Hamm's Brewery
Encyclopedia
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
. Hamm's breweries were also found in other cities, such as San Francisco.
History
The original Hamm's was established in 1865 when Theodore Hamm, a GermanGermany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
immigrant, inherited the Excelsior Brewery from his friend and business associate, A. F. Keller. Keller had constructed his brewery over artesian wells in a section of the Phalen Creek valley in Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul, Minnesota
Saint Paul is the capital and second-most populous city of the U.S. state of Minnesota. The city lies mostly on the east bank of the Mississippi River in the area surrounding its point of confluence with the Minnesota River, and adjoins Minneapolis, the state's largest city...
, known as Swede Hollow
Swede Hollow
Swede Hollow was a neighborhood of Saint Paul, Minnesota. It was one of a large group of neighborhoods collectively known as the East Side, lying just to the east of the near-downtown Railroad Island neighborhood, and at the northwestern base of Dayton's Bluff...
. Hamm hired Christopher Figg to be his masterbrewer, and by the 1880s the T. Hamm Brewing Company was reckoned the second largest in Minnesota.
His son, William, and grandson, William Jr. inherited the operation in 1903. During Prohibition
Prohibition in the United States
Prohibition in the United States was a national ban on the sale, manufacture, and transportation of alcohol, in place from 1920 to 1933. The ban was mandated by the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution, and the Volstead Act set down the rules for enforcing the ban, as well as defining which...
the company survived by producing soft drinks and other food products, leaving it in a position to expand rapidly through acquisitions after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933. In 1968 the company was acquired by Heublein
Heublein
Heublein Inc. was an American producer and distributor of alcoholic beverages and food throughout the 20th century...
, which sold it to Olympia Brewing Company
Olympia Brewing Company
The Olympia Brewing Company was a brewery in Tumwater, Washington which existed from 1896 until 2003.-History:Leopold Schmidt, a German immigrant from Montana founded The Capital Brewing Company at Tumwater Falls on the Deschutes River in the town of Tumwater, near the south end of Puget Sound...
. Pabst then purchased Olympia along with Hamm's in 1983. Miller Brewing acquired the brand in 1999. Miller was later purchased by South African Breweries and the name changed to SABMiller. Subsequently, SABMiller formed a joint venture combining their US & Puerto Rican assets with those of MolsonCoors to form MillerCoors the current owner and brewer of the Hamm's Brand. MillerCoors now produces three Hamm's Beers, Premium, Golden Draft, and Special Light.
The Hamm's brewery in San Francisco opened in 1954 at 1550 Bryant Street, close to the Seals baseball stadium. The brewery closed in 1972. In the early 1980s, the beer vats were rented out to punk rock bands, and it was a used as music studios until the building was renovated and turned into offices.
Now the legacy of Hamm's beer must live on through it's Hockey team that plays in the HNA (Hockey North America). Please visit them on Facebook search for the Hamms Beermen. You can also find info on the team by going to
Products
Hamm's is often one of the cheapest beers found on the shelf - roughly $10–$12 less than most national brands for a 30-pack is common. This factor has made it enduringly popular with drinkers on a budget, like college students.Several beers are produced: the original Hamm's Premium, a pale lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
; Hamm's Golden Draft; and Hamm's Special Light.
Advertising
The name is most famous not for the company's beverages, however, but for its advertising jingleJingle
A jingle is a short tune used in advertising and for other commercial uses. The jingle contains one or more hooks and lyrics that explicitly promote the product being advertised, usually through the use of one or more advertising slogans. Ad buyers use jingles in radio and television...
and for its mascot
Mascot
The term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
, the Hamm's Beer bear
Hamm's Beer bear
The Hamm's Beer bear was a cartoon mascot used in television production and print advertisements for Hamm's beer. Typically, the bear would dance around in a pastoral setting while the "Land of sky blue waters" jingle was sung in the background...
.
Jingle
The original jingle, with lyrics by Nelle Richmond Eberhart and music by Charles Wakefield Cadman was derived from a 1909 art song entitled "From The Land of Sky-Blue Water." It was first used on radioRadio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
and later extended to television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
. It started with the beating of tom-tom
Tom-tom drum
A tom-tom drum is a cylindrical drum with no snare.Although "tom-tom" is the British term for a child's toy drum, the name came originally from the Anglo-Indian and Sinhala; the tom-tom itself comes from Asian or Native American cultures...
drums, after which a chorus intoned:
- From the Land of Sky Blue Waters,
- From the land of pines' lofty balsams,
- Comes the beer refreshing,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing.
- Brewed where nature works her wonders,
- Aged for many moons, gently mellowed,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing.
- From across the rippling water,
- Through the whisp'ring pines and birches,
- Comes the beer refreshing,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing.
- Comes a call to cool enchantment,
- Comes a call to cool refreshment,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing.
- Hints of lakes and sunset breezes,
- Dance and sparkle in each glassful,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing,
- Hamm's the beer refreshing.
Hamm's Beer bear
Even more famous than the jingle was the Hamm's Beer bearHamm's Beer bear
The Hamm's Beer bear was a cartoon mascot used in television production and print advertisements for Hamm's beer. Typically, the bear would dance around in a pastoral setting while the "Land of sky blue waters" jingle was sung in the background...
. The bear was incorporated into the first campaign produced by the Campbell Mithun
Campbell Mithun
Campbell Mithun is an advertising and marketing firm, founded in 1933 by Ralph Campbell and Ray Mithun. It is now part of Interpublic Group of Communication Companies. The core business is consumer advertising through radio, TV, print, digital, mobile and out-of-home...
advertising agency, which sought to emphasize the supposedly superior cleanliness and naturality of Hamm's beer owing to its clear water and production in pristine Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, the "enchanted Northland." The first television commercial depicted animated beaver
Beaver
The beaver is a primarily nocturnal, large, semi-aquatic rodent. Castor includes two extant species, North American Beaver and Eurasian Beaver . Beavers are known for building dams, canals, and lodges . They are the second-largest rodent in the world...
s beating their tails to the tom-tom beat of the jingle, as well as live action shots of the forests and lakes of the "enchanted Northland." The second, produced in 1952, introduced the clumsy dancing black-and-white cartoon "Beer Bear," actually named "Sascha," which proved so popular it was used for the next three decades. The "Beer Bear" and other woodland creatures were seen many afternoons as Hamm's was the beer sponsor of the Chicago Cubs
Chicago Cubs
The Chicago Cubs are a professional baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League. They are one of two Major League clubs based in Chicago . The Cubs are also one of the two remaining charter members of the National...
and Chicago White Sox
Chicago White Sox
The Chicago White Sox are a Major League Baseball team located in Chicago, Illinois.The White Sox play in the American League's Central Division. Since , the White Sox have played in U.S. Cellular Field, which was originally called New Comiskey Park and nicknamed The Cell by local fans...
in the late 50s and early 60s.
In Culture
In Minnesota after WWII and into mid-century at least, "Hamm's" was a common synonym for beer, as in "It's been a long day -- let's get a Hamm's." Or packing for a summer picnic: "Don't forget to put in the Hamm's!" For older Minnesotans today, it is quite shocking that younger Americans (even those who are beer connoisseurs) have never heard of Hamm's.William Hamm, Jr. was kidnapped in St. Paul, MN by the Barker-Karpis Gang in the 1930s. The investigation of this kidnapping by the FBI featured the first attempt at raising latent fingerprints from paper ransom notes.. The Al Capone
Al Capone
Alphonse Gabriel "Al" Capone was an American gangster who led a Prohibition-era crime syndicate. The Chicago Outfit, which subsequently became known as the "Capones", was dedicated to smuggling and bootlegging liquor, and other illegal activities such as prostitution, in Chicago from the early...
gang attempted to frame-up rival gangster Roger Touhy
Roger Touhy
Roger Touhy was an Irish-American mob boss and prohibition-era bootlegger from Chicago, Illinois. He is best remembered for having been framed for the 1933 faked kidnapping of gangster John "Jake the Barber" Factor, a brother of cosmetics manufacturer Max Factor, Sr...
for this crime.
External links
- Hamm's Club, organization of memorabilia enthusiasts
- Exploring the Hamm's Brewery, Past & Present
- McHale, Dan. "http://www.danmchale.com/Site/36_Views_of_the_Hamms_Brewery.html." Paintings of the Hamm's Brewery in San Francisco (1960s).