The National Brewing Company was an American brewing company that was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885. Its Baltimore brewery was located between Dillon, Conkling and O'Donnell Streets in the city's Highlandtown neighborhood. After World War II, it grew to be the largest brewer in Baltimore and its advertising, including one-eyed mascot "Mr. Boh" and its slogan "From the Land of Pleasant Living", became part of the folk culture of the Baltimore area. In 1975, National Brewing Company was acquired by Carling O'Keefe. The combined firm, renamed Carling National Breweries, Inc., continued to operate the Highlandtown brewery until 1978, when it was closed and production moved to a nearby brewery in Halethorpe, Baltimore County that had been built by Carling in 1961. The National Brewing Company brands continued to be produced at the Halethorpe plant until 1996. Since 2001, the company’s two most prominent brands, National Bohemian Beer and Colt 45, have been brewed for Pabst Brewing Company at several breweries. The complex was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. It is located in the Brewers Hill Historic District.
History
The National Brewing Company site was first used in beer production in the 1850s, when brewer John Baier rented land at O'Donnell and Conklin Streets in Lager Beer Hill into which beer storage cellars were dug. After Baier's death in 1866, his widow Anna Maria Baier continued to operate his brewery, which was located on Canton Avenue. Anna later married Frederick Wunder and by 1872 they had built a brewery on the National Brewing site that was known as Wunder's Brewery. In 1885, the Wunder Brewery was sold at foreclosure sale to members of the Straus family, who later incorporated the business as the National Brewing Company. In 1885, National Brewery Company began brewing their flagship National Bohemian beer by the barrel. Nevertheless, they were still considered one of the city's smaller breweries. The brewery itself, still showing signs of stables from the days of horse-drawn beer wagons, was in dire need of renovations. Unavoidably, National Brewing Company was forced to shut down with the onset of the 13 year Prohibition in 1920; larger competitors, however, such as Gunther and Globe Brewing, managed to sidestep Prohibition by producing near beer.
Shortly after Prohibition was overturned on April 7, 1933, Samuel Hoffberger acquired and modernized the company, thereby reviving the National Brewing Company. When his son, Jerold Hoffberger, returned from World War II in 1945, Hoffberger made him treasurer of the company at age 26. A year later, Jerold was named President of the National Brewing Company, a position he would hold for 28 years. At the time, the company was producing approximately 230,000 barrels of beer.
Market expansion
It was also around this time that Mr. Boh, a one-eyed mascot with a handlebar mustache designed by public relations director Donald Fenahgen, came to endorse National Bohemian as the beer “From the Land of Pleasant Living.” This notion was later adopted by the company's jingle, which boasted how National beer was proudly “brewed on the shores of the Chesapeake Bay.” The brewery was quickly gaining a name for itself and, in the late 1940s, National became the first to place six-packs of canned beer on the market. National Bohemian, likewise, gained prominence in 1954, when Jerold Hoffberger created the Baltimore Orioles and began marketing “Natty Boh” at Memorial Stadium. National Bohemian would ultimately become the official sponsor of the Baltimore Orioles and the official beer of Baltimore. In 1963, National Brewing Company started brewing Colt 45. Prior to its advent, the only major national brand of malt liquor was Country Club. To emblemize its "extra kick" compared with competing brands, Colt 45 was accordingly labeled with a kicking horse and horse shoe. By the end of the decade, National Brewing Company, squeezed by high prices and increasing competition, could no longer afford to be an independent entity.
Mergers and acquisitions
In 1975, National Brewing merged with Carling Brewing Company in an attempt to save both companies. Although the Hoffbergers managed to sell their beer holdings for more than $16 million, Jerold Hoffberger stayed on as head of Carling-National Breweries. At the time, National had two breweries and Carling had seven; together they had the capacity to brew 1.9 million 31-gallon barrels a year, making it the 9th largest brewery of its kind in the country. Nevertheless, as Carling-National experienced a sharp decline in sales their first year, a merger with Pabst Brewing Company was subsequently proposed. The court, however, arguing that the fusion of the two companies would result in a monopoly, denied the merger. Merely three years later, Carling-National was sold to G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin and the former brewing facility of Brewer's Hill was closed. Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan later bought over the rights from Heileman in 1996. National Bohemian beer has not been brewed in Baltimore since.
21st century
As of today, the brewery has been converted to business and office spaces as a part of the Brewers Hill redevelopment project by Obrecht Commercial Real Estate. National Bohemian, now only “National” in name, is brewed in North Carolina by Miller Brewing, under a contract agreement with Pabst Brewing Company of San Antonio, Texas. In late 2011, it was announced that the National Premium label would be revived under the ownership of an Easton, Maryland, based entrepreneur. Using the same recipe as the original, is now brewed under contract for The National Brewing Company by Coastal Brewing in Delaware. The National Premium brand is independent and has no relationship with the present-day National Bohemian, which is owned by Pabst.
