Wow three Albany Ale posts in a row! This is a little one, but still—three!
Far be it from me to suggest that some modern craft brewers have...how shall I put this...drank their own Kool-Aid. Don't get me wrong, I'd never not think that the newest urea-spiked IPA, couldn't possibly be the best-est—and in turn think that whatever innovative and passionate brewery out there that's making such a innovative and passionate concoction must, of course, be the best-est, as well.
All kidding aside, doing a little 18th-century research for our upcoming book on the history of brewing in the Upper Hudson Valley and the Albany Ale Project website revealed that maybe, just maybe, tooting one's beery horn isn't such a new phenomenon.
A little background, first.
William D. Faulkner began his brewing career in New York City in the late 1760s. Faulkner initially partnered with New York City merchant Leonard Lipsenard—the son of Albany brewer Anthony Lipsenard—to sell bottled ale and beer on Manhattan; then with Stephen Rapalje and Anthony Ten Eyck. By 1771 he had opened his own brewery on Cow-foot hill, in what is now modern-day Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. A fire in his New York brewery brought about his relocation to Albany, and in 1790 Faulkner opened a brewery in the city’s northern neighborhood of Arbor Hill—advertising Ales, Porter, Bottled Ales and Spruce Beer.
And with an ad like this from the Albany Register of November 27, 1790 , how could he go wrong...
I wonder why? His ad was both passionate and innovative.
Far be it from me to suggest that some modern craft brewers have...how shall I put this...drank their own Kool-Aid. Don't get me wrong, I'd never not think that the newest urea-spiked IPA, couldn't possibly be the best-est—and in turn think that whatever innovative and passionate brewery out there that's making such a innovative and passionate concoction must, of course, be the best-est, as well.
All kidding aside, doing a little 18th-century research for our upcoming book on the history of brewing in the Upper Hudson Valley and the Albany Ale Project website revealed that maybe, just maybe, tooting one's beery horn isn't such a new phenomenon.
A little background, first.
William D. Faulkner began his brewing career in New York City in the late 1760s. Faulkner initially partnered with New York City merchant Leonard Lipsenard—the son of Albany brewer Anthony Lipsenard—to sell bottled ale and beer on Manhattan; then with Stephen Rapalje and Anthony Ten Eyck. By 1771 he had opened his own brewery on Cow-foot hill, in what is now modern-day Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan. A fire in his New York brewery brought about his relocation to Albany, and in 1790 Faulkner opened a brewery in the city’s northern neighborhood of Arbor Hill—advertising Ales, Porter, Bottled Ales and Spruce Beer.
And with an ad like this from the Albany Register of November 27, 1790 , how could he go wrong...
BREWERY
Whereas it hath been universally wished by the inhabitants of the city of Albany and its vicinity, that some gentleman, fully master of the BREWING BUSINESS would enter thereon, the Subscriber, at the request of his Friends, informs them and the Public in general, that he has commenced that Business at the Brewery (late of the property Paul Hochstrasser) upper end or Arbor-Hill. As he was regularly bred to that Philosophic Branch in England, and followed it twenty-five years in this country, he flatters himself, his Porter, Ale and Beer will meet with general appropriation, as prior to his Brewery being destroyed by fire, they always bore the greatest eclat, not only in New-York, but also in Charleston, South Carolina, and the West-Indies.Interestingly, by 1792, William Gibbs, announced that he would be occupying the brewery. There is no record of William Faulkner operating a brewery in Albany after that point.
WILLIAM D. FAULKNERAlbany, October 11, 1790
I wonder why? His ad was both passionate and innovative.
Marketing and beer go together like love and marriage used to. I wonder what happened to Mr. Faulkner, perhaps he went back to England…
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