Our History

Peter Doelger, Jr. — Our first President and one of the founders!

Peter Doelger, Sr. was one of the brewers at that time. Originally migrating to America from Bavaria in 1850, Doelger got into the brewing business when he decided to open a small brewery in 1859 at 101 Avenue A. Before long, his business expanded and flourished in the booming beer scene.

Amidst a city filled with fascination for beer, breweries began to face liabilities that occurred during delivery operations. Ideas floated around the area for a cooperation between breweries to assist in these liabilities. Our records indicate city-wide brewers meetings of the “Brewers’ Indemnity Fund Association” as early as April 16, 1897, but suggest meetings for years prior! Doelger was a key figure at these meetings, along with his son who shared his name.

Peter Doelger, Jr. soon became a prominent leader at the meetings, making his way to the top upon election to the Board of Trustees and as Vice President of the Association in 1898. Unfortunately, Peter Doelger, Sr. passed away in 1912 before seeing the Company incorporate on March 7, 1914. This unique trade-based insurance company began writing policies for workmen's compensation on July 1st that same year.

As for the Peter Doelger Brewing Corporation — the New York Food Museum highlights that Doelger, Jr. moved the business to Harrison, NJ in the 1920s after Prohibition ended. Although it went out of business in 1947, the Doelgers hold a place in New York City’s brewing history!

Jacob Ruppert

One of Interboro’s original Board of Directors, Jake Ruppert was born to Bavarian immigrants in New York in 1842. His father, Franz, owned a small brewery on the west side of Manhattan. Jake began working there as a child, absorbing everything he could about business and brewing. By the age of twenty, he was confident enough in his knowledge to ask his father’s permission to start his own brewery. The answer of course was yes, and brewing history was to be made.

Jake bought a piece of property, ironically within blocks of Ehret’s Brewery (George Ehret was known as the first great brewer in America), and built a tiny fifty square foot building. It was there that he made his first batch of beer. He aptly christened the structure The Jacob Ruppert Brewery.  In his first year he sold just over 5,000 barrels, making his fledgling business a success. Always proud of that first year’s production, Jake later was to often brag to his own son, “Jacob, my ambition was to sell 5,000 barrels of beer in a year and I did it!”  “Pop,” young Jake is reported to have answered after hearing the boast once too often, “My ambition is to sell 5,000 barrels of beer a day!”   

Jake’s sales rose steadily every year due not only to his beer’s high quality, but also to his unparalleled salesmanship. He saw the value of social contracts and joined every German organization he could find. He was especially fond of joining singing societies. He didn’t have much of a voice but he had great pitch — sales pitch, that is. Besides, he concluded, singing always brought on a large thirst.  

Making a sale was always the key for Jake. He was one of the first in the beer business to thoroughly train his salesmen, including lining their pockets with expense money to lavish on potential customers. He also supplied them with an assortment of stories and jokes to enhance their sales spiel. Jake was creating his own course in Beer Marketing 101.

In addition to his business acumen, Jake prided himself on being a responsible father. He sent his son, young Jake, to grammar school, from which he proudly graduated. Immediately after, however, young Jake was allowed to work full-time at the brewery. Young Jake climbed through the ranks and emerged in 1890 as the brewery’s general manager. He was now in control of a vast plant that produced well over a half a million barrels a year. He took particular interest in the refinement of the brewery’s flagship brands, Knickerbocker and Ruppert’s Extra Pale, tweaking their recipe to ever increasing popularity.

Young Jake also followed in his father’s footsteps by joining every ethnic and civic organization he could find. His efforts were rewarded not only with record sales but with political clout. His elite social status was assured when he was personally made a New York State Colonel (rarer by far than the Kentucky version) by then-Governor David Hill.

By the turn of the century the Rupperts were reaping huge profits. In an era before income tax, they had become truly wealthy. Young Jake, now often just called The Colonel, became the toast of New York. He dressed in the latest and most expensive fashions; he developed a fondness for valuable antiques; he had a stable of fine (looking, not running) thoroughbred racehorses. Indeed, so deep ran his love of the sport of kings that it wasn’t uncommon for him to tide over a bar owner who said he couldn’t pay this month’s bill because “I bet on the Colonel’s horse.”

In 1913 the Rupperts made their final great expansion. On the same site that three decades earlier old Jake had constructed his first brewery, Colonel Jake built an enormous, modern plant of 2 million barrels capacity. Speakers at the dedication called it the finest brewery in the world. It was valued at over $30 million and employed more than 1,000 men. The Colonel’s brewery was now an integral component of the entire New York economy.

The brewery’s workers were sometimes put on double shifts, as 1914 saw America drink more beer than ever before. As the profits rolled in, Colonel Jake took a small part of the money and bought the New York American League baseball team, the Yankees. Yes, those Yankees.  

Years later, as the fans came in droves to watch the Colonel’s recently purchased player, one Babe Ruth, the ballpark became the single largest seller of Ruppert beer in the nation. The Colonel understood the synergy of sports and beer long before modern advertising agencies.

Sadly, with Prohibition on the horizon, things would soon forever change for both Ehret and Ruppert. The passage of the 18th Amendment would definitively end these golden days of New York beer. Days that, sadly, have never returned. Need proof? Just try to get a free lunch with your beer today.