Hemrich Bros. Brewing Co. (1897-1916)
and successors
Hemrich Staff Products Company (1916-1923)
and
Hemrich's Inc. (1929-1933)
 

They produced a number of beers including "Seattle Pride," and an "Apollo Beer," but their flagship brand was "Hemrich's Select," a premium lager beer.


Alvin M. Hemrich was president and manager of the company from the time of its organization, and continued in that capacity until 1915. He was also the president of the Claussen Brewing Association, and was a major stockholder in the family's Seattle Brewing & Malting Company.

With the onset of state-wide prohibition in 1916, Hemrich Bros. began doing business as Hemrich's Staff Products Co.  On January 1, they commenced the manufacture of a cereal beverage (near beer) called "Lifestaff." The following March they added a sparkling apple juice called "Applestaff," both with the slogan "It's Liquid Food."
 
The brand name of "Lifestaff" was a clever way of identify it as a beer. The term is an abbreviated form of "the staff of life" - which refers to bread. For Germans, beer - like bread - is a daily staple, and beer is often called liquid bread. So, "Lifestaff - a Liquid Food" gave little doubt as to what was in the bottle, especially to their German patrons.
 
On 31 January, 1918, the firm registered the name "Bockstaff" for a malt-less, non-alcoholic beverage sold as a soft drink.

The operation was under the management of Paul F. Glaser, who was also secretary of the company. They continued with this product until the imposition of national Prohibition in 1920. The Company struggled on for three more years, and in 1923 the Lake Union plant was sold.

Hemrich's, Inc.
(1929-1933)

In 1929 Alvin Hemrich, in partnership with Isadore Luxenberg and his father-in-law, Wm. Rutschow established Hemrich's, Inc. and started production of a near-beer called "Hemrich's Special Brew" under Federal permit No. L-27. The label shown here had the words "contains less than ½ of 1% alcohol by volume" at the top, but was over printed and "alcoholic content less than 3.2% by weight." This was merely to utilize the stock of labels left from before April '33.

Alvin had plenty of experience with low alcohol near-beers. From 1916 to 1920 he produced a cereal beverage called "Lifestaff" at his Lake Union plant - the Hemrich Bros. Brewing Company.

He also produced a near-beer called "Golden Age" at his Aberdeen Brewery from 1916 to 1924. His process was to brew a regular strength beer and then remove most of the alcohol. However that process wasn't always adhered to. In 1931, he and his oldest son, Elmer, got into trouble with the Feds for selling beer stronger than allowed by law. They were also busted for selling wort in five gallon cans to home brewers.

This newly established, Hemrich's Inc. was located at 2918 9th Ave. So. (soon to be Airport Way), in a remodeled frame building that had been a brewhouse prior to the 1887 construction of a new, larger Bay View Brewery. It was adjacent to the Bay View plant, which had been sold and was now the Bayview Milling Co.

This was the only operating brewery in Seattle at this time - as noted on the 1932 calendar shown here. The calendar art was done by Bradshaw Crandall, who also did the the art work for the 1936 calendar for the successor company mentioned below.

With Repeal in April of '33, the firm was re-organized as Hemrich Brewing Co., Inc. It was issued U-Permit No. 1205, and on April 7th of 1933, it was the first Seattle brewery to offer the public legal beer in over 17 years.

The following year the company would again be re-organized as the Apex Brewing Company.