Stroh's Ice Cream is an American brand of

ice cream Ice cream is a frozen dessert typically made from milk or cream that has been flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as Chocolate, cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit, such as strawberries or peaches. Food ...

, founded by the

Stroh Brewery 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 Brewing Company, Goebel, Schaefer Beer, Schaefer, Joseph ...

Detroit Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

. Stroh's' products were manufactured and marketed by

Dean Foods Dean Foods was an American food and beverage company and the largest dairy company in the United States. The company's products included milk, ice cream, dairy products, cheese, juice, and teas. It processed milk in the United States under a numb ...

, which had acquired the brand in 2007. Following Dean Foods’ liquidation of its assets, the rights to manufacture Stroh’s Ice Cream were acquired by Dairy Farmers of America, who continue to manufacture the ice cream to this day. Stroh's Ice Cream is a regional brand distributed mainly in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...

. It used to be owned by its namesake company, the Stroh Brewing Company, which had a large presence (and in some cases, like the Detroit area, still has) in this region.

History

The Stroh Brewery Company, like many other alcohol-producers in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, was left searching for ways to restructure its company at the advent of

Prohibition Prohibition is the act or practice of forbidding something by law; more particularly the term refers to the banning of the manufacture, storage (whether in barrels or in bottles), transportation, sale, possession, and consumption of alcoholic b ...

in 1920. With the closing of

saloons Saloon may refer to: Buildings and businesses * One of the bars in a traditional British pub * An alternative name for a bar (establishment) * Western saloon, a historical style of American bar * The Saloon, a bar and music venue in San Francis ...

across the nation,

ice cream parlor Ice cream parlors (American English) or ice cream parlours (British English) are parlor that sell ice cream, gelato, sorbet, and/or frozen yogurt to consumers. Ice cream is typically sold as regular ice cream (also called hard-packed or hard- ...

s increased in popularity as a new place for the average man to frequent. Julius Stroh, the head of Stroh's Brewery at the time, decided to convert the beer-brewing facilities of its factory in Detroit to producing non-alcoholic products such as

near beer Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol by volume that aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating or reducing the inebriating effect, carbohydrates, and calories of regular alcoholic brews. Low-alcohol beers can come in diff ...

(beer with its alcohol extracted),

birch beer Birch beer is a beverage, commonly found as a carbonated soft drink made from herbal extracts and birch bark. There are dozens of brands of birch beer available. Ingredients The one ingredient used in all recipes of birch beer is birch sap. ...

soft drinks A soft drink (see § Terminology for other names) is a class of non-alcoholic drink, usually (but not necessarily) carbonated, and typically including added sweetener. Flavors used to be natural, but now can also be artificial. The sweet ...

malt Malt is any cereal grain that has been made to germinate by soaking in water and then stopped from germinating further by drying with hot air, a process known as "malting". Malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted milk, malt vinegar, ...

products, and ice. It also produced ice cream under the "Alaska" brand. At the end of prohibition in America in 1933, the ice cream operation proved to be popular and profitable enough to continue alongside the brewing operation. In the early 1980s, Stroh's built a new ice cream production facility on Maple Street in Detroit, right down the road from its main brewery, which was demolished in 1985. Stroh's sold the facility in 1989 as a part of corporate restructuring at Stroh's. The Stroh Brewery Company sold all of its brands to

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 ...

and the

Miller Brewing Company The Miller Brewing Company is an American brewery and beer company in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1855 by Frederick Miller. Molson Coors acquired the full global brand portfolio of Miller Brewing Company in 2016, and operates the ...

in 1999 and ended brewing operations. Stroh's Ice Cream was run by Melody Farms for several years, all the time keeping the Stroh's name, until that company was purchased by Dean Foods in 2005. In 2019, Detroit Vineyards took over Stroh's facility near Eastern Market.Detroit Vineyards takes over old Stroh's Ice Cream facility, first winery since Prohibition
at Click on Detroit, 2 Apr 2019

References

External links

Official website
(archived, 24 Jun 2015) {{Dean Foods Ice cream brands Dean Foods brands Culture of Detroit Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2019

History

See also

References

External links