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E. Bleemel Brewery
1837 - 1848
Mathias Mogger Brewery
1848 - 1868
Kaufmann & Mayer
1868 - 1869
Anton Mayer
1869 - 1889
Terre Haute Brewing Company
1889 - 1918
1934 - 1959
(photo courtesy
Bruce Mobley)
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Chauncey Warren and Demas Deming, Sr. started the Terre Haute Brewing Company in 1837 at 8th and Poplar Street. Later this site was used by Earnest Bleemel's brewery until Mathias Mogger bought the business in 1848.
A. Kaufmann and Anton Mayer bought it in 1868 and it became Kaufmann & Mayer later that same year. Mayer bought out the Kaufmann family's in 1869 when he died.
Anton Mayer was an immigrant from Wurtemberg, Germany and was employed in a brewery there before he moved the the U.S. at age 16. He worked for 8 years as a brewer in Cincinnati, becoming a brewmaster.
Meanwhile, the Terre Haute Brewing Company, owned by Fred Feyh, Coelstein Kinzle and Theodore Kriescher in the 1870s and early 1880s, was at the southwest corner of First and Ohio streets.
Mayer sold his company in 1889 to Crawford Fairbanks (of the Indiana Distilling Co. - see bottom of this page), John H. Beggs, and Deming. It was then merged into the Terre Haute Brewing Company. At this time it occupied 2 blocks at 9th and Poplar and produced 30,000bbl annually.
By the turn of the century, THBC was the 7th largest brewery in the US. Stables were a block away with 50 Clydesdales and Belgians delivering beer to the immediate area. They had expanded to 901-935 Poplar St. by 1910.
Not all was rosy in a city awash in beer. In the early part of the century Terre Haute was called the "Paris of Indiana" or more often "Sin City" due to the wide-open nature of the mayors' corruption. Sporting houses, and saloons without closing hours were the most obvious public aspect of the local political machine being funded by brewery money. Mayor Bidaman was impeached in 1906 and Mayor Roberts convicted of election fraud in 1915, serving time.
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"THE CALL IS CHAMPAGNE VELVET
This is evidenced by Government records, which, like figures, do not lie; it is evidenced by the imperative necessity of enlarging materially what is already the largest brewery in Indiana. This steady increase in the consumption of Champagne Velvet is due to the appreciation of the public that it is the best bottled beer that has ever been placed on the market; it is a popular tribute to the superiority of Champagne Velvet over all other beers. Champagne Velvet is the beer for your home. One bottle will satisfy you of this. Terre Haute Brewing Co. Terre Haute, Ind" - Ad in the Coshocton, Ohio, Daily Age, June 21, 1907
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"The Terre Haute Brewing Company has adopted a "layoff" system by which all employees may get a share of the work. The decreased output, owing to the increasing "dry" territory, has diminished the amount of work to be done. It is said one of the glass factories which makes beer bottles exclusively and in which Crawford Fairbanks, of the Terre Haute Brewing Company, is the largest stockholder as well as the largest customer, will close for the summer season a month earlier than usual. The Glass Bottle Blowers' union has been caring for a number of unemployed men for some time, as the greater part of the product of the glass factories in Terre Haute is beer bottles." - Fort Wayne Journal-Gazette, Mar 17, 1909
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In 1910, Crawford Fairbanks sold some of his interest in the brewery and instituted a financial reorganization with Thomas Beggs buying a big portion of the stock.
Crawford Fairbanks joined Tom Taggert and W.W. McDeal, president of the Monon Railroad, in the formation of the French Lick Springs Hotel Company.
Closed at the onset of prohibition. New president, Oscar Baur, reorganized THBC in 1934. Baur was a former Terre Hautean who returned to the city in 1933 with his brother, Jacob, specifically to re-start the brewery. He started the motto "The Beer with the Million Dollar Flavor" and for publicity insured the formula's secret for one million dollars.
By 1935 distribution of Champagne Velvet had expanaded to 19 states and was eventually sold in all 48.
The Atlantic Brewing Company bought the assets in 1958 and operated it for one year.
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"Greatest flavor advantage in brewing history!
From first pour to last, there's more liveliness, sparkle and vitality in every drop of CV. Live flavor that gives you a keener, brighter, more satisfying taste. That's because CHAMPAGNE VELVET is especially brewed to stay lively longer. That's why light, lively CV tastes much better! Plus all this, CHAMPAGNE VELVET, the Beer with the Million Dollar Flavor, is as calorie free as beer can be." - Ad in Holland (Michigan) Evening Sentinel, May 5, 1954
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The Champagne Velvet brand name appeared in 1904. Other brands included 76 Ale, 20 Grand, America's Pride, Barbarossa, Blackhawk, Radium, and, starting in 1957, Red Top.
The CV trademark ended up with G Heilman (brewed in Evansville's Sterling Brewery), then Stroh, Schlitz, and Pabst. They ceased production of CV in the late 1960s. The name was bought back in 2000 at the new Terre Haute Brewery (below).
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Located on the bluff between Water and S. First Streets on a site previously occupied by the home of the Link family. This residence had been changed to a boarding house that rented rooms to "organ grinders, rag pencil peddlers, itinerant musicians and miscellaneous street hawkers".
Brewpub. Founded by Mike and Teri Rowe and Gary and Diane Richards in the same building as the old Terre Haute Brewing Company.