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History:
Phoenix Brewery Article:
We wish
to thank Bob Pawlak for writing the following article
on The Phoenix Brewery of Bay City. We also wish to
express our appreciation to the National Association
Breweriana Advertising (NABA) for permission to reproduce
this article here. The photos appear courtesy of the
Dog Gone Good chapter of the NABA. You can check them
out at www.mi-brew.com.
Bay City’s
Phoenix Brewery
By Bob Pawlak
Phoe-nix
(fee-niks). A mythical bird of great beauty fabled to
live 500 to 600 years in the Arabian wilderness, burned
itself on a funeral pyre, only to rise alive from the
ashes to live through another cycle of years: often
an emblem of immortality or of reborn idealism or hope.
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The Phoenix
Brewery of Bay City, Michigan did just that – rising from
a destructive fire in 1896 and emerging as a brand new brewery
in 1898 with added capacity. The former West Bay City Brewing
Company adopted a name change and featured the mythic bird,
rising from a flame, as its new logo.
The brewery
was established in 1865 when John Rosa cleared a site on the
banks of the Saginaw River, facing Arbor Street, in what was
then West Bay City. The original name is unrecorded, but in
1868 it was known as the West Bay City Brewing Company, with
John Rosa and Andrew Fink listed as partners. Initial annual
production is listed as 5,000 barrels per year. Mr. John Kohler
and Jacob Knobloch were later listed as partners in the brewery.
Prior to the 1896 fire, there were a number of ownership changes.
Upon rebuilding,
the new facility’s capacity was increased to 20,000 barrels
per year. Frank Mohr was listed as president, Julius Kaiser,
vice-president, and Louis Hine secretary-treasurer and general
manager. Under their leadership, Phoenix was “known far and
wide as makers of the famous HIGH GRADE, the brand that is
always the same”.
Bay City, at
that time, had two other breweries – the Kolb Brewing Co.
and the Bay City Brewing Co., with which the Phoenix Brewery
was in direct competition. Phoenix was distinguished from
the others through its amber-colored bottles and a picture
of a large eagle on the front label. The eagle became synonymous
with Phoenix and at least two chalkware versions of the rising
eagle are extremely rare and much sought after among Phoenix
breweriana collectors and statue collectors alike.
Like other
breweries at the time, the Phoenix suffered with the onset
of Prohibition and the partnership of Mohr/Kaiser/Hine was
dissolved in 1917. The brewery had to shift focus to viable
alternatives to stay afloat, and turned to producing and selling
malt extract. The malt extract was sold around the country
as well as to the local population for the production of “home
brew”, which was allowed under Prohibition. Malt extract was
sold in five-gallon cans, under the name H.H. Behren’s Malt
Extract Co., until 1933, when Prohibition ended.
Hans Behrens
was the brew master for the Phoenix Brewery from 1910 until
1918, succeeding the late Julius Kaiser. Mr. Behrens left
Bay City and worked for the Home Brewing Company and the Woolner
Brewing Company in Toledo, Ohio until 1921. Upon his return
to Bay City, Mr. Behrens was employed by the Kolb Brewing
Co., supervising the production of “near beer”. In 1925, he
purchased the Phoenix Brewery and continued to sell malt extract
until the end of Prohibition. When Prohibition ended, Behrens
re-formed the Phoenix Brewing Company with Mr. Fred Vollbrecht.
When that partnership dissolved, he formed a partnership with
his sons, Erwin and Jack, and son-in-law Emmons Riegel.
In 1943, the
storage capacity of the Phoenix plant was increased to 40,000,
with annual production of 30,000 barrels produced under the
PHOENIX BEER trade name. The rise of the nationally-advertised
competitors spelled the demise of the Phoenix, unable to keep
up. Both of the other two Bay City Breweries had already closed
their doors (Kolb in 1939 and Bay City Brewery in 1943). The
Phoenix was able to keep its doors open until 1952.
 The
buildings that were used to pump out thousands of gallons
of beer remained and had a variety of occupants until the
early sixties when a cleaning supply business purchased the
property. The huge brewery vats are still used for the production
of cleaning detergents by the current owners. A 24-foot smokestack
from the brewery was deemed a safety hazard and was toppled
and removed in 1999. Scavengers are reported to have discovered
the fragments of hundreds of broken Phoenix beer bottles among
the debris. Just prior to Christmas, 2004, a wrecking ball
sent red brink and wood fragments flying as the south end
of the plant was crushed. This section had been condemned
by city officials.
All that remains
of the Phoenix Brewery today is the section that was once
the bottling house of the plant. The age of the building and
its proximity to the Saginaw River make the site desirable
for potential development and its demise is just a matter
of time, according to its current owner. There are still a
small handful of Bay City residents that are former employees
of the Phoenix, but their recollections and stories are slowly
going the way of the brewery itself, crumbling and fading
away.
More History:
Phoenix
Brewery Photos:
1934 Bay
City Champs! Go Nix's!
1935 Labor
Day Celebration:
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