DUPRS_0018 Krueger Brewing Beer Bottle

DUPRS_0018 Krueger Brewing Beer Bottle

Dark brown complete glass bottle which reads “G. Krueger BWG Co. Brewery Bottling of Newark, New Jersey”

Dark brown complete glass bottle. Symbol on the front of the bottle is of a glass containing beer. The bottle lettering reads “G. Krueger BWG Co. Brewery Bottling of Newark, New Jersey”. The bottle has a long neck, shoulder, and a body. The bottle measures 22cm (9 in.).

Krueger Brewing Co. Beer Bottle, Newark, New Jersey

Selective Surface collection, east Stanley Park, Historic Chatham Township (modern Summit, New Jersey)

Drew University, Department of Anthropology, Drew University Passaic River Survey

Late 19th - Early 20th century

Maria Masucci

Drew University

Physical Object

Glass Bottle

G. Krueger Brewing Co. takes its name from Gottfried Wilhelm Ephraim Krüger, born in Sulzfeld, Germany, November 4, 1837. He was invited to America at the age of 16 by his uncle, his mother’s brother, John Laible, who had migrated to the New World to become a brewer and started the brewery with Louis Adam.
In 1853 at the age of 16 he came through the Port of New York to begin working at the Laible-Adam Brewery. At the age of 21 he was made foreman and a naturalized citizen in 1860. In 1865 he joined with a gentleman named Gottlieb Hill to buy Louis Adam’s interest in the brewery. The plant had an output of about 4,000 barrels annually. After Hill’s death in 1875 followed by the death of John Laible, Krueger bought out both interests and became the sole owner of G. Krueger Brewing Co. The brewery had by then reached an output of 20,000 barrels per year.

In 1882 English investors allowed the brewery and its portfolio to grow further with a change to a more British bent. Krueger later started a new investment group based in the U.S. that bought out the English investors in 1908.

The Krueger Brewing Co. is also known for being the first to produce and sell beer in cans. A risky venture which did become accepted and helped the brewery to prosper further.
Gottfried Krueger was a contributor to many charities and rose to become a powerful political figure in Newark.

http://kruegerbrewingcompany.com/gottfried-krueger-brewing-beer/

Canned beer made its debut on January 24, 1935. Gottfried Krueger Brewing Company working in partnership with the American Can Company delivered 2,000 cans of Krueger’s Finest Beer and Krueger’s Cream Ale to faithful Krueger drinkers in Richmond, Virginia. The choice of Virginia was made in case the innovation was not a success.

Canning and the use of cans to store and distribute food stuffs were instrumental in the mass distribution of food and changes in diet by the late 19th century. Canned beer was not attempted until 1909 when the the American Can Company made its first attempt to can beer. This was unsuccessful, and the American Can Company would have to wait for the end of Prohibition in the United States before it tried again. Finally in 1933, after two years of research, American Can developed a can that was pressurized and had a special coating to prevent the fizzy beer from chemically reacting with the tin.

Purchasing cans did not require a deposit, were easier to stack, more durable, less breakable and took less time to chill. The use of cans particularly exploded during WWII when brewers shipped millions of cans of beer to soldiers overseas.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-canned-beer-goes-on-sale

In 1957 Krueger's was sold to a new group of owners headed by John Eisenbeiss although some of the Krueger family retained their interest in the company and William C. Krueger remained board chairman. In 1958 the brewery celebrated its 100th Anniversary. The celebration couldn't hide the fact that Krueger's was suffering a loss of market share to the national companies like Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch. In 1961 the company was sold, the Newark plant was closed and the brand was produced by Narragansett in Cranston, Rhode Island. The original brewing plant was leveled in 1988 to build, what else, a shopping center.
http://www.rustycans.com/COM/month0406.html
The Krueger Brewing Company is still in existence today but is not a family owned business with breweries in Florida and Colorado.

http://kruegerbrewingcompany.com/

Brewing and Newark History and Manufacturing
“Brewing success was not due to luck, but based on the fact that Newark was blessed with excellent transportation, had a skilled workforce at its disposal, contained a large beer drinking immigrant population and had secured an excellent source of plentiful and inexpensive water. Joseph G. Haynes, Newark's 20th mayor, demanded of the town's common council the promise to provide Newark citizens and industry with good water. Indeed, more than once Haynes stressed that Newarkers should not use 'filthy Passaic River water.' Largely through his efforts, the city succeeded by 1899 in using 6 million taxpayer dollars to purchase the 35,000 acres of the present Newark watershed in Sussex, Passaic and Morris counties. Along with this purchase, three reservoirs were built and an elaborate series of pipes laid to get this water to town. While fresh water provided better health for Newarkers, it also served as the backbone of one of our greatest industries. Haynes stated, 'If a single death of a human could have been traced to use of (watershed water), my opponents would have clamored—and justly—for my indictment for murder.' With the new source of water, disease-related death ended and a great industry—brewing—was further nourished.”

https://knowingnewark.npl.org/in-a-glass-darkly-beer-marks-citys-history-brewers-benefited-from-workers-water/