In 1877, Goellert was found guilty on three of four counts of selling alcohol to the indians, which may been instrumental in his sale of the brewery the following year. Goellert then moved north to New Westminster, B.C., where he established the City Brewery.
William Roesch and his partner, P. Wagner, took possesion of the property, and changed the name to the Washington Brewery, as shown on the Dec. 26, 1878, newspaper ad (below).
The partnership of Wagner & Roesch lasted less than six months, when on May 15, 1879, Charles Eisenbeis purchased Wagner's controlling interest in the brewery.
Eisenbeis was the owner of the Pioneer Bakery, which supplied
merchant vessels with crackers and ship's bisquits (aka hardtack). He was
also the city's
first mayor, serving three terms.
Roesch remained as brewer and even boarded with Eisenbeis, until late in 1880, when he sold out and moved to Oregon. There he starting a small brewery in Heppener, and then in 1882, he established the City Brewery in Pendleton.
Eisenbeis' Washington Brewery produced draft beer in kegs, but it's
not known whether he bottled any of his beer. In 1888, Eisenbeis
closed the brewery, and the city was to wait 17 years until it again had
locally made beer.
PORT TOWNSEND BREWING CO.
The new brewery was built by local investors George Watkins, Michael Hartman, and Newton W. O'Rear. They established the company on 5 Sept. 1905, after raising $25,000 in capital stock for the venture. The brewery was to be built on site of the old Washington Brewery.
On 5 June, 1905, the local newspaper,
the Daily Leader, covered the building plans for the new venture:
"The Old Brewery site has an old frame
building on it that will have to be torn down, but the basement is of stone and is in
good shape and in all probability be utilized to advantage in the construction
of the new plant."
"Port Townsend beer drinkers will be given an opportunity today to test the product of the new Port Townsend Company's product the brew that might make the city famous."
The following day, on 10 June 1906,
the Daily Leader had glowing words for the new enterprise:
"Home-Made Beverage Finds Favor With the Public -- SPARKLING, PURE AND HEALTHFUL
--
In a good cause, if such is ever permissible, citizens of Port Townsend drank
beer yesterday. It was good beer, too. The extenuating feature of the occasion
was the right to properly dedicate to public favor a home product - Port
Townsend beer.
...The beverage sold yesterday over every bar in the city is of a character
meeting the ideas of the epicure on liquid sociability. There is purity, depth
and body to drink that should bring success to the makers in their efforts to
claim the patronage of the public throughout this section."
The article went on to report that while only draught beer is available, it's the company's intention to install bottling equipment in the near future. The principals, Michael Hartman and George Watkins, took an active role in the company, with Hartman as president, and Watkins serving as secretary/manager.
New Owners
"OLYMPIAN BUYS PORT TOWNSEND BREWERY -Jacob Duttenhoefer, for several years chief engineer of the Olympia Brewing company, has purchased controlling interest in the Port Townsend Brewing company at Port Townsend, from George Watkins and will at once assume the management of the company. He severed his connections with the local company and left here about a week ago to close the deal. Mr. Duttenhoefer plans an immediate improvement of the plant, including an enlarged ice making plant and increased facilities permitting an increased output."
As far as the public was concerned, the new owner was Jacob
"Jake" Dutterhoefer. But just as in the 1903
purchase of the Salem Brewery Assn., where the
deal was made by a front man for Leopold Schmidt (see
biography), this too was a case where he preferred to keep his financial interests private. This acquisition fit nicely
with
Schmidt's multiple brewery concept, and was not intended to carry the
Olympia Brewing name.
Jacob Duttenhoefer, and
Ernest Studerus, replaced Hartman and Watkins, with Duttenhoefer assuming the
position of president/manager, and Studerus as secretary and
brewmaster. However Hartmann retained an interest in the venture. Also, H. H. Morrison held the position of
vice-pres./treas. for a short time, as he was also a stockholder. As Schmidt's chief engineer, Jake Duttenhoefer had also been his trouble
shooter. When Schmidt was planning a brewery in Redding, Calif., Jake was
the point man, and when they instead chose to go with an agent and
bottling works, Jake was again sent to trouble shoot problems with the
equipment and management.
An added product line for the Brewery was announced on 25 January 1910, with the installation of a soda water works. The new equipment will enable them to produce "...all kinds of carbonated water, syrups, cordials, etc."
On 3 February 1910, the Daily Leader announced the Brewery's plans for the construction of a 100' X 30' ice plant. It was to have a concrete foundation, with a two story building of brick. The capacity of the plant would be 30 to 40 tons per day, which would allow the capacity of the brewery to increase to double its current output. With its product then supplying only the Olympic Peninsula, this expansion would allow the company to make their beer available to the whole Puget Sound area, and into Alaska. The newspaper article said:
"The company will also commence putting up a building for its bottling works on a lot across Monroe Street, opposite the brewery, and when this building is completed a specialty will be made of its bottled product."
The following August, plant manager, Duttenhoefer had a dynamo installed for their new electric light plant. This was to provide for brewery lighting and the running of lighter electric machinery.
Port Townsend Brewery's brick Ice House
This new Olympia branch never produced
Schmidt's flagship brand,
"Olympia Pale Export" but continued to brew the popular "Townsend Beer"
and "Key City Beer." In fact none of the other of Schmidt's plants
(Bellingham, Salem, or San Francisco) had good enough water to produce "Olympia
Beer."
Perhaps it was the quality of the water, but the plant was having problems with
the quality of their beer. On
January 4, 1911, Duttenhoefer wrote to Leopold Schmidt:
"We have been having a hazy beer for some time. Well, in fact, ever since I've
been here and it seems that we cannot overcome it. I intended several times to
increase the price of our beer but cannot do it on account of the haziness, as I
have nothing to stand on to make the talk as to better quality and the increased
cost of brewing materials. I am seriously thinking of changing brew masters. I
think I could get the brew master from the Port Angeles Brewery, and I believe
he is a good man from what I have seen that he has to work on and the quality of
beer he produces. Of course Mr. Studerus is a stockholder in this company to the
extent of $1000.00 and seems to do the best he can, but he cannot produce the
goods." Duttenhoefer was
successful in replacing Sturdeus with a new brew master, but not from Port Angeles.
Instead, he acquired the services of Gustaf Beier. They apparently corrected
their haziness problem and continued selling their draft and bottled beer. The
above letter would lead one to believe that Duttenhofer would steal a
competitor's brew master, but the
Angeles Brewing
& Malting Co. was having
financial difficulties and had been in bankruptcy proceedings since
April of 1910. On 18 Jan. 1911, stockholders meet and elected officers
of the firm. Jacob Duttenhofer remained as president and general
manager; Michael Hartman became v-p and replaced Studerus as secretary;
and H. H. Morrison became treasurer. In early
1914, the Port Townsend brewery again revised their label - this time to the the one shown below. But it was
short lived as state-wide Prohibition was chosen by the voters in November
1914, giving the brewers until January 1916 to sell their stock, and to
discontinue the manufacture of beer.
This label comes in a metallic green, and a
non-metallic yellow (left), and
a light metallic gold
This label
for Old German Lager was made for the J. G. Fox & Company of Seattle, c.1934. Fox was a
distributor, and bottler of soda and beer. Before Prohibition he had been
secretary of the Seattle Brewing and Malting Co., and now was a stockholder in
the Peninsula Brewery.
The device shown here was found in 1986 by the new owners of Aldrich's Grocery Store in Port
Townsend. Ben Aldrich was a Peninsula Brewery
stock-holder and no doubt offered beer off-sale from his premises.
Serv-O-Draft had a Detroit competitor for these dispensers called "Acme
Containers" which were produced by Miller-Shelby Products of Detroit.
The body looked like a stubby milk can (handles on the shoulder), and
the top plate and fittings appear to be bronze. Also there was no
threaded filling cap, but rather a flared opening which would have
required a wooden bung.
One example of the Miller-Shelby units, made for the American Brewing Co. of Detroit,
shown here is impressive with its copper plated body.
They dubbed their dispensers a
