Piels Beer

Michael (born in Stoffeln, Düsseldorf am Rhein, Germany, March 29, 1849; died at Lake Parlin, Maine, June 12, 1915) was the brewer.

The impressions on the country boy of his years of service at Berlin, which had already begun to modernize its industries, lingered and served constantly to stimulate his natural gifts of invention.

The brothers, as a partnership, secured the title to a small old-style brewing plant, then in disuse, and set to work converting it to newer ideas.

By 1888, the ability of Gottfried as the financial head of the firm, and the excellence of Michael's products helped them prosper and the partnership became a corporation in 1898, and they gained a national reputation.

The demand for the products of the plant — a typical German beer was then a novelty in the American brewing industry — necessitated enlarged facilities.

The brewery's reputation spread abroad, and for years brewing academicians, experts, and scientists from Europe and South America visited to study Michael's work.

The plant enjoyed the distinction, as the result of Michael's constant scientific advances in his field, of the continued exchange with European authorities of German brewing ideas, a unique achievement for an American manufacturer.

Michael retired from active management as the technical head of the corporation in 1900, devoting his last years to the acquisition of German paintings of hunting scenes.

Harry (Bob Elliott) was tall and soft-spoken, always calming down the short loudmouth Bert (Ray Goulding) whenever something went wrong.

[3] Like most regional breweries – including its New York competitors Ballantine, Schaefer, and Ruppert – Piels was facing an influx of national brands such as Schlitz, Pabst, and Budweiser.

These brands, backed by massive advertising campaigns, began infiltrating Piels' primary sales territory and slowly overtook the market.

This was coupled with a disastrous 81-day brewery strike in 1949 that allowed out-of-town brewers to establish a foothold in New York City and helped to end the Piels dynasty.