Pfeiffer History update

I spoke with Paul Koeller, the lead author of The House of Heileman, a history book about the G. Heileman Brewing Co. A few things that I learned from him that updated the existing history. Heileman brewed Pfeiffer until 1979, seven years longer than the last recorded Michigan appearance of the beer. He also gave me the name and contact information of the head brewer at City Brewery in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. The brewery does contract brewing for Pabst and others and the brewer is said to have a collection of recipes that are as old as 100 years and hand-written. This may be my shot to find it.

Cuvee - uck

I couldn't wait another week to try my Cuvee. It's been in the bottle for a week. Not happy with the results. It's under fermented, a bit sour and just has an off taste. I'll be able to drink it, but it definitely isn't a success. Trying not to be too bummed about this outcome. Worse, I cultured the yeast from this batch to make my Golden Ale - I hope the off flavors aren't a result from the yeast.

Cool John Stroh conversation

I called up John Stroh III by accident, really. He is the CEO of Stroh Holdings and obviously the standard-bearer for the Stroh Brewery history. I was hoping to reach someone who might let me into the Stroh family archives to hunt for a recipe for Pfeiffer beers. He answered the phone and couldn't have been more helpful and friendly. He quickly told me that by the time Stroh had acquired the name rights to Pfeiffer, there was no intellectual property left. It had either been destroyed or abandoned by G. Heileman under its tumultuous ownership changes. We went on to talk for some time about beer and the differences between the current mass market brands today and Stroh and other brands. It was a truly pleasurable conversation. I learned that at the turn of the century, the malt used in brewing yielded a far lower amount of fermentable sugars through mashing - something like 50 percent - compared with today's standard yield of 70 to 75 percent. Put another way, if a pound of malted barley had 10 units of sweetness, about 7 of those units can be converted to alcohol. Back then, it was more like 5, resulting in fuller-bodied and lower alcohol beers.

Also I learned that when breweries were getting hops for the beer, they didn't name the style so much as the region. For example, they brewers logs would say: Oregon hops, or English, and didn't name a particular style like Cascade or Fuggle. They might say Hallertau hops because that's a region of Germany that essentially grows one type of hops. I'm still going to try to track down the brewer at G. Heileman to see whether there is some secret location for Pfeiffer beer, but it's looking less and less likely that it exists.

Genesee

It sounds like the company that owns Genesee is going to make a push into Michigan this year. I found this article from the Rochester Business Journal that mentions many interesting things. It's a very well-done piece in general. Most interesting is that it mentions the undercapacity of the Rochester Brewery along with the brewery owners' desire to acquire brands. Combine that with the fact that Pabst, Strohs and a cadre of other brands are for sale and it makes one go hmmmm.

Pfeiffer Brewing Co. building

The Pfeiffer brewery on the 3700 block of Beaufait is owned by the city of Detroit, according to the Wayne County Register of Deeds. There is a faded CB Richard Ellis sign advertising the real estate with a non-working number and the firm has no listing for the building. It stopped operating in 1966 and is unlikely to be useable for anything other than storage. It has a lovely Art Deco corner, but the rest of the building is unremarkable. There is an office across the street that must have been part of the complex that bears the Pfieffer name stamped in concrete. J&G Pallets and Trucking occupies the building, which is flanked by thousands of wood pallets.

The brewery is located roughly a mile from where the old Stroh brewery stood as a crow flies. Here's a stylized shot of the brewery corner. Don't read the description as it contains inaccuracies.

Eureka!!

Everything I thought I knew was wrong. First off - apologies to SABMiller and acknowledgement that I violated a cardinal rule. I trusted what others had written about Pabst's current ownership and went blindly down that road. Miller doesn't own Pabst. Miller is the contract brewer for Pabst. The brewery and its many brands is owned by Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation, which is based in California. The charity tried and failed to sell Pabst and the other brands, including Stroh's, in 2005 at the direction of the Internal Revenue Service. The charity may again be marketing Pabst and its brands, according to a New York Post article.

The fact is, Pabst continues to register the trademark for ``Pfeiffer's Famous,'' and updated the trademark as recently as 2005.

Also, a shout out to Rex Halfpenny, editor of Michigan Beer Guide. I queried him about finding recipes for Pfeiffer and his answer was very interesting. His research of older Stroh recipes in their archives showed that the brewers used weights of hops and malt as both were a commodity at that time and didn't use names or styles per se. It points to the fact that most of the beer brand differentiations were made by process and less by ingredients.

Pfeiffer beer frustration

OK, I think I found both authors of ``The Story of the House of Heileman'' and called them both last night. I left a message - unreturned - for one of them and the other phone was disconnected. The point of this exercise was that I hoped they would have heard what happened to Pfeiffer when Heileman bought the brand. I still have hope that David Delano may return my call. I also began looking into the possibility of finding the remains of the brand in bankruptcy court. Alan Bond, and Australian investor, had bought Heileman (which owned Pfeiffer) in 1987 and declared bankruptcy in 1991. Of course, I am not sure where Bond declared bankruptcy and for files that old, I almost certainly would have to go in person to retrieve them. Sigh.

In the interim, since I haven't heard from the U.S. contingent of SABMiller, I called and left a message with the London PR office and made my request. This is feeling a touch hopeless. Next on my agenda is to find out who owns the brewery in Detroit. This may take a trip to the assessor's office. I'd like to get a tour of the building and take some photographs.

Pfeiffer quest update2

I'm feeling a little unlucky at this point. I made a call to the Penobscot building in Detroit. The management has never heard of Armada Corp., which at one point had bought the rights to Pfeiffer Brewing Co. There is no record of them to speak of and they may have been a really small outfit. Heck, Pfeiffer stopped brewing in Detroit in 1966, so I have no idea what is left of their intellectual property. I left messages with two media relations types at SABMiller, pitching my request for help. I am not hopeful. But I may try the headquarters in London tomorrow. Who knows, they may like my Amurrrican accent. On my plan is to hunt down people who wrote about G. Heileman Brewery, which acquired Pfeiffer at one point. Maybe they have an idea about whether Pfeiffer was transferred along the way Miller.

Golden Ale update

After my last two fumbles on fermenting, I was concerned how this one would take off. I used harvested yeast from the bottom of the Cuvee secondary fermenter. This worked like a charm. The Golden Ale took off so strongly that it overflowed through the bubbler. I had to take it off and clean it twice. I think it's going to turn into a very nice beer.

Pfeiffer Quest update

In Peter Blum's book, ``Brewed in Detroit,'' he gives thanks to a James Jozwiak, a collector of Pfeiffer memorabilia. There are 10 listed in Michigan, and I called them all to no avail in hopes of tracking down more information about where the brand stands now. I didn't reach one man, who was in Detroit. I am going to try again. I did have a fun conversation with a James Jozwiak who lived in Belleville. He and I talked about Pfeiffer beer for about 15 minutes. He parted with a statement that Pfeiffer had pretty good beer. I bet they did.

Golden Ale brewing day

I decided to make a light golden ale with a special ingredient. The idea is to make a session beer with a bit of zest. I'm planning to add about a 10 ounces of maple syrup to the secondary fermenter to add flavor and a bit more alcohol. This will extend out the fermentation time as well because the sugars are more complex to ferment and take longer. I am using all extract for this batch and am hoping to get a nice light color. Starting with 3 pounds of Briess Dry Malt Extract, one pound of Bavarian wheat extract and two pounds of Briess Pilsen malt - a very light malt color. I am using one ounce of Perle hops for bittering and Styrian Goldings for finishing.

The beer came out with a bit higher Original Gravity than I thought. It settled out at 1.055. I pitched a Munton's yeast that I harvested from the Cuvee beer secondary fermenter and had chilled overnight in a cleaned old baby food jar. I put the yeast in a little luke warm water and added some malt and had it sitting with cling wrap over the top. I am hoping for a vigorous bubble by the time I go to bed in hopes I get pretty good attenuation.

Cuvee bottling

OK - here's a little admission, I eyeballed the Cuvee original gravity when I made it instead of actually measuring it. And I think I really started out at 1.050 and not 1.065. This is important because when I took the final gravity reading on the Cuvee today, it came out at a disappointing 1.020. This means in addition to starting with less sugar than I wanted, I ended with more than I wanted and the alcohol content is fairly low. Granted, there is a half pound of bottling sugar in there, so it may be a touch off, but probably not enough to affect the gravity tremendously.

So, I am looking at a beer of around 4 percent alcohol by volume instead of my intended 6 percent. The good news is, after keeping it in the secondary fermenter for a few weeks, it cleared out and has a really nice spicy taste and I think this will turn into one of my better creations. I drank a bit of it and even without carbonation, it's solid. It doesn't taste that close to the Cuvee I had in New York. Nevertheless, I intend to send a bottle to the brewer who gave me the tips on how to make it, along with my my grain bill.

Pfeiffer quest

Ever since I wrote a feature for Model D about the history of brewing in Detroit, I have been fascinated by Pfeiffer Brewing Co. Of course, the brewery name is my wife's surname, though there is no known relationship. But more importantly, I was amazed to read in Peter Blum's ``Brewed in Detroit'' that Pfeiffer at one time was nearly as large as Stroh Brewery.

A strike in 1958, shortly after Pfeiffer had borrowed money to expand to meet demand, allowed out-of-state competitors into the market and likely doomed the brewery. The more interesting thing - to me - is that after a series of swallowings by other breweries, the Pfeiffer name appears to be held by SAB Miller. However, it's unclear whether Miller owns the rights to the recipes, or, indeed, if the recipes have been lost altogether. The book mentions an Armada Corp. holding the rights to Pfeiffer's intellectual property. The Michigan Secretary of State has no record of Armada Corp., except for one formed in Armada, Michigan and I am fairly certain this ain't them.

What I really want to know is whether the recipes to some of their beers still exist. If Miller possesses them it is unlikely to release them and allow any sort of competitor to rise from the ashes and steel even the tiniest smidgen of market share in Detroit. That said, I may query them about the use of the name. Maybe it's for sale. By the way, the Pfeiffer Brewery still stands in Detroit in a lovely area north of Mt. Elliot between Gratiot and Mack in Detroit.

Cuvee in the fermenter

My Cuvee is starting to clear up in the secondary fermenter. It was very cloudy and seems about half settled now. I'm planning on keeping it in there for an extra week or so to try to get more gunk to fall out of solution. I also think that perhaps I should try to keep my fermenter farther from the heat vent in my room. The last batch I made had a lot of isoamyl acetate (banana flavor). Live and learn.

Dubbel is half good

My Belgian dubbel turned out kind of weird. The smack pack yeast didn't work and after two days I had to pitch a different yeast - a Nottingham English ale yeast. It fermented but I didn't know at the time that the bell on the bubbler had a crack in it, likely allowing oxygen and bacteria into the car boy. I bottled the beer and after two weeks began trying the beer. In a 22-ounce bottle, the first pour off the beer is solid. It has a nice Amber color and the yeast made it a bit fruity, with definite banana smell and flavor. It's not what I planned, but not bad. Then comes the second-half of the bottle. It's a yeasty cloud. The beer is alright, but there is so much yeast sludge in suspension that it is almost undrinkable. I didn't do secondary fermentation with this batch, and that was a big mistake.

This beer isn't a total loss, but I likely won't be drinking the whole bottle on these bad boys. Today, I am transferring my Cuvee into the secondary fermenter. I am hoping to prevent a screw up like the one that nearly ruined this dubbel.