was set.

The Ashtabula stockholders were not pleased with the outcome and had one opportunity left to prevent the Ashtabula plant from being taken over by the syndicate. Their strategy was to find local investors to purchase enough of the remaining stock to block the Cleveland contingent. At the time of the buyout, only $80,000 of the $200,000 worth of stock had been sold and the locals saw ample opportunity to save their interest and brewery. Surprisingly in the end, the syndicate was not able to raise the money and the breweries remained independent, and the Ashtabula brewery continued to move forward and planed on opening in the summer of 1906.

The new officers elected for the year were: George J. Lowe, President; Albert Eisele, Treasurer; Charles Zeile, Vice President; and John C. Topper, Secretary. During the brewery construction, in March 1906, the directors voted to build a bottling room to bottle their beer. Immediately, construction began with plans to have the bottling works finished at the same time that the main brewery was completed. An investment of $20,000 was allocated to construct the bottling department and the officers began communicating with various firms to obtain the latest ideas in bottling plants.

Grand Opening

On October 31, 1906, the Consumers Brewing Company opened for business. A demand for Consumers’ beer filled Ashtabula. The first barrel of beer was delivered to John Goggin’s saloon in the Ashtabula harbor. Mr. Goggin won the honor of receiving the first barrel of beer produced by bidding the sum of $60 a year earlier. The following day, Consumers’ beer was flowing in nearly every bar, saloon and restaurant in the city. It was a great day for the city of Ashtabula and the realization of the hopes of many people. The brewmaster was Henry P. Harr, graduate of the brewing schools in both Berlin and Copenhagen, who had several fine recipes for beer. The brewery was brewing only lager beer. At the time of opening, only kegs were available as the bottling department was not completed.

When the newly bottling department was completed, it had the capacity filling 200 cases per day. On February 6, 1907, the Ashtabula Beacon Record published a large 2-page ad announcing the arrival of Bula Beer in bottles. The brewery had decided on the name "Bula" for its bottled beer. The beer was bottled in aqua, crown sealed bottles with the words BULA BEER embossed on the bottom, and had a paper neck and body labels.

Bula beer was very popular among the local beer drinkers in Ashtabula. The brewery tried to expand its market by shipping its bottled beer to the neighboring cities and towns, but discovered the demand in Ashtabula was greater.

Rumor had it, the water used by Consumers Brewing Company had an off-flavor and contributed to a demise of the brewery. Later, tests proved this rumor to be false. The water from the Crystal Spring was tested by Wahl & Henins, the brewing chemists of Chicago, and was pronounced to be among the best they had ever tested for beer making and the brewery spared no expense by advertising and ensuring the purity of the water they used was pure.

Dry Laws

The Consumers brewery had great success during 1907 and 1908 by brewing over 3,600 barrels per month and had established itself as one of Ashtabula’s successful businesses. Consumers’ hey days didn't last long as the Prohibition movement was gaining grounds in Ashtabula city and county and in the fall of 1908.

By spring 1909, the first "dry law" was passed. This law prohibited the sale of alcohol on Sundays. It was known as "the lid" and was strictly enforced in Ashtabula. Prohibitionists were not satisfied, so a new law was passed preventing the brewery from making and selling beer in the city limits. For a while, the brewery got around that law by making beer and then transporting the beer a few hundred feet away to the Ashtabula township line and then sold it to the township saloonkeepers. The Ashtabula County government finally reacted in 1909 by voting itself dry, 10 years before Prohibition would come to the entire State of Ohio.

On October 7, 1909, the common pleas court at Jefferson, Ohio, ordered the Corporation dissolved and the Consumers Brewing Company was placed in receivership. John C. Topper, former Secretary of the Company was named receiver and gave bond of $25,000 for the brewery. Mr. Topper tried to continue the business until the property could be sold for a profit. Bootleggers brewed small batches of beer in secret for a short time. Soon they too disappeared, and the brewery stood idle.

In 1912, the brewery was sold at auction to the Tonawanda Brewing Company of Tonawanda, New York. Tonawanda Brewing Company purchased the Consumers Brewing Company only for its brewing equipment and planned to build a completely new brewery in Tonawanda. When the brewing equipment was removed from the building, huge sections of the walls were knocked out, leaving the deserted building an eyesore. At one time, an effort to erect a hotel and several residences on the brewery property occurred in 1914 until the property was purchased by John Masino and the building and land stood quiet for the next eight years.

In the 1920s, the deserted Consumers brewery attracted the attention of the Ku Klux Klan which had become quite powerful in the city and other parts of the county. The brewery, with its high tower and location on high ground east of the city, made it the highest vantage point in the city. The Klansmen used the roof of the brewery to burn crosses and set off loud dynamite charges in the nearby gravel pit to draw attention to the fiery crosses. The burning crosses could be easily seen in the downtown area of Ashtabula as well as long distances in all directions. This continued for several years until John Masino took his own dynamite charges and blew the top two stories off the building; thus ending the Klan’s use of the building. Several years later, the Ashtabula City Council decided to do away with the idle building all together and had the rest of the brewery dynamited to its doom. In the 1930s the Civilian Conservation Corps crushed the remaining chunks of brick and concrete for use as road bed in the Gulf Park area of Ashtabula.

This story appeared in the American Breweriana Journal, issue 70, Sept-Oct 1994 by Art Distelrath