More Than One Hundred Years of Beer!
Part of the NBIM’s Cremo collection: bottles of Cremo and Manhattan label beer, promotional trays and bottle openers, and even a brick from the old Belden Street brewery. New Britain Industrial Museum Digital Archive.
Happy International Beer Day! Did you know that New Britain has a more than one hundred year history of brewing beer?
It started in 1903, when the John Zunner Health Beer Company (also known as the Consumers Brewery) and was founded by John Zunner of Hartford. The brewery, erected on Belden Street, was only in operation for fourteen months, during which time lager, ale and porter were all brewed. When the business failed in 1905, tavern owner John Skritulsky stepped in and took over, rebranding the company as the now-iconic Cremo Brewing Co., incorporating in 1911. At the time, a bottle of beer only cost five cents!
Cremo Brewing was fined $100,00 for violating liquor laws after investigators found full-strength beer being served at taverns in Massachusetts. The Hartford Courant; May 25, 1922; via ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
The company did good business until Prohibition, at which time they received a license to brew “near-beer”, a malt liquor that does not contain enough alcohol to be considered an alcoholic beverage, or less than half a percent of alcohol by volume. Within two years, however, it was discovered that Cremo was brewing full-strength beer, and was fined $100,000 for violating the Volstead Act. Barrels of beer had been discovered in Connecticut and Massachusetts, and traced back to New Britain. More than 8000 barrels were removed from the premises and dumped into the sewer. Plant superintendent Thomas Morton said the agents must have taken the barrels before the alcohol was removed, but investigating agents stated that they had also taken samples from saloons in Massachusetts that were selling Cremo Beer. Cremo then closed and did not re-open until Prohibition was repealed in 1933.
Cremo Baseball Team, c. 1933-1938. New Britain Industrial Museum Digital Archive.
The grand re-opening in 1933 saw more than five thousand attendees who toured the brewery and enjoyed free beer, courtesy of newly-hired brewmaster Oscar Brockert. The brand became a staple of local taverns and homes, and throughout the 1930s and 40s, the company saw record profits. They sponsored a semi-professional baseball team and even a 15-minute radio show beginning in the 1940s. They also began distributing beer under two new labels: Diplomat and Manhattan.
The Belden St. brewery building three years after the company closed its doors for the final time. Courtesy of Ernie Oest and Bob Kay, beercanhistory.com.
The success was not to last, however. Employees began striking for better conditions and wages beginning in 1947, and again in 1949. The brewery began to lose money, and customers complained that the taste of the beer was inconsistent. In 1955, the company was fined for filthy conditions in the warehouse, including the discovery of rat excreta in bags of malt. While the conditions were corrected, after years of corporate infighting, strikes, and more than $135,000 of corporate debt, the stockholders voted to dissolve the 50-year-old business. The Belden street brewery building changed hands several times over the years, before finally being demolished in January of 2002.
It wasn’t until 2017 when Chris DeGasero of Alvarium Brewing Co. and Rob Metz of Avery’s Beverages teamed up shortly after Alvarium’s opening to revive the New Britain staple that Cremo beer began flowing once more. You can now find Cremo Sparkling Ale at Alvarium’s taproom on their permanent menu, or purchase it in local package stores. Alvarium was joined by Five Churches Brewing in 2018, and the two breweries have made New Britain a craft beer hub for Connecticut.
