Stroh's Ice Cream

Last updated
Stroh's
Stroh brand logo.png
Product type Ice cream
Owner Dean Foods
CountryU.S.
Previous owners Stroh Brewery Company

Stroh's Ice Cream is an American brand of ice cream, founded by the Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit. Stroh's' products were manufactured and marketed by Dean Foods, which had acquired the brand in 2007. [1]

Contents

Stroh's Ice Cream is a regional brand distributed mainly in the Midwestern United States. It used to be owned by its namesake company, the Stroh Brewing Company, which had a large presence (and in some cases, like the Detroit area, still has) in this region.

History

Former Stroh's Ice Cream production and distribution facility in Detroit, Michigan Strohicebuilding.jpg
Former Stroh's Ice Cream production and distribution facility in Detroit, Michigan

The Stroh Brewery Company, like many other alcohol-producers in the United States, was left searching for ways to restructure its company at the advent of Prohibition in 1920. With the closing of saloons across the nation, ice cream parlors increased in popularity as a new place for the average man to frequent. Julius Stroh, the head of Stroh's Brewery at the time, decided to convert the beer-brewing facilities of its factory in Detroit to producing non-alcoholic products such as near beer (beer with its alcohol extracted), birch beer, soft drinks, malt products, and ice. It also produced ice cream under the "Alaska" brand. At the end of prohibition in America in 1933, the ice cream operation proved to be popular and profitable enough to continue alongside the brewing operation. [2]

In the early 1980s, Stroh's built a new ice cream production facility on Maple Street in Detroit, right down the road from its main brewery, which was demolished in 1985. Stroh's sold the facility in 1989 as a part of corporate restructuring at Stroh's. The Stroh Brewery Company sold all of its brands to Pabst Brewing Company and the Miller Brewing Company in 1999 and ended brewing operations. Stroh's Ice Cream was run by Melody Farms for several years, all the time keeping the Stroh's name, until that company was purchased by Dean Foods in 2005. [3]

In 2019, Detroit Vineyards, took over Stroh's facility near Eastern Market. [4]

See also

Related Research Articles

Labatt Brewing Company Belgian-owned brewery in Canada

Labatt Brewing Company Limited is a Belgian-owned brewery headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1847, Labatt is the largest brewer in Canada.

Yuengling American brewing company

D. G. Yuengling & Son is the oldest operating brewing company in America, established in 1829. In 2018, by volume of sales, it was the largest craft brewery, sixth largest overall brewery and largest wholly American-owned brewery in the United States. Its headquarters are in Pottsville, Pennsylvania. In 2015, Yuengling produced about 2.9 million barrels, operating two Pennsylvania facilities and a brewery in Tampa, Florida.

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company

The Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was an American brewery based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and once the largest producer of beer in the United States. Its namesake beer, Schlitz, was known as "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" and was advertised with the slogan "When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer". Schlitz first became the largest beer producer in the US in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the 20th century, exchanging the title with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s.

Dubuque Star Brewery United States historic place

The Dubuque Star Brewery, located in Dubuque, Iowa, is a building that for many years made Dubuque Star beers. The brewery is located just north of the Ice Harbor in Dubuque.

Sleeman Breweries

Sleeman Breweries is a Japanese-owned Canadian brewery founded by John Warren Sleeman in 1988 in Guelph, Ontario. The company is the third-largest brewing company in Canada. Along with its own Sleeman brands, the company produces under licence the Stroh's family of brands, Maclays Ale and Sapporo Premium beers for sale in Canada. The company's parent Sapporo owns 4.2 per cent of Ontario's primary beer retailer The Beer Store.

The Stroh Brewery Company was a beer brewery located in Detroit, Michigan, United States. In addition to its own Stroh's brand, the company produced or bought the rights to several other brands including Goebel, Schaefer, Schlitz, Augsburger, Erlanger, Old Style, Lone Star, Old Milwaukee, Red River, and Signature, as well as manufacturing Stroh's Ice Cream. The company was taken over and broken up in 2000, but some of its brands continued to be made by the new owners. The Stroh's brand is currently owned and marketed by Pabst Brewing Company, except in Canada where the Stroh brands are owned by Sleeman Breweries.

Iron City Brewing Company Beer company located in Pennsylvania, US

The Iron City Brewing Company is a beer company that until August 2009 was located in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. On June 11, 2009, it was reported that the brewery was moving their production to Latrobe, Pennsylvania. That move was completed and Iron City is now produced in the former Latrobe Brewery that was once used to produce Rolling Rock.

Beer in Canada Overview of the beer culture in Canada

Beer was introduced to Canada by European settlers in the seventeenth century. The first commercial brewery was La Brasseries du Roy started by New France Intendant Jean Talon, in Québec City in 1668. Many commercial brewers thrived until Prohibition in Canada. The provincial and federal governments' attempt to eliminate "intoxicating" beverages led to the closing of nearly three quarters of breweries between 1878 and 1928. It was only in the second half of the twentieth century that a significant number of new breweries opened up. The Canadian beer industry now plays an important role in Canadian identity, though globalization of the brewing industry has seen the major players in Canada acquired by, or merged with, foreign companies, notably its three largest beer producers, Labatt, Molson and Sleeman. The result is that Moosehead, with an estimated 3.8 percent share of the domestic market in 2016, has become the largest fully Canadian-owned brewer.

Pabst Brewing Company Brewery named after Frederick Pabst

The Pabst Brewing Company is an American company that dates its origins to a brewing company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best and was, by 1889, named after Frederick Pabst. It is currently a holding company which contracts the brewing of over two dozen brands of beer and malt liquor: these include its own flagship Pabst Blue Ribbon, as well as brands from now defunct breweries including P. Ballantine and Sons Brewing Company, G. Heileman Brewing Company, Lone Star Brewing Company, Pearl Brewing Company, Piels Bros., Valentin Blatz Brewing Company, National Brewing Company, Olympia Brewing Company, Falstaff Brewing Corporation, Primo Brewing & Malting Company, Rainier Brewing Company, F & M Schaefer Brewing Company, Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, Jacob Schmidt Brewing Company and Stroh Brewery Company. About half of the beer produced under Pabst's ownership is Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, with the other half their other owned brands.

Henry Weinhards

Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve and Blitz-Weinhard were brands of beer first brewed in 1856 in Portland, Oregon. The brewery was owned by the brewer Henry Weinhard of the Weinhard family, who also made a line of soft drinks which survives to this day.

Genesee Brewing Company

Genesee Brewing Company is an American brewery located along the Genesee River in Rochester, New York. In 1878, Genesee Brewing Company moved up into Rochester. From 2000 to 2009, the company was known as the High Falls Brewing Company. In 2009, High Falls was acquired by the capital investment firm KPS Capital. Together with also newly acquired Labatt USA, KPS merged the two companies as North American Breweries. Along with this change, High Falls Brewery changed its name back to the original "Genesee Brewing Company" operating under the North American Breweries name. In October 2012, North American Breweries was purchased by FIFCO

Lion Brewery, Inc. United States historic place

Lion Brewery, Inc, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, is one of the oldest breweries still in operation within Pennsylvania. Its beers and sodas are sold in Pennsylvania and neighboring states.

National Bohemian

National Bohemian Beer, colloquially Natty Boh, is an American lager originating from Baltimore, Maryland. It was first brewed in 1885 by the National Brewing Company, but was eventually purchased by Pabst Brewing Company.

G. Heileman Brewing Company American brewing company

The G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, United States, was a brewery firm that operated from 1858 to 1996. It was ultimately acquired by Stroh's, and its independent existence ceased. From 1872 until its acquisition, the brewery bore the family name of its co-founder and brewer Gottlieb Heileman.

Hudepohl Brewing Company is a brewery established in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1885 by founder Ludwig Hudepohl II. Hudepohl was the son of Ludwig Hudepohl who emigrated from Malgarten, Kingdom of Hannover, in 1838. Ludwig II had worked in the surgical tool business before starting his brewery. Hudepohl combined with Schoenling Brewing Company in 1986. Today, the Hudepohl-Schoenling Brewing Company is a wholly owned subsidiary of Christian Moerlein Brewing Company.

National Brewing Company United States historic place

The National Brewing Company was an American brewing company that was founded in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1885. Its Baltimore brewery was located in the city's Highlandtown neighborhood. After World War II, it grew to be the largest brewer in Baltimore history 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.

Weinhard Brewery Complex Historic building complex in Portland, Oregon, U.S.

The Henry Weinhard Brewery complex, also the Cellar Building and Brewhouse and Henry Weinhard's City Brewery, is a former brewery in Portland, Oregon. Since 2000, it has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. In that same year, construction began to reuse the property as a multi-block, mixed-use development known as the Brewery Blocks.

The Storz Brewing Company was located at 1807 North 16th Street in North Omaha, Nebraska. Established from a company started in 1863, Storz Brewing began in 1876 by Gottlieb Storz and was owned by the Storz family until 1966; the brewery ceased operations in 1972. Their beers won several prizes in international competitions, and Storz was the top selling brand in Nebraska starting in World War II. Storz was one of the "Big 4" brewers located in Omaha, which also included the Krug, Willow Springs and Metz breweries. On August 8, 2013, it was announced the brand would be revived by Tom Markel, nephew of Monnie Storz Markel, the granddaughter of Gottlieb Storz, with his cousin John Markel, son of Monnie Storz Markel as investor.

The Kingsbury Breweries Company was founded in 1847, at which time it was the Kunz & Bleser Brewing Company. The main location was Manitowoc, Wisconsin, with other locations in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and St. Paul, Minnesota. In 1926, the firm was sold to the Manitowoc Products Company and was known as the Gutsch Brewery.

Jax Brewing Company

Jax Brewing Company, originally Jacksonville Brewing Company, was a regional brewery in Jacksonville, Florida operating from 1913 to 1956. It was the second brewery to open in the state, after Florida Brewing Company in Tampa in 1896.

References

  1. Stroh's Ice Cream site gets spirited reboot as Detroit distillery by Robert Allen on Detroit Free Press, 6 Sep 2016
  2. Blum, Peter H. (1999). Brewed in Detroit: Breweries and Beers Since 1830, p. 72. Wayne State University Press.
  3. Detroit News staff (February 28, 2007). "Stroh's ice cream plant will close". The Detroit News . Retrieved 2011-04-24.
  4. Detroit Vineyards takes over old Stroh's Ice Cream facility, first winery since Prohibition at Click on Detroit, 2 Apr 2019