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I never thought I’d be so touched by a letter that canceled a subscription to The Growler. But I really was moved by a note I recently received from a woman named Betty in Fullerton, California. She wrote to say that her husband, RJ, had died in September and we could discontinue his free subscription. She added: “He loved beer. That’s how we came to visit your establishment in St. Louis. He was known for his sense of humor. He was an avid reader. He thoroughly enjoyed the newsletter.” In conclusion, Betty wrote, “Thank you! Save your postage and know that he enjoyed.”
In reflecting on the fact that RJ, whom I never met, appreciated both reading and beer, I thought it was a fitting coincidence that our brewery on Locust Street was for many years the headquarters of a printing company. Since it was built in 1902, our building has been a production site for two of RJ’s passions: the printed word and beer.
Interestingly, 1902 was also a milestone for the Schlafly family in the beverage business. That was the year when my great grandfather August Schlafly, a stockholder in Mountain Valley Water Company, bought the interests of the other shareholders, making his family the sole owners of the company. It would be another eleven years before what is now the largest beverage company in St. Louis would have its first August at the helm.
When I shared this story with an alert reader (AR) named Kim McMullin, he was decidedly unimpressed. Kim, who is both a lawyer and the husband of my cousin Lisa Mullins McMullin, rather ungraciously pointed out that his family had been in the beer business long before August Schlafly ever tasted Mountain Valley Water. Then, in typical lawyerly fashion, he bombarded me with multiple pages of documents proving his point. Unfortunately, he was right.
Kim’s familial saga began in 1883, when Gottfried, Wilhelm and Michael Piel founded Piel Brothers Beer in Brooklyn. Over the next 70 years, Piel’s Beer distinguished itself in many ways. For example, it had the world’s largest beer sign on the roof of its brewery. This huge electric sign, 100 feet high and weighing 14 tons, featured an animated dwarf throwing a bowling ball for a strike every time.
In the 1950s Piel’s also had a popular advertising campaign that featured the comedians Bob and Ray. The irony is that this tremendously successful campaign actually hurt sales, at least in the opinion of some observers. According to an article in Sports Illustrated in 1988, the commercials with Bob and Ray inspired a lot of people to drink Piel’s Beer, only to discover that they didn’t like it. Piel’s would have been better off if consumers had no opinion about its beer than the negative opinion that resulted from its costly ad campaign that prompted folks to taste it.
In the interest of family harmony, I should point out that Kim McMullin, who sent me reams of information about Piel’s Beer, is not in actuality related to this brewing family. His only connection is that Isabelle Forbes, the sister of his maternal grandfather, married Gottfried Piel, the son of one of the original Piel brothers. So, my recounting some of the reasons for the decline and fall of Piel’s Beer is not in fact a slur against his flesh and blood. Rather, his connection to Piel’s, like his connection to Schlafly, is through marriage…but two generations earlier.
Speaking of marriage, Kim also told me that the wedding of Isabelle and young Gottfried was delayed until after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. Perhaps the postponement was dictated by the financial circumstances of a family that depended on brewing for its livelihood. Or perhaps the bride and groom realized that their wedding reception wouldn’t be any fun if they couldn’t serve beer and wanted to wait until it was once again legal to do so.
As for the decline and fall of the Piel’s empire, it followed closely on the heels of the Bob and Ray commercials. In 1963 the brewery was sold to Associated Brewing Company in Detroit. The rights to the Piel’s name have since changed hands several times as the brand has continued to shrink in popularity. As far as I know, the beer is now available only on a limited basis in parts of New York and New England.
Judging from some recent news from New York, if I were planning to shrink the geographic market for a beer brand, I’m not sure this is a state on which I’d concentrate my efforts. While New York has a lot of great things going for it, the New York State Liquor Authority is not one of them, that being the agency that has somehow managed to come up with one of the dumbest decisions ever emanating from any government bureaucracy. As if Piel’s didn’t have enough problems, it now faces the additional obstacle of doing business in a state with an unusually asinine regulatory environment.
The case in question involved beers with images of Santa Claus on their labels. The New York State Liquor Authority banned their sale because the use of Santa’s image was said to constitute marketing to minors. The supposed logic behind this decision ignores, however, the obvious reality that the population of minors who believe in Santa Claus is at least ten years younger than the population of minors whom breweries are typically accused of targeting in their advertising and marketing campaigns. The notion that breweries are trying to appeal to those of college age by using an image in which the target audience ceased to believe in first grade is truly risible. My guess is that up in paradise RJ from Fullerton, who was renowned for his sense of humor in this life, is enjoying a heavenly beer, as well as a good laugh at the idiocy currently coming out of New York.
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