H. & J. Pfaff Brewing Company

Last updated
H. & J. Pfaff Brewing Company [1]
Industry Alcoholic beverage
Founded1857 [1]
FounderHenry Pfaff; Jacob Pfaff [1] [2]
Headquarters
Boston, Massachusetts
,
USA
Products Lager, Beer

The H. & J. Pfaff Brewing Company was a brewery founded by brothers Henry and Jacob Pfaff in 1857, in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. [1] [2]

Contents

Pfaff Family

Henry and Jacob Pfaff were children of German immigrants, Carl and Katherine Pfaff. [3] The family moved from Hochspeyer, Bavaria to the United States in 1834. [3] [4]

Jacob Pfaff married Hannah Adams in 1854 and had two children, Charles and Adrienne. [3]

On February 20, 1900, Jacob Pfaff died at 71 years old. [3]

Brewery

Henry and Jacob Pfaff began the brewery in 1857. [5] The company started with eight men and in the first year they brewed 6,000 barrels of lager. [6] Compared to German lager, Pfaff's beer was a lighter lager with a shorter fermentation time. [7] In the Boston Daily Globe, the H. & J. Brewery Company was said to be "among the first to introduce light beer to New England People." [7]

Before the company had electric refrigeration, they connected cold air shafts from the beer storage vats to the ice storage space. By 1907 the plant did everything "from the grinding of the malt to the filling of the packages with the finished beer." [6]

In 1888, H. & J. Pfaff Brewing Company was valued at $200,000. [8]

In 1900, H. & J. Brewery Co. merged with nine other Boston-area breweries to create the Mass Breweries Company with Charles Pfaff as the president. [9]

Controversy

In the spring of 1890, Brewer's Union No.4 started a boycott against eight brewerines in the Boston area, including the "scab" beer made by H. & J. Pfaff Brewery Company. The union was demanding eight hour work days, raises, and safer working conditions. [10]

Advertisements

H. & J. Pfaff Brewery Company advertised in the Boston Globe. The slogans used included "Best Brewed Because Brewed Best" [11] and "Pfaff's Beer Pfor the Pfastidious." [12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 American Publishing and Engraving Co. (1894), Boston and Bostonians, New York, N.Y.: American Pub. and Engraving Co, p. 223
  2. 1 2 Roberts, Oliver Ayer (1898), History of the Military company of the Massachusetts, now called The Ancient and Honorable Company of Massachusetts. Volume III. 1637–1888., Boston, Massachusetts: Alfred Mudge & Son Printers, p. 239
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Death of Jacob Pfaff". Boston Daily Globe. February 21, 1900. p. 9. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  4. ↑ "Our Business Pioneers, Men Who Built Up Industrial New England, Jacob Pfaff Who Was Among The First To Introduce Light Beer To New England People". Boston Daily Globe. January 13, 1917. p. 6. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  5. ↑ "Death of Jacob Pfaff". Boston Daily Globe. February 21, 1900. p. 9. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  6. 1 2 "Pfaff Breweries Have Grown in 50 Years From Small Beginning to Mammoth Proportions". Boston Sunday Post. October 13, 1907. p. 42. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  7. 1 2 "Our Business Pioneers, Men Who Built Up Industrial New England, Jacob Pfaff Who Was Among The First To Introduce Light Beer To New England People". Boston Daily Globe. January 13, 1917. p. 6. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  8. ↑ "BEER BARONS. Men Who Have Made Big Fortunes. Who They Are and How They Live. All of Them Got Rich in a Few Years. Extensive Plants and Vast Private Estates. Reminiscences of the Days When Beer Was Sold From a Cart". Boston Sunday Globe. November 11, 1888. p. 20. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  9. ↑ "Breweries Combine: Ten Boston Concerns Merge as the Massachusettes Breweries Company". The New York Times. August 8, 1900. p. 9.
  10. ↑ "WILL WORK ONLY EIGHT HOURS.: CHICAGO CARPENTERS STRIKE AGAINST THE EMPLOYER'S DEMANDS--HOW THE BREWERS' FIGHT PROGRESSES--BUILDING LABORERS. ROXBURY BREWERS' FIGHT. EARNEST APPEAL TO BOSTON WORKINGMEN NOT TO DRINK "SCAB" BEER. NO OPPOSITION FROM D. A. 30. BUILDING LABORERS' STRIKE. HORSESHOERS GRADUALLY SUCCEEDING. LABOR MEETINGS. CENTRAL LABOR LYCEUM". Boston Daily Globe (1872-1922). June 14, 1887. p. 2.
  11. ↑ "This is the Era of Sanitation". Boston Sunday Post. p. 9. Retrieved October 30, 2025.
  12. ↑ ""Pfaff's Beer Pfor the Pfastidious"". Boston Evening Globe. November 10, 1915. p. 8. Retrieved October 30, 2025.

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