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The Christian Heurich Brewing Company was a Washington, D.C., brewery founded in 1872 and incorporated by
Christian Heurich Christian Heurich (September 12, 1842 – March 7, 1945) was an American brewer and real estate investor in Washington, D.C. His company, Heurich Brewery, Christian Heurich Brewing Company, established in 1872, was the largest brewery in Wa ...
in 1890. First located near
Dupont Circle Dupont Circle is a historic roundabout park and Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th St ...
on 20th Street NW, it expanded to a much larger site in
Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States, located in the city's northwest quadrant. It stretches west of the White House towards the Potomac River, north of the National Mall, east of Georgetown, south of the West ...
in 1895 after a major fire. The new brewery was located along the
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
at 26th Street and D Street NW, where the
John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts, commonly known as the Kennedy Center, is the national cultural center of the United States, located on the eastern bank of the Potomac River in Washington, D.C. Opened on September 8, ...
now stands. The Heurich brewery was the largest in Washington's history, capable of producing 500,000 barrels of beer a year and 250 tons of ice daily. The Christian Heurich Brewing Co. closed in 1956, "because of a decline in sales and because of the knowledge that the government would seek to acquire the site of the brewery for the approaches to the new
Theodore Roosevelt Bridge The Theodore Roosevelt Bridge (also known as the Teddy Roosevelt Bridge, Roosevelt Bridge, or T.R. Bridge) is a bridge crossing the Potomac River which connects Washington, D.C., with the Commonwealth of Virginia. The bridge crosses over Theodore ...
." For five years, Arena Stage staged productions in the former brewery, which it nicknamed "The Old Vat." The brewery and all of its buildings were torn down in 1961.


History


Foundation

Christian Heurich, a native of
Saxe-Meiningen Saxe-Meiningen ( ; ) was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine duchies, Ernestine line of the House of Wettin, located in the southwest of the present-day Germany, German state of Thuringia. Established in 1681, by partition of the Ern ...
, was born in 1842. He
apprenticed Apprenticeship is a system for training a potential new practitioners of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study. Apprenticeships may also enable practitioners to gain a license to practice in a regulate ...
as a
brewer Brewing is the production of beer by steeping a starch source (commonly cereal grains, the most popular of which is barley) in water and fermenting the resulting sweet liquid with yeast. It may be done in a brewery by a commercial brewer, ...
and butcher, then spent his Wanderjahr working at breweries throughout what is now Austria, Germany, France, and the Czech Republic. In 1866 he migrated to the United States, first living in the
Fells Point Fell's Point is a historic waterfront neighborhood in southeastern Baltimore, Maryland, established around 1763 along the north shore of the Baltimore Harbor and the Northwest Branch of the Patapsco River. Located 1.5 miles east of Baltimore's d ...
area of
Baltimore Baltimore is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the 30th-most populous U.S. city. The Baltimore metropolitan area is the 20th-large ...
with a sister and her husband, then spending time in Chicago, Kansas, and St. Louis before returning to Baltimore. Heurich wanted to start his own brewery but debated where the best opportunity existed. The growing popularity of lager beer was matched by an increasing number of German-owned breweries in the U.S., but many of the major cities already had several existing breweries. Partnering with a fellow German immigrant and coworker, Paul Ritter, Heurich decided upon Washington, DC. The city had expanded radically in size during the
American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...
(1861–1865), and a new city government worked to improve the capital city, to make it a world-class capital city. Led by Vice-chair of the city's five-person Board of Public Works, "Boss"
Alexander Robey Shepherd Alexander Robey Shepherd (January 30, 1835 – September 12, 1902) was an American politician and businessman who was the 2nd Governor of the District of Columbia from 1873 to 1874. He was one of the most controversial and influential civic lead ...
, the foul
canal Canals or artificial waterways are waterways or engineered channels built for drainage management (e.g. flood control and irrigation) or for conveyancing water transport vehicles (e.g. water taxi). They carry free, calm surface ...
which ran down what is now
Constitution Avenue Constitution Avenue is a major east–west street in the Northwest, Washington, D.C., northwest and Northeast, Washington, D.C., northeast quadrants of the city of Washington, D.C., in the United States. It was originally known as B Street, and ...
was filled in, roads were paved, and sewer and water lines were installed. The frantic pace of improvement soon attracted the ire of Congress, and the independent DC Government was eliminated. However, Shepherd's improvements did make the city more attractive to newcomers, including Heurich and as many as a dozen other brewers. In the autumn of 1872, Heurich and Ritter rented the
Schnell Brewery The Schnell Brewery (1864–1872) was an American brewery in Washington, D.C. The brewery, owned by George Schnell, was located in the Dupont Circle neighborhood on 20th Street between M and N Streets, Northwest. It was purchased by Christian Heuri ...
and Tavern on 20th Street NW between M and N Streets for $1,600 a year. Founded by George Schnell in 1864, the brewery produced
Weißbier Wheat beer is a top-fermented beer which is brewed with a large proportion of wheat relative to the amount of malted barley. The two main varieties are German and Belgian ; other types include Lambic (made with wild yeast), Berliner Weisse (a ...
in limited qualities, mostly sold and consumed at the brewery's attached restaurant and
beer garden A beer garden (German: ''Biergarten'') is an outdoor area in which beer and food are served, typically at shared tables shaded by trees. Beer gardens originated in Bavaria, of which Munich is the capital city, in the 19th century, and remain co ...
. The new partners switched to
lager beer Lager (; ) is a style of beer brewed and conditioned at low temperature. Lagers can be pale, amber, or dark. Pale lager is the most widely consumed and commercially available style of beer. The term "''lager''" comes from the German word for " ...
and added new equipment to replace the old. Heurich did the brewing while Ritter managed the business. The partners soon had a falling-out for reasons neither fully explained. Heurich took over the brewery, while Ritter moved to
Cumberland, Maryland Cumberland is a city in Allegany County, Maryland, United States, and its county seat. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 19,075. Located on the Potomac River, Cumberland is a regional business and comm ...
to found his own. Heurich's sister Elisabeth moved to Washington from Baltimore to help her brother run his new company. She also pressed her brother to marry. He proposed to Amelia Mueller Schnell, George Schnell's widow. She accepted, and the two were married in September 1873.


Growth

Heurich's brewery expanded and prospered, despite the economy of the 1870s suffering from the
Long Depression The Long Depression was a worldwide price and economic recession, beginning in Panic of 1873, 1873 and running either through March 1879, or 1899, depending on the metrics used. It was most severe in Europe and the United States, which had been e ...
(1873–1879). He improved and expanded the brewery, employing twenty men and a half-dozen delivery teams by 1878. In July 1878, he threw a party for a thousand guests to celebrate his vastly expanded brewery, still on 20th Street. The long hours and hard work took their toll on Christian and Amelia. She suffered a long series of illnesses, and in 1884, Amelia died of pneumonia at age forty-four. Devastated, Heurich lost himself in his work. He also began taking trips to Europe to take the cure, returning to Germany to visit a
spa A spa is a location where mineral-rich spring water (sometimes seawater) is used to give medicinal baths. Spa health treatments are known as balneotherapy. The belief in the curative powers of mineral waters and hot springs goes back to pre ...
at
Elgersburg Elgersburg is a municipality situated in the district of Ilm-Kreis, Thuringia, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and t ...
, in
Saxe-Gotha Saxe-Gotha () was one of the Saxon duchies held by the Ernestine duchies, Ernestine branch of the House of Wettin, Wettin dynasty in the former Landgraviate of Thuringia. The ducal residence was erected at Gotha (town), Gotha. History The duch ...
. In 1887, Heurich married again. His second wife was Mathilde Daetz, the sister of August Daetz, the brewery's secretary and treasurer. A German native, Mathilde had moved to the U.S. in 1886. The couple enjoyed a happy marriage, although when Mathilde lost her unborn child in 1889. She began suffering from a series of illnesses and was injured when thrown from a horse-drawn carriage. Mathilde died at age thirty-three in January 1895, leaving Heurich a widower for a second time even as his brewery continued to prosper and expand. The brewery had several fires, including a major one in 1892 that convinced Heurich that he needed to build a larger, fire-proof facility. The area around the brewery on 20th Street NW was rapidly
gentrifying Gentrification is the process whereby the character of a neighborhood changes through the influx of more affluent residents (the "gentry") and investment. There is no agreed-upon definition of gentrification. In public discourse, it has been us ...
and industrial facilities such as breweries no longer fit the area. Heurich decided to build a new, larger brewery in
Foggy Bottom Foggy Bottom is a neighborhood of Washington, D.C., United States, located in the city's northwest quadrant. It stretches west of the White House towards the Potomac River, north of the National Mall, east of Georgetown, south of the West ...
as well as to build a new mansion as a home for Mathilde. Construction on both began in 1894, but Mathilde died soon after her new home was completed. Heurich's new brewery opened in 1895 on Water Street in Foggy Bottom. It had a total capacity of 500,000 barrels a year, although even at its height, it did not produce that much. It also included an ice plant that could make 150 tons of ice daily, used for lagering his beer and servicing a home delivery ice business. In 1897 he added a bottling line. Heurich also set up bottling plants in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
and Baltimore. His business centered in DC, Virginia, and Maryland, and Heurich did not become one of the large shipping breweries like
Pabst Pabst is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: *Adolf Pabst (1899–1990), American mineralogist and geologist *Daniel Pabst (1826–1910), American furniture maker *Frederick Pabst (1836–1904), American brewer *Georg Wilhelm ...
, Christian Moerlein, Schlitz, or
Anheuser-Busch Anheuser-Busch Companies, LLC ( ) is an American brewing company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 2008, it has been wholly owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV (AB InBev), now the world's largest brewing company, which owns multiple ...
. Heurich did, however, dominate the local market, and his brewery was DC's largest.


DC's Largest Brewery

By the mid-1890s, Christian Heurich was the largest brewery in the nation's capital. Incorporated in Virginia, it sold Senate Lager, Heurich Lager, and Maerzen Beer, as well as a
bock beer Bock () is a strong German beer, usually a dark lager. History The style now known as ''Bock'' was first brewed in the 14th century in the Hanseatic town of Einbeck in Lower Saxony. The style was later adopted in Bavaria by Munich brewers in ...
sold in the spring. Heurich's new mansion on New Hampshire Avenue was completed and joined the other mansions in the now upscale
DuPont Circle Dupont Circle is a historic roundabout park and Neighborhoods in Washington, D.C., neighborhood of Washington, D.C., located in Northwest (Washington, D.C.), Northwest D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th St ...
neighborhood. His old brewery, which no longer fit in the area, was demolished, and the land was sold. Heurich, now a successful businessman in his 50s, married for a third time to a niece of his first wife. Amelia Keyser was thirty-three when they married in 1899. In this marriage, Heurich fathered the children he long wanted, including his oldest, Christian Heurich, Jr., who took over the brewery when his father died. In 1900 Heurich and Amelia traveled to the 1900 Paris World's Fair, where his Senate Beer won a silver medal. In 1905 he won a gold medal at the Liège World's Fair and another gold at the 1907
Jamestown Exposition The Jamestown Exposition, also known as the Jamestown Ter-Centennial Exposition of 1907, was one of the many world's fairs and expositions that were popular in the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Commemorating the 300th anni ...
in
Jamestown, Virginia The Jamestown settlement in the Colony of Virginia was the first permanent British colonization of the Americas, English settlement in the Americas. It was located on the northeast bank of the James River, about southwest of present-day Willia ...
. He also fought several battles with labor unions and his fellow brewers. Heurich usually hired union labor but balked at being told what to do. In 1904 the other DC brewers united against him in a "beer war" when Heurich abandoned an agreement not to sell his beer below a specific price. For three years, the other brewers, especially Albert Carry's
Washington Brewery Company The Washington Brewery Company was a beer brewery in Washington, D.C., Washington, DC. It operated from 1890 to 1917 on Square 811 (bounded by 4th, 5th, E, and F Street NE). History The first brewery The first brewery was built in 1857 by George ...
, tried with the aid of some local unions to force saloon-keepers to stop carrying Heurich's products. The effort failed, partly because many local unions did not see why labor should aid one group of businesses in forcing a price-fixing agreement on another. Moreover, Heurich had a better relationship with the local unions than the other brewers. Of course, the saloon-keepers favored Heurich's lower prices. By 1907 the "Beer War" had petered out, and Heurich's Brewery remained the largest in DC.


The Dry years

Groups such as the
Woman's Christian Temperance Union The Woman's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) is an international temperance organization. It was among the first organizations of women devoted to social reform with a program that "linked the religious and the secular through concerted and far ...
(WCTU) and the
Anti-Saloon League The Anti-Saloon League, now known as the American Council on Addiction and Alcohol Problems, is an organization of the temperance movement in the United States. Founded in 1893 in Oberlin, Ohio, it was a key component of the Progressive Era, an ...
were gaining support in their campaign to ban making and drinking alcoholic beverages. Heurich had little regard for them, thinking them fanatics, but they were making inroads into his market, particularly Virginia. Virginia's prohibitionists were slowly making the state dry through local referendums and licensing laws. Heurich reacted the same way many other brewers did, by trying to market his product as a healthy beverage, and trying to make beer appear family-friendly. In late 1913 Heurich introduced a low-alcohol product, Home Beer. It contained less than 2% alcohol and was marketed as suitable for women and "others with a weak stomach." In 1914 the brewery began offering a
cookbook A cookbook or cookery book is a kitchen reference containing recipes. Cookbooks may be general, or may specialize in a particular cuisine or category of food. Recipes in cookbooks are organized in various ways: by course (food), course (appetize ...
for free in exchange for coupons that came with each case of beer. The back cover of the cookbook advertised Home Beer. Such efforts were in vain. In 1914 Virginia voted to go dry in a statewide
referendum A referendum, plebiscite, or ballot measure is a Direct democracy, direct vote by the Constituency, electorate (rather than their Representative democracy, representatives) on a proposal, law, or political issue. A referendum may be either bin ...
beginning in November 1916. In March 1917 the
US Congress The United States Congress is the legislature, legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is a Bicameralism, bicameral legislature, including a Lower house, lower body, the United States House of Representatives, ...
passed a law making DC dry as of November 1, 1917. Heurich tried making a non-alcoholic apple drink named "Liberty Apple Champagne." Something went wrong, however, and the drink fermented in storage, making it illegal to sell. As of midnight,
Halloween Halloween, or Hallowe'en (less commonly known as Allhalloween, All Hallows' Eve, or All Saints' Eve), is a celebration geography of Halloween, observed in many countries on 31 October, the eve of the Western Christianity, Western Christian f ...
night 1917, DC went dry. Heurich noted, "my brewery business was wiped out in that single gesture . . . an investment of over a million dollars was hamstrung." Not wanting to throw his employees out of work, Heurich kept the brewery running to make ice and even won the contract to supply the
US Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and House have the authority under Article One of the ...
and the
US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...
with their ice.


Rebirth

The brewery remained closed from 1917 until 1933, with only the ice plant operating. Heurich was seventy-five years old when it closed. He was the city's biggest landowner, aside from the federal government. He had a farm in Maryland which he enjoyed, raising
dairy cows Dairy cattle (also called dairy cows) are cattle bred with the ability to produce large quantities of milk, from which dairy products are made. Dairy cattle generally are of the species '' Bos taurus''. Historically, little distinction was ...
and spending time with his children and grandchildren. However, he resented the closing of his business, and when Prohibition grew less popular, he considered reopening it. Prohibition did end in 1933. The Eighteenth Amendment banned "intoxicating" beverages. Still, it was the
Volstead Act The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was an act of the 66th United States Congress designed to execute the 18th Amendment (ratified January 1919) which established the prohibition of alcoholic drinks. The Anti- ...
that defined "intoxicating" as ½ of one percent alcohol by weight. The
Cullen–Harrison Act The Cullen–Harrison Act, named for its sponsors, Senator Pat Harrison and Representative Thomas H. Cullen, enacted by the United States Congress on March 21, 1933, and signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt the following day, legalized th ...
, passed on March 21, 1933, legalized the sale of beer and wine with an alcohol content of no more than 3.2% by weight, to be effective April 7, 1933. Breweries rushed to start producing beer again before April 7, "New Beers Day". Heurich did not rush, and when beer was legal again in DC, his was not ready. Only one of his pre-Prohibition competitors,
Abner-Drury Brewery The Abner-Drury Brewery, operating from 1898 to 1938, was a brewery in the Foggy Bottom, Foggy Bottom neighborhood of Washington, D.C. The brewery went into bankruptcy on July 31, 1935, and subsequently reorganized as Washington Brewery, Inc. It ...
, reopened. Unfortunately for consumers, many breweries, including Abner-Drury, rushed their products to market too soon, and the resulting "green (insufficiently aged) beer" turned off customers. Heurich waited for his beer to age properly, soon becoming DC's only remaining brewery. When the Twenty-First Amendment was ratified in December 1933, breweries began producing beers with higher volumes of alcohol. First, he had to deal with vats full of Liberty Apple Champagne. It had too high an alcohol content to sell under the new rules, and only a vinegar company was interested in buying it. Too proud to sell his product as vinegar, Heurich had it dumped into the sewers to drain into the
Potomac River The Potomac River () is in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic region of the United States and flows from the Potomac Highlands in West Virginia to Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. It is long,U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography D ...
. Now he could start making beer again. The brewery began producing the pre-war brands: Senate Lager, Heurich Lager, and Maerzen Beer. It also produced the spring Bock beer and even Home Beer. Soon, however, Senate Beer became the brewery's mainstay, its flagship label. In late 1938 Heurich introduced a Senate Ale. In late 1939 the brewery began packaging Senate Beer, Ale, and then Bock in beer cans, which were becoming increasingly popular. In 1940 Heurich celebrated his 75th anniversary as a brewer (counting his years as an apprentice and working before he came to DC.) Almost 100 years old, he was now DC's only brewer and one of the most prominent businessmen in town. Senate Beer dominated the local market; Senate Ale and Senate Bock were also popular.


Olde Heurich Brewing Company

Heurich's grandson, Gary Heurich, would resurrect the Heurich brand as the Olde Heurich Brewing Company in
Utica, New York Utica () is the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The tenth-most populous city in New York, its population was 65,283 in the 2020 census. It is located on the Mohawk River in the Mohawk Valley at the foot of the Adiro ...
in 1986. He developed a Foggy Bottom label and reproduced the Old Georgetown and Senate beers produced by the old company. The Olde Heurich Brewing Company would ultimately shut down in 2006.


See also

*
List of breweries in Washington, D.C. A list is a set of discrete items of information collected and set forth in some format for utility, entertainment, or other purposes. A list may be memorialized in any number of ways, including existing only in the mind of the list-maker, but ...
*
List of defunct breweries in the United States At the end of 2017, there were a total of 7,450 brewery, breweries in the United States, including 7,346 craft breweries subdivided into 2,594 Microbrewery#Brewpub, brewpubs, 4,522 Microbrewery, microbreweries, 230 regional Microbrewery#Craft brew ...


References


Sources

* * * Benbow, Mark. (2010). "The Old Dominion Goes Dry" ''Brewery History'' * Benbow, Mark. (2015). "Cheesecake vs. the Home: The Contradictions of Brewery Advertising in the Early Twentieth Century" ''The Social History of Alcohol and Drugs'' (vol. 29) p. 48-74 * Heurich, Gary F. (1976). "The Christian Heurich Brewing Company, 1872–1956." ''Records of the Columbia Historical Society, 1973–1974'' (vol. 49). Washington, D.C. p. 604-615. * {{cite book, last=Peck, first=Garrett, title=Capital Beer: A Heady History of Brewing in Washington, D.C., date=2014, publisher=The History Press, location=Charleston, SC, isbn=978-1626194410


External links


The Heurich House Museum
Beer brewing companies based in Washington, D.C. Defunct brewery companies of the United States