Piels Beer
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Piels Beer, aka Piel Bros. Beer and Piel's Beer, is a regional lager beer, originally brewed in Brooklyn, New York. Located in the East New York section of Brooklyn at 315 Liberty Avenue, it was founded in 1883 by the Piel brothers: Gottfried, Michael and Wilhelm Piel. The soft water from Long Island was preferred by German brewers and Breweries in Brooklyn proliferated at this time. Piels union employees are reputed to have been guaranteed ice cold beer on tap 24 hours a day in their union contract. Piels, in its present incarnation, is generally regarded as an inexpensive beer.
[edit] Bert and Harry
In the 1950s, the Piels brewery had a very successful television and radio campaign when the Young & Rubicam ad agency created Bert and Harry Piel, the fictitious animated owners and pitchmen for the brewery. Voices were provided by the comedians Bob and Ray. Harry (Bob Elliott) was tall and soft-spoken, always calming down the short loudmouth Bert (Ray Goulding) when something went wrong. The first Bert and Harry commercials aired December 1955 and ran until 1960. 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. A definitive August 8, 1988, article on beer and sports, "Beer: How It Influences the Games We Play and Watch" (Sports Illustrated) suggests the popularity of the Piels ads actually hurt beer sales because people liked the ads, tried the beer and found out they did not actually enjoy it. Many of the Burt and Harry signs, trays and coasters with slogans (Harry: "Beer anyone?", Bert: "Piels everyone!") are now collectors' items.
[edit] Expansion
In the 1950s, Piels expanded greatly. In 1951, Piels bought Trommer's beer in Bushwick, Brooklyn, and in December 1953 the company bought the plant of Rubsam and Hormann in Stapleton, Staten Island, plus the R&H label. However, in 1955 as sales slowed down the Trommer plant was closed. In 1963, the R&H plant was also closed down. In 1963, the Piel management decided to sell the company, and it was acquired by Associated Brewing Company of Detroit, Michigan. They operated a chain of regional breweries, namely Jacob Schmidt (St. Paul, Minnesota), Sterling Brewers (Evansville, Indiana), Drewry’s (with plants in Chicago, Illinois and South Bend, Indiana) and Hampden-Harvard Breweries (Willimasett, Massachusetts). On September 20, 1973, Piel Bros. plant in East New York was closed down after 90 years of operation. For a short period of time the Willimasett plant, which brewed Piels for sales in New England continued to operate, but then it was shut down. In the 1970s, Schaefer Beer, another Brooklyn based brewer bought the rights to the Piel Brothers label and Schafer continued to brew it at its Brooklyn and Allentown, PA plants. Schaefer was subsequently bought out by Stroh Brewery company of Detroit, Michigan. Under Stroh, Piels sales stabilized for a time, thanks to new and improved package designs and good point of sale advertising. However, Stroh succumbed to marketing pressure from industry giants, Anheuser-Busch and Miller, and threw in the towel after 149 years in business. Most of the Stroh brands, including Piels, were sold to Pabst, which continues to market Piels on a limited basis in New York and the New England states. Piels "Real" Draft and Piels Light were also popular products from this brewery.
Piels tall-neck 12 ounce bottles come in a wax coated cardboard case of 24 that can be filled with ice, negating the need for a cooler. Due to its low cost and fresh taste, Piels is a beer of choice for college aged students in the Northeast US, especially in New York State and New Jersey. It is also popular in lower Delaware, especially the coastal strip from Lewes down to Fenwick Island, and it can also be found in nearby Ocean City, Maryland.
