37. Bürger Classic Beer

Bürger Classic Beer is made by the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company in Cinncinati, OH. Founded in 1885, Hudepohl Brewing joined with Schoenling Brewing in 1986. This combined brewing company then was bought and sold a couple more times, before being purchased by Gregory Hardman in 2006 (Hardman also owns Christian Moerlein Brewing Company). At least this is what I have pieced together thus far—I couldn’t find a website for the company—the closest I could get was the listing for it on BeerAdvocate. However, I did stumble across several other interesting bits of information that I document below.

Bürger is a crystal clear pale straw yellow—see photos. It had a good head with the initial pour that quickly faded. There is the classic lightly musty lager smell; otherwise a clean crisp malt nose. Bürger begins smooth and slightly sweet with some light graininess in the middle before ending crisp with a touch of bitterness. At mid-bottle (or, more appropriately, mid-can), with some warmth, the musty smell is replaced by a malty smell, and the flavor develops some toasted, malty notes. With a light, crisp mouthfeel, it compares well to PBR or other similar domestics—a good example of an American lager with a nice balance of sweet and dry. And at $2.95 a six-pack, it was worth every penny.

The history of Bürger, and of the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company, seems the normal narrative of conglomerate brewing: smaller breweries are purchased by larger breweries until only a couple own everyone else. The Wikipedia entry for Hudepohl Brewing Company maps a good portion of this out, observing that “As of April, 2008 the Hudepohl building on Gest street still stands, though it appears to be in the process of being deconstructed. The smoke stack bearing the Hudepohl name is still in great condition. As of November 2008, Little Kings, Hudy Delight and the Moerlein brands remain in production under contract brewing arrangements with other regional brewers. On May 20, 2009 Mr. Hardman announced the relaunch of Bürger Beer. He plans to relaunch Hudepohl 14-K in late 2009 or early 2010.”

Then there is this post on the ruins of the Hupepohl Brewery from Queen City Discovery, detailing some local information about the abandoned brewery, and providing both old television commercials from the ’70’s and photos and commentary on the exploration of the abandoned brewery itself. All in all, pretty interesting. There are also two follow up posts, Climbing to the Top of Mt. Hudepohl and Hudepohl Brewing Company: Tour 3.

There is also BrewtifulCincy, which documents “Cincinnati's Rich, Frothy Brewing History,” although this blog is more interested in the whole of Cinncinnati's brewing history.

(bonus points awarded to the first person to correctly identify what Elli is doing behind the glass)

We also have Abandoned, which documents abandoned historical buildings. Click on the photographs link to see all of the pictures from the abandoned Hupepohl Brewery. There is some cross over between the photos here and the ones in the Queen City Discovery posts; one of the links on the second Queen City Discovery post is how I ended up on the particular site.

Finally, there is this news story from 2005 about an attempt to sell the old Hudepohl smokestack. Seriously. Like that thing's gonna be easy to move and install somewhere else.

(8/6/2009)