Beer brewed in New Haven territory

OK - something of a combination - New Haven Railroad and beer.

Given the rumors of the conductor on the Stamford Local always had a 6-pack stashed in one of the cabs of the 4400s for emergency rations should the train get stuck, what are the beers which were brewed in New Haven territory - freight & passenger.

The brewery should be let's say within 12 miles (a 1 day horse/wagon ride back in the old days before Prohibition).

So without further adoo - here we go.


NYC - Rheingold, Ballantine (I think the brewery was in New Jersey - but for this survey I'll swallow hard and accept NJ breweries 12 miles West/South of the "New Yorker" Line ...), Schaefer, Knickerbocker, Piels, McSoreleys (gotcha).

New Haven - Hulls Export (must be exporting to West/East Haven).

Providence - Narragansett

Boston - Sam Adams NOT! The NH dosen't exist after 1969. Penn Central will be covered later - maybe.

New Bedford?

Boston (Jamaica Plain)-Haffenreffer Brewery.

Natick/Framingham-Carling Brewery.

What time frame are we talking about? Back before prohibition, basically every sizeable town or city had at least one brewery.

Was Elm City, from New Haven, different than Hulls Export? Also-- wasn't there a Red Fox brewery in Hartford in the '50s?

The Waterbury Brewing Company on Eagle Street in Waterbury, CT had a siding during the 1940's.

Ridgefielder wrote:What time frame are we talking about? Back before prohibition, basically every sizeable town or city had at least one brewery.

Just for argument's sake, let's keep it after Prohibition (1932-1968) just because most of the earlier memories may be a little faulty, that is unless you have some advertising or other record you want to share.

Nice catch on Waterbury.


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Maybe we can pursuade one of the many microbreweries along the Shore Line to come out with various types of beer with station names:

Westport - thin bodied lager with pretense
Bridgeport - solid porter with tones of sweat
New Haven - high falutin' ale
Groton - low alcohol (high water) brew
Greenwich - aged, oak casked limited edition
Providence - a little way out of the beaten path stout
New York - solid full bodied pilsner good for all types of food and occasions
Boston - solid full bodied pilsner good for all types of food and occasions but in a lite version

I know that we said no pre-prohibition company's, but although these breweries began then, I don't know when they folded. They all existed in Boston with the New Haven Railroad. In addition to J.P.'s Haffenreffer on Germania St. and Franklin Brewery on Washington St., there was:
Southie :
Boston Beer Co.
Roxbury Crossing had a heavy concentration of breweries, primarily due to the fact that there was a large German settlement there and also that the Stony Brook ran right through it, which was a source for much of the companie's water. They were mostly in the area of Heath, Columbus, Station, and Terrace Sts., all tightly bound together.They were:
Vienna Brewery
Carl Jutz Brewery
A.J.Houghton Brewery
Eblana Brewery
John Allen Brewery
Highland Spring Brewery
Croft Brewery
American Brewing Co.
Roxbury Brewing Co.
and more.
(...and we haven't even touched upon the distilleries !)

Ruzbasan wrote:The Waterbury Brewing Company on Eagle Street in Waterbury, CT had a siding during the 1940's.

It would appear that Waterbury actually had *two* breweries post-prohibition-- Waterbury Brewing and Largay Brewing. The latter also had a brewery in Hartford. Not sure if either shipped by rail, though. http://www.rustycans.com/COM/month0206.html

Ridgefielder wrote:

Ruzbasan wrote:The Waterbury Brewing Company on Eagle Street in Waterbury, CT had a siding during the 1940's.

It would appear that Waterbury actually had *two* breweries post-prohibition-- Waterbury Brewing and Largay Brewing. The latter also had a brewery in Hartford. Not sure if either shipped by rail, though. http://www.rustycans.com/COM/month0206.html

Waterbury Brewing Company definitely shipped by rail. It had a rail siding right up to the building. It is on the New Haven valuation maps and on Sanborn maps of the period. The siding was also used by New England Ice and a fuel company. Until a few years ago the tracks could still be seen crossing Railroad Hill Ave to the Brewery

New Bedford - Dawson's Brewery.

Siding was around Sawyer St between Ryan & Scully and New Bedford Storage.

Dave

Cremo Brewery in New Britain. It was located just over the border from Newington on the Springfield Line, and not on the Highland Line or Berlin branch. YN-3 (Holyoke, Cedar Hill) was often assigned to switch out the brewery rather than a local freight.

Randy Hammill
http://newbritainstation.com

Fall River's Enterprise Brewery began operations in 1898-shut down 1920 by Prohibition, reopened in 1933 -finally closed in 1963. The beer history website "www.TavernTrove.com" lists Enterprise product brands years post-1933, including: King Phillip, Enterprise ,Old Tap , White Seal, Cape Cod Beer, Boh(Bohemian) Beer, Clyde Ale. The New Haven had a long siding to the city block-size Enterprise Brewery on the Fall River waterfront, that connected to the Taunton-Newport mainline north of the Fall River (Bowenville) station. Check out the beer website for the rest of the New Haven territory breweries. EdS

I collect vintage brewery advertising with a particular interest in old CT breweries, especially those from Hartford.

Hartford's largest brewery, actually the largest to ever operate in the state was the New England Brewing Co built in 1896. It was located on Windsor ST with rail access in a siding off the Windsor ST yard. Old letterheads and advertising shows the rail lines right outside the brewery, although I think some artistic license was involved there.

Post prohibition, the brewery struggled, shut down twice by the big 30's floods in Hartford, and was closed by 1947. I surmise the brewery used rail service in the 30's and 40's but on a limited scale. The brewery's prodution after prohibition was a fraction of its pre pro output.

Prohibition REALLY killed the brewing industry in Hartford. Before Pro., there were four sucessful long-lived breweries and none lasted past 1947 after.

The other brewery after prohibition was called the Aetna Brewing Co; later the Dover Brewing Co; and it was actually located adjacent to NEBCO, but did not have direct rail service.

EWJ

Would you happen to know anything about Charter Oak Bottling? I found an old bottle in the woods a year ago but couldn't find anything via Google.

Back at the other end of the line there was Ruppert Beer and Knickerbocker. A favorite back in the day.

I don't know if they shipped by rail, but Narragansett brewery was right on the Hartford, Providence and Fishkill, or the Washington secondary in Cranston, RI.