The John F. Wiessner Brewery was founded in 1863 in the 1700 block of North Gay Street in an area known as the Greenwood estate. John F. Weissner leased slightly more than two acres of the Greenwood land and built a small brewery in the midst of a modest dairy farm operated by a John Kinderlein.
In 1863, the country was in the midst of the Civil War and both the Kinderlein Dairy and the Wiessner Brewery fell victim to plundering by Union soldiers who milked the cows and stole apples from the dairy and mooched beer from the brewery. Mrs. Wiessner didn't trust the troops and often carried the brewery's money in her apron to prevent them from walking away with it in their pockets!
When John F. Wiessner opened his brewery in 1863, there were already twenty-one breweries operating in Baltimore City and nearby sections of Baltimore County, which today are part of the city of Baltimore. The area Wiessner chose for his brewery was just down the street from a brewery built in 1853 by George Rost and would be joined shortly, in 1864, by the brewery of George Bauernschmidt. This North Gay street area would prove to be a popular location for Baltimore breweries.
John F. Wiessner was born in 1831 in Bavaria, the son of a brewer. He came to Baltimore in 1853 and worked in the Rost Brewery where he became a brewmaster. During this time, Wiessner envisioned a brewery of his own, but lacked sufficient money.
He returned to Bavaria in 1862 to discuss this venture with family and, the following year, returned to Baltimore, apparently with the needed money. He leased the land, and with credit extended by Levi and Henry Straus, prominent Baltimore maltsters, built his brewery. The brew-house fronted on Belle Air Avenue (now Gay St.). It was a three-story structure with a two-story section on the north side. A platform for loading and unloading occupied the ground floor of the two-story section. On the east side, behind the brew-house, was the boiler room, with stack. This indicated that the plant used steam to cook the mash, unlike most of the older breweries in the city that still used direct heat under the copper cookers.
Malt was obtained locally, so there was no malt house. In addition, there was an ice house, keg racking room, a storage building, stables, and a cooperage shop. The brewery's cellars, three stories deep, were located under the eastern section of the property. The plant's original output was between 1,000 and 1,500 barrels per year.
The Wiessner home was a three-story brick dwelling, about 50 feet south of the brewhouse. Wiessner provided board and lodging for brewery workers, many who had recently arrived from Germany.
John F. was his own first brewmaster. His son, John, Jr. left at age 15 to learn "brewing in all its branches" at the Rigler Brewery in New York. John Jr. returned to Baltimore two years later as a Master Brewer at age 17. He subsequently became brewmaster at his father's brewery and, in 1882, his father took him into partnership. At this time, the brewery had 24 workers and production of about 20,000 barrels per year.
In 1885, John George Neumeister came to Baltimore form Bavaria to become the Wiessner brewmaster. He was the nephew of Mrs. Wiessner and an experienced brewmaster. He remained with the brewery 36 years until Prohibition forced his retirement in 1921. Neumeister was known as a hard taskmaster by his fellow workers. He insisted on the best possible brew and followed exacting brewing methods. In its time, Weissner Beer sold for $6.50 instead of $4.50, $2.00 more per barrel than any other local product.
By 1886, the demand for Weissner's Beer had far outgrown the brewery's production, which was now about 40,000 barrels per year. Its success called for an extensive enlargement and modernization of its equipment.
In June of 1886, Weissner took out a mortgage of $10,000 on his first brewery and construction of a new plant began. One block to the south, George Bauernschmidt began building a new brewery, replacing his 23-year-old buildings. Those few blocks of Belle Air Road must have been quite a sight between 1886 and 1888 as both Weissner and Bauernschmidt erected modern breweries, both said to be "show places of their day" with the latest word in brewery design and advanced equipment. The modern ice machines in these two plants were the first of their kind in Baltimore and created considerable interest and discussion. Just to the north of Weissner, George Rost's brewery, now known as the Standard Brewery, was also modernizing.
J. F. Wiessner and George Bauernschmidt seemed to keep pace with each other in their brewing activities. They started within a year of each other, built new breweries at the same time, and production was about the same up until the 1880s, when Bauernschmidt moved ahead.
After the new brewery was under production, John F. and John Jr. took the other two Weissner boys into the business. In 1891 the business was incorporated as the John F. Weissner & Sons Brewing Co., Inc. The officers were John F. Weissner Sr., president; John F. Weissner Jr., vice-president; Henry F. Weissner, vice-president; George F. Weissner, secretary-treasurer. John F. Weissner Sr. died on January 1, 1897 and John Jr. became president of the brewery.
By 1899, the brewery again found itself faced with the need for further expansion. This was due in large part to the brewery creating its own bottling department in 1886, and the beer drinkers of Baltimore's acceptance of bottled beer. William F. Kuzmaul was Weissner's bottler until shortly after 1900, when the brewery began to bottle all of its own beer. The first advertisement of the brewery's bottling its own beer was in 1897 when it mentioned "Bottled at the brewery for hotel and family use".
Plans for the expansion of the brewery were announced on March 5, 1899 when The Sunday Herald announced: "The John F. Weissner & Sons Brewing Co. yesterday consummated the purchase of land which will enable it to compete with local rivals and to double the capacity of the plant."
The architect for the new buildings was O. Wolff of Philadelphia and Chicago. Plans called for the erection of a large warehouse and an extensive stable on the lot. The four-story warehouse was constructed of brick, stone, and iron in the Norman-Gothic style and had a capacity of 100,000 barrels. Union labor was employed exclusively and the improvements cost $100,000.
The Weissner Brewing Co. faced the same problem as every other brewery in Baltimore in 1899; whether it should sell out to the Maryland Brewing Co., organized March 1,1899, for the purpose of buying up all the local breweries. The Maryland Brewing Company viewed itself as an unbeatable, competition-proof organization. Its goal was to corner the beer business.
After much deliberation, John Jr. and his brothers declared the plant would remain independent, take its chances against the Maryland Brewing Co. "trust", and make every effort to warrant Baltimorean's confidence and trade. The decision proved to be a sound one. The Brewers Journal, in 1900 and 1901, announcemented almost monthly about expansion, new buildings, and land purchases at the Weissner brewery. The brewery had now increased its capacity to 150,000 barrels per year.
Weissner and other independent breweries, particularly the new brewery of Frederick Bauernschmidt, continued to give the Maryland Brewing Co. serious competition.
John F. Weissner Jr. died at his home on the brewery grounds on September 22 1906. Brother George succeeded John Jr. as president, and George and Henry Weissner continued their family brewery, with brewmaster John Neumeister as exacting as ever.
The brewery was flourishing and turning out their "Superlative Beers", which everyone claimed to be the best beer in Baltimore at the time. Weissner's production reached its peak of 110,000 barrels per year in 1919, the year before prohibition closed their doors. The number of employees at that time was 61; 16 in brewery work, 17 drivers, 14 bottling house, 8 garage men, and 6 office workers.
Like so many other brewers, Wiessner's tried to make near beer at the beginning of Prohibition, but quickly abandoned the attempt. George F. died on July 8th, 1925 and Henry F., the only surviving son of the founder, became president. The brewery was long since closed by then and Henry merely presided over the assets and physical property of the brewery. In January 1931, the Wiessner property was sold to the American Malt Company, thus ending the Wiessner family's involvement with their great brewery.
Wiessner's was always a family brewery and seldom resorted to change for its own sake. Brewmasters remained steadily with the brewery and, to the end, quality rather than production was the true watchword. The brewery produced beer exclusively and never attempted to brew ale.
When repeal came in 1933, the Wiessner Brewery opened as the American Brewing Co. but that's another story!
Writing about, and researching Baltimore's breweries is an enjoyable undertaking due to the exhaustive research of William Kelley in his 1965 book, Brewed in Maryland, from which much of the information was found. 100 Years of Brewing was also a valuable resource.