Looking at The Christian Moerlein Brewing Company Graphics

CINCINNATI, OHIO

9 November 2013

I am always on the lookout for well designed graphics, advertising and signage related to historical bottles and brands that we collect. This morning I came across this retail storefront entry (top) of some grand saloon with some spectacular signs, graphics and storefront appeal. The slick, rain covered sidewalk enhances the mood. I assume this is Cincinatti as the great Christian Moerlein Brewing Company started here. They are still around today in a regenerated way. Let’s look at some really cool graphics that I have pulled from various sources. The advertising and graphics really enhance the dark presence of these early behemoth industrial breweries.

Illustration of the vast Christian Moerlein Brewing Company in Cincinnati, Ohio

Christian Moerlein was a Bavarian immigrant born in Truppach, Bavaria in 1818. He traveled to America in 1841 after becoming an apprentice brewer and blacksmith. He settled in the neighborhood of Cincinnati, Ohio known as Over-the-Rhine. Over-the-Rhine was a heavily populated neighborhood of mostly Germans and German-Americans. In 1853, Christian Moerlein opened the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company.

In its first year of production, the Christian Moerlein Brewing Company produced one thousand barrels of beer. In just over a decade, twenty-six thousand barrels were being produced and Christian Moerlein fast became the most prominent brewer in the city of Cincinnati.

When production reached its peak, Christian Moerlein beer was being shipped to places as far as Europe and South America, and was the only Cincinnati beer exported internationally. Moerlein died in 1897, but the company continued until Prohibition began. The company never recovered from Prohibition, and sat idle until the brand was reintroduced in 1981 by the Hudepohl Brewing Company.

The new Christian Moerlein Brewing Company was part of the craft beer movement. The Christian Moerlein Select Lager became the first American beer to certifiably pass the strict Reinheitsgebot, or Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. [Wikipedia]

Christian Moerlein Brewing Company advertises its prize-winning beers in the local German press, 1882

Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. advertisement noting all of the awards the brand has received. circa 1900

Pictured are historic Christian Moerlein plates, labels and bottles at the new Moerlein Lager House in Cincinnati.

Moerlein’s Old Jug Lager Beer bottle

The Christian Moerlein Brewing Co. advertising tray – Cowan’s Auctions

Advertisement for Moerlein’s Sulpho – Saline Water Springs Bath House

Christian Moerlein Brewing Company full page advertisement – 1885 Cincinnati Directory

Three copies of R171 50 cent documentary on document fragment with
Christian Moeriein Brewing Company cancel – 1898 Revenues

Artwork used for the Morlein Emancipator