F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company was an American brewing company located in

New York, New York New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on New York Harbor, one of the world's largest natural harb ...

and later in

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. It was acquired by

Stroh Brewing Company The Stroh Brewery Company was a beer brewery in Detroit, Michigan. In addition to its own Stroh's brand, the company produced or bought the rights to several other brands including Goebel, Schaefer, Schlitz, Augsburger, Erlanger, Old Style, L ...

in 1981.

History

It was founded in 1842 by brothers Frederick Schaefer (1817-1897) and Maximilian Karl Emil Schaefer (1819–1904), natives of

Wetzlar Wetzlar () is a city in the state of Hesse, Germany. It is the twelfth largest city in Hesse with currently 55,371 inhabitants at the beginning of 2019 (including second homes). As an important cultural, industrial and commercial center, the un ...

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

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 the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

. Frederick emigrated to the U.S. in 1838, followed by Maximilian in 1839. Maximilian brought the recipe for lager beer with him. After working for them, they saved up enough money to acquire the Sebastion Somers Brewing Company. How this was managed, and what brewing experience the pair brought from Germany, is unclear. What they did bring was a recipe for

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 " ...

, reputedly brewing one of the first such light, crisp, cold brewed and cold aged beers in America in 1848, which they later claimed was the first in the United States, although John Wagner of

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

preceded him in 1840. In time the operation proved highly successful, rising into the number six slot among American brewers by 1871. Max's son Rudolph Jay Schaefer took over as president until his death in 1923. The firm had a large brewery complex on Park Avenue in New York City and caves for lagering its beer along the East River. In the early 20th century it sold the valuable plant real estate and opened a new brewery in Brooklyn. In 1949, the company was affected by the

1949 New York City brewery strike The 1949 New York City brewery strike was a labor strike involving approximately 7,000 brewery workers from New York City. The strike began on April 1 of that year after a labor contract between 7 local unions of the Brewery Workers Union and ...

. By the 1950s and again in the 1970s Schaefer was the number five beer in America. As it grew it purchased several regional breweries, including in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–United States border, Canada–U.S. maritime border ...

, and

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland. With a population of 585,708 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census and estimated at 568,271 in 2024, it is the List of United States ...

. A $106 million

public stock offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

was held in 1968, with the F.& M. Schaefer Corporation emerging as a holding company for its production subsidiary, the Schaefer Brewing Company. Pursuing greater efficiency, it built a large, high-output plant in

Allentown, Pennsylvania Allentown (Pennsylvania Dutch language, Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Allenschteddel'', ''Allenschtadt'', or ''Ellsdaun'') is a city in eastern Pennsylvania, United States. The county seat of Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh County, it is the List o ...

in the

Lehigh Valley The Lehigh Valley () is a geography, geographic and urban area, metropolitan region formed by the Lehigh River in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh and Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton counties in eastern Pennsylvania. It is a co ...

, which opened in 1972 and resulted in closure of the company's remaining satellite breweries. In 1974 it was expanded from its original 1,100,000 barrels-per-year capacity to 2,500,000 and then, in 1975, it expanded again to 5,000,000 barrels plus. In 1981 Schaefer was acquired by

which, in turn, was acquired by

Pabst Brewing Company The Pabst Brewing Company () is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It outsources the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and ma ...

in 1999.

Legacy

Schaefer Schaefer is an alternative spelling and cognate for the German word ''schäfer'', meaning 'shepherd', which itself descends from the Old High German '' scāphare''. Variants "Shaefer", "Schäfer" (a standardized spelling in many German-speaking ...

continues today as a virtual beer produced as a Pabst label. The company's

preservation society Preservation may refer to: Heritage and conservation * Preservation (library and archival science), activities aimed at prolonging the life of a record while making as few changes as possible * ''Preservation'' (magazine), published by the Nat ...

, Team Schaefer, is centered in

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a coastal city in southeastern Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the list of United States cities by population, 44th-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 451,307 as of 2022. A charter ci ...

. The F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company is not related to ''

Engels and Schaefer Brewing Company Friedrich Engels ( ;"Engels"
''

Cedarburg, Wisconsin Cedarburg ( ) is a city in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. Located about north of Milwaukee and in close proximity to Interstate 43, it is a suburb in the Milwaukee metropolitan area. The city incorporated in 1885, and at the tim ...

. Schaefer's former Lehigh Valley brewing facility was later sold to Diageo North America, Inc. and used for the production of Smirnoff Ice

malt beverage A malt drink is a Brewing#Fermenting, fermented drink in which the primary ingredient is the grain or seed of the barley plant, which has been allowed to Sprouting, sprout slightly in a traditional way called "malting" before it is processed. B ...

s. In 2008, the

Boston Beer Company The Boston Beer Company is an American brewery founded in 1984 by Jim Koch, James "Jim" Koch and Rhonda Kallman. Boston Beer Company's first brand of beer was named Samuel Adams (beer), Samuel Adams after Founding Fathers of the United States, Fo ...

, best known for its

Samuel Adams Samuel Adams (, 1722 – October 2, 1803) was an American statesman, Political philosophy, political philosopher, and a Founding Father of the United States. He was a politician in Province of Massachusetts Bay, colonial Massachusetts, a le ...

brand, purchased the brewery from Diageo.

Sponsorships

The company sponsored the

Schaefer Music Festival The Schaefer Music Festival in Central Park was a recurring music festival held in the summer between 1967 and 1976 at Wollman Rink in New York City's Central Park. It featured a number of notable performances. The sponsorship was taken over by ...

at Wollman Skating Rink in New York City's Central Park from 1968 to 1976, hosting some of the biggest names in popular music. Schaefer was the primary advertiser on the

Ebbets Field Ebbets Field was a Major League Baseball stadium in the Flatbush, Brooklyn, Flatbush section of Brooklyn, New York City, New York. It is mainly known for having been the home of the History of the Brooklyn Dodgers, Brooklyn Dodgers baseball tea ...

scoreboard, home of the

Brooklyn Dodgers The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1883 as the Brooklyn Grays. In 1884, it became a member of the American Association as the Brooklyn Atlantics before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brook ...

. The "H" or "E" in "Schaefer" would light up to signify the scorer's decision as to whether a ball in play was a hit or an error. From its opening in 1971 until 1983, Schaefer owned the

naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization where a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event (most often sports venues), typical ...

Schaefer Stadium Foxboro Stadium, originally Schaefer Stadium and later Sullivan Stadium, was an outdoor stadium in the New England region of the United States, located in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It opened in 1971 and served as the home of the New England P ...

, the then-home of the

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. The Patriots compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East division. The Pa ...

of the

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

, in one of the earliest examples of such rights granted to a company that did not own that stadium. The name was changed to Sullivan Stadium when Schaefer did not renew its contract in 1983; the stadium would be renamed Foxboro Stadium in 1990, retaining that name until its 2002 closure. The company also sponsored a long-running

television program A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via Terrestrial television, over-the-air, Satellite television, satellite, and cable te ...

of quality first-run

motion pictures A film, also known as a movie or motion picture, is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, emotions, or atmosphere through the use of moving images that are generally, sinc ...

, titled "Award Theatre" (also known as "Schaefer Award Theatre"). The series presented such movies with only four

commercial Commercial may refer to: * (adjective for) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and services ** (adjective for) trade, the trading of something of economic value such as goods, services, information or money * a dose of advertising ...

interruptions. In

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, the program ran several times a year on

WCBS-TV WCBS-TV (channel 2), branded CBS New York, is a television station in New York City, serving as the flagship of the CBS network. It is owned and operated by the network's CBS News and Stations division alongside Riverhead, New York–lic ...

through the late 50s and early 60s.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:F. and M. Schaefer Brewing Company Beer brewing companies based in New York City