Hamm It Up Somebody's Birthday

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Text on Button IT'S GOT TO BE SOMEBODY'S BIRTHDAY Hamm it up!
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Blue and red text on a white background with blue and red balloons. White text on a red background.

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The Theodore Hamm Brewing Company was established in 1865 when Theodore Hamm, a German immigrant, inherited the Excelsior Brewery from his friend and business associate, A. F. Keller in St. Paul, Minnesota. Hamm Brewing is most famous not for the company's beverages, but for its advertising jingle and its mascot, the Hamm's Beer bear. The original jingle, with lyrics by Nelle Richmond Eberhart and music by Charles Wakefield Cadman was derived from a 1909 art song entitled "From The Land of Sky-Blue Water." It was first used on radio and later on television. It started with tom-tom drums, then a chorus intoned:

From the Land of Sky Blue Waters,
From the land of pines' lofty balsams,
Comes the beer refreshing,
Hamm's the beer refreshing.

Catalog ID BE0041

Guzzler

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Text on Button GUZZLER
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White text on a horizontal blue stripe on a white background. 

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The origin of this button is unknown, however the term “guzzler” is often used in the context of drinking beer or in reference to cars that use a lot of gasoline. To guzzle means to consume an excessive amount of liquid.

Catalog ID BE0104

Gold Seal Beer

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Text on Button BOOSTER FOR MUTUAL BREWING CO. INC gold seal BEER
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Blue and white text sits on a gold seal encircled by a red border featuring white text. 

Curl Text Union Bug
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Elmer Edward Lloyd Hemrich founded Elmer E. Hemrich's Brewery, Inc. and established headquarters in Tacoma, Washington in 1935. Though they didn’t produce the beer, they distributed beers under their “Gold Seal Brands” label which were actually brewed and bottled by breweries under contract. Gold Seal beer was originally brewed by several breweries, including one in San Francisco. Hemrich changed the name of the company to Gold Seal Breweries, Inc. in 1936 and it stayed in operation until 1940. At some point, brothers George and Elmer Williams, who owned the Mutual Brewing Company, Inc. located in Ellensburg, Washington, purchased the rights to Gold Seal Beer after the closing of Hemrich’s breweries. The Mutual Brewing Company had five breweries in operation, and manufactured beer from 1937 to 1943. 

A booster is someone who supports a cause, sports team, or organization. In this case, a person who supports the brewing, and most likely the consumption, of Gold Seal Beer.

Catalog ID BE0100

Goetz Country Club Beer

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Text on Button HONOR ROLL DEALER Goetz COUNTRY CLUB BEER
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White text on a red background and white text on a blue background.

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In 1961 the Pearl Brewing Company officially purchased the M. K. Goetz Brewing Company. Overall the merger of the two companies was a success. Beers from both companies began to see production at the two facilities. Goetz brewed all of the Pearl beers for easier distribution in the north, and Pearl produced Goetz’s Country Club malt liquor. Country Club proved very successful for Pearl, and in fact is the only Goetz beer still in production by Pabst today under the Pearl Brewing Company name.

Catalog ID BE0058

Genesee Beer and Ale

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Text on Button GENESEE BEER & ALE ST. PATRICK'S DAY '86
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Green and black text in a white oval with black outline, with a green clover on each side, above white text on a green banner.

Curl Text MADE IN U.S.A.
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The Aqueduct Spring Brewery was the first brewery located in Rochester, New York when it opened in 1819. In 1878, the brewery was sold and renamed as the Genesee Brewery. In 1932, after the repeal of Prohibition, the company reopened as the Genesee Brewing Company. Genesee Beer first appeared in 1878 and grew in popularity over the years. Genesee Cream Ale, also known commonly as Genny Cream Ale among people in Western New York where Genesee is based, was originally brewed in 1960. The beer is recognized for winning two consecutive gold medals at the Great American Beer Festival.

Catalog ID BE0028

Fox Head 400 Beer

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Text on Button I DRINK THAT FOX HEAD "400" BEER Because It's Brewed With "Waukesha" Water
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Black text on an orange background.

Curl Text PARISIAN NOVELTY CO CHICAGO
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Fox Head Brewing Company originally began as Waukesha Imperial Spring Brewing Company in the mid-1890s. When Fox Head's brewmaster Albert Kirschstein committed suicide, the company was purchased by Fox Deluxe Beer Sales, Inc., who also owned Peter Fox Brewing Company. In 1958, Weber Waukesha merged with Fox Head, and four years later G. Heileman bought the merged operation and closed both plants. The closing of the plants has been attributed to the rumors of Chicago Mafia involvement with the industry.

Catalog ID BE0027

Falstaff Yellow

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Text on Button FALSTAFF
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Falstaff logo with red text on a yellow background.

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Falstaff Brewing began as the Lemp Brewery, German immigrant John Adam Lemp in St. Louis in 1838. The Lemp Brewery company closed in 1921, and sold its Falstaff brand to the then-named Griesedieck Beverage Company. Griesedieck Beverage was renamed the Falstaff Corporation and survived Prohibition by selling near beer, soft drinks, and cured hams under the Falstaff name. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the first two cases of beer were airlifted from Curtiss Stienberg Airport to the governors of Illinois and Missouri. After Prohibition, the company expanded greatly. Its first acquisition was the 1936 purchase of the Krug Brewery in Omaha, which made Falstaff the first brewery to operate plants in two different states. By the 1960s, Falstaff had become the third largest brewer in America.

Catalog ID BE0045

Falstaff Green

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Text on Button FALSTAFF Beer
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White text on green background with white Falstaff logo surrounded by white shamrocks.

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Falstaff Brewing began as the Lemp Brewery by German immigrant John Adam Lemp in St. Louis in 1838. The Lemp Brewery Company closed in 1921 and sold its Falstaff brand to the then-named Griesedieck Beverage Company. Griesedieck Beverage was renamed the Falstaff Corporation and survived Prohibition by selling near beer, soft drinks, and cured hams under the Falstaff name. When Prohibition was repealed in 1933, the first two cases of beer were airlifted from Curtiss Stienberg Airport to the governors of Illinois and Missouri. After Prohibition, the company expanded greatly. Its first acquisition was the 1936 purchase of the Krug Brewery in Omaha, which made Falstaff the first brewery to operate plants in two different states. By the 1960s, Falstaff had become the third largest brewer in America.

Catalog ID BE0032

I Like Falstaff

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Text on Button I LIKE FALSTAFF
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Top of button is red, bottom of button is blue, center of button has blue text on a white background.

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Originally introduced by the Lemp Brewery, Falstaff Beer was just one of several different brands offered by the largest brewery in St. Louis prior to Prohibition. The Lemps chose the Shakespearean character for the name of their new beer due to Sir John Falstaff's reputation as a jolly, fun-loving knight. When the Lemp Brewery closed, William J. Lemp Jr. sold the Falstaff brand to his friend and fellow brewer, Joe Griesedieck in 1920; it would be one of the last business decisions Lemp would make before committing suicide in the family's mansion in 1922. Following the end of Prohibition, the Griesedieck family began to expand their new Falstaff Brewing Company aggressively, competing with Anheuser-Busch Brewery in the decades of the mid-twentieth century. The older, small breweries Falstaff purchased ultimately proved too inefficient to compete with Anheuser-Busch. The four plants in St. Louis, out a total of ten plants in the Falstaff Company, closed one by one, the last in 1977.

Catalog ID BE0033

Falls City Beer

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Text on Button SEE Falls City BEER ADVERTISED IN LIFE FALLS CITY BREWING COMPANY, LOUISVILLE 11, KY.
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White text in a red oval and white text in a red rectangle, on a white background.

Curl Text EMRESS 64 W. 73RD ST. NYC
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In 1905, local tavern and grocery store owners got together and formed the Falls City Brewing Company as a way to break a local monopoly on beer production by the Central Consumers Company. Prohibition hit in 1919 and knocked many breweries out of business, but Falls City changed their name to the Falls City Ice and Beverage Company and survived selling block ice and soft drinks. When Prohibition ended, they changed their name back to Falls City Brewing Company and from then until the late 1960s, Falls City was a dominant brewery and was the most popular beer in Louisville. Oertel’s and Fehr’s, Louisville’s other top breweries eventually went out of business and Falls City was the lone survivor until the national players like Schlitz, Miller and Budweiser became too powerful to compete with.

Catalog ID BE0026