Wild West Brewing Co.

Wild West Brewing Co. updated their website address.

Merry Christmas!!🎁🎄

Have a Happy Thanksgiving from your friends at Wild West Brewing Company!

It's been a while since we posted anything......had to get use to life with a newborn baby which has been great! Now back to Beer Fun once again!
We just got back from picking up a True GDM-12 Refrigerator that will allow us to Lager brews to the exact temperatures that are needed. We are very excited about this new addition and hope to have some brew in it very soon!
All that is needed now is to weld up the new Brew Cart that will hold our Electric Brewing System.

Happy Easter Everyone!!!

Leather and Wild West go hand in hand🍻

Happy New Year to all!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!!

We are adding another very cool piece of history to our collection! Here is a Common Stock Certificate from the Norfolk & Western Railroad Company from 1886.

A large part of scripophily is the area of financial history. Over the years there have been millions of companies which needed to raise money for their business. In order to do so, the founders of these companies issued securities. Generally speaking, they either issued an equity security in the form of stock or a debt security in the form of a bond. However, there are many varieties of equity and debt instruments. They can be common stock, preferred stock, warrants, cumulative preferred stocks, bonds, zero-coupon bonds, long term bonds (over 15 years) and any combination thereof.

Each certificate is a piece of history about a company and its business. Some companies became major successes, while others were acquired and merged with other companies. Some companies and industries were successful until they were replaced by new technologies. Some companies have been the center of scandal or fraud. The color, paper, signatures, dates, stamps, cancellations, borders, pictures, vignettes, industry, stock broker, name of company, transfer agent, printer, and holder name all add to the uniqueness of the hobby.

A lot of companies either were never successful or went bankrupt, so that their certificates became worthless pieces of paper until the hobby of scripophily began. The mining boom in the 1850s, railroad construction in the 1830s, the oil boom in the 1870s, telegraphy (1850s), the automobile industry beginning around 1900, aviation (around 1910), electric power and banks in the 1930s, the airline wars and mergers in the 1970s, cellular telephones (1980s), long distance telephone service in the 1980s and 1990s, and most recently the Dot-com era and Enron all resulted in historically significant certificates being generated and issued.

Today, more stocks and bonds are issued electronically, meaning fewer paper certificates are issued as a percentage of actual stock issued. The Internet has played a dramatic role in raising awareness of the hobby. A number of websites now exist that sell old stocks and bonds to include scripophily.com and oldstocks.com.

Adding to the Wild West Historic Artifact Collection is this awesome Morgan Liberty Silver Dollar Coin with with a Swank Coin Clip holding it.

The Morgan Silver dollars represent the best in silver coin manufacturing at its time. It's the most valuable of the silver coins the United States has minted in the late 1800's and early 1900's partly because of it's size, and silver content.
This is not a coin you want to carry around in your pocket normally. At near 27 grams and an inch and a half in diameter this baby is large and heavy by modern day coin standards.

Holding this beautiful coin is a Swank Inc Money Clip, this company has been making high quality mens accessories since 1897 and represents quality as it's products are designed to while being elegant.

The date on the Coin also has a special significance to it.....1887 was the year the "Buffalo Bill Cody" took his Wild West Show international as it debuted in London on this year, sharing the adventures of the Wild West to people from a far.

Once we get our Brewery together we will also have some really great BBQ food as well. We are currently building a BBQ Trailer.....but it's always good to play with smaller systems so here is our new Horizontal Smoker.

Follow along as we build our All Grain 10 Gallon Electric Piolt Brewing System for our test batch system!

Another addition to the Wild West Brewing Co's Historic Artifact Collection, a Wreden's Lager bottle from Oakland California. It has been hard to find information on this exact bottle, we have seen others that are the same with the 1900 date so this is the reason we listed it as such. We did though find some information of a brewing family from the San Fransisco are which we believe might have been the same brewing family.

(http://www.christinewitzel.com/geneaology/wreden-brewery)

The Wreden Brewery

When Emma married CFE Witzel, she became the daughter-in-law of Anna Wilhemia Wreden, wife of John Frederick Witzel. Unlike the Belgian De Booms, the Witzels came from Oldenberg and Wredens from Lintig in Germany, which occasionally led to socially awkward moments between the European-born generation at holiday gatherings. It also brought Emma into the brewery business, known to family as the ‘Wreden Brewery.’ The formal name was the ‘Washington Brewery’ and later the “Claus Wreden Brewing Company,’ which was eventually purchased by the Acme Brewery. The Claus Wreden Brewing Company sold ‘Annabelle Lager’ and ‘Wreden’s Extra Pale Lager,’ both steam beers.

A very happy “Roundup” of the extended Wreden clan, including several Witzels (decendants of Anna and her father Claus Wreden) was organized by Don Nevins in Paso Robles in 2005. Don displayed stunning posters of the Wreden history and arranged for Tom Jacobs, an expert on early San Francisco breweries, to speak and to display artifacts. My photos of the event and Don’s poster quotes below are used with his gracious permission.

“Claus Wreden arrived in New York on October 1, 1853 on the ship named ‘Elizabeth.’ He was 17 years old. Claus started the naturalization process on May 19, 1855 in New York and was admitted as a US citizen September 13, 1859 in San Francisco (per Kathleen Weston’s research). By this date he would have been a California resident for a year.” Don Nevins found Claus’ brother, “Henry Wreden (age 21) arriving in New York , on May 24, 1864 with an ultimate destination of San Francisco.” (Letter to Terry & Diana Witzel dated Jan. 26, 2004).

“According to the publication entitled One Hundred Years of Brewing: Complete History of the Art, Science and the Industry of Brewing in the World published in 1902, the Washington Brewery was the ninth brewery established in California when it opened in 1859. It was said to be the fourth brewery established in San Francisco. The article claims that Claus Wreden was the founder. Advertisements from around 1900 acknowledge the starting of the business in 1859.”

“The first listing in the City Directory of a brewery at the corner of Taylor and Lombard was in 1862. It was owned by a G. Minhaelis and called the North Bay Brewery. By 1863 Martin Mangels is owner of what is then called the Washington Brewery at that same location….”

Meanwhile Claus Wreden was in the grocery business until 1864, when the San Francisco City Director lists him as “proprietor Central Railroad Exchange Saloon, NE cor Post and Cemetery Av” (http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sanfranciscodirectory/1864/1864_538.pdf)

According to Don, by 1867-1868, Claus is listed as co-owner and his brother Henry as an employee of the Washington Brewery.

On February 7, 1899 the Claus Wreden Brewing Company was incorporated. At some point Henry sold his interest to his nephew, Henry M. Wreden, who became President. Frank J. Veen was Secretary and married into the family. Both are listed in the 1900-1902 edition of Great Men of California under ‘Brewers.’ They are (this is being verified) buried in the Witzel – Spaar –Wreden – Veen family plot at Olivet Memorial Park, Colma.

Adding to the Wild West Brewing Co's Historic Artifact Collection is the Beer Bottle fro A.W. Kenison Co.
Unfortunately we have not been able to find out much about this brewery and it's history. We do know that Auburn was a Gold Rush city as we recently acquired a Pick Axe that was dug up from an old mine in Auburn. This Bottle and the Pick Axe make a great set together.

(http://www.auburnjournal.com)
The Kenison plant, located next to the now-long-gone Auburn Opera House on Central Square, was at the center of the bottle business from the 1890s well into the 1910s. A.W. Kenison, who also served as opera house manager, died at age 49 in 1904. The business continued on, selling soda as well as beer to parched foothills throats through about 1916.

Herb Yue, a bottle collector whose family roots in Auburn date back to the late Gold Rush period, said a good specimen of a bottle like the ones from the county courthouse recently sold for $56. Bottle finds – particularly from digs in dirt that once made a privy – happen every few years in Auburn.
“It’s neat to hang onto a piece of history that a gold miner probably held in his hand,” Yue said. “If they could talk, you know, what stories they could tell.”

Wild West Brewing Co. just received our new fermenter for our 10 gallon Pilot Brewing System .......can you tell we are all excited ;-)

Adding to the Wild West Brewing Company's Historic Artifact Museum are these photos, these were some of the most iconic Native American Indians of the time.


SITTING BULL: (Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Íyotake in Standard Lakota Orthography,[2] also nicknamed Hunkesni or "Slow";[3] c. 1831 – December 15, 1890) was a Hunkpapa Lakota holy man who led his people as a tribal chief during years of resistance to United States government policies. He was killed by Indian agency police on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation during an attempt to arrest him, at a time when authorities feared that he would join the Ghost Dance movement.[4]
Before the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sitting Bull had a vision in which he saw the defeat of the 7th Cavalry under Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer on June 25, 1876. Sitting Bull's leadership inspired his people to a major victory. Months after their victory at the battle, Sitting Bull and his group left the United States for Wood Mountain, North-West Territories (now Saskatchewan), where he remained until 1881, at which time he and most of his band returned to US territory and surrendered to U.S. forces. A small remnant of his band under Chief Waŋblí Ǧí decided to stay at Wood Mountain.
After working as a performer with Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, Sitting Bull returned to the Standing Rock Agency in South Dakota. Because of fears that he would use his influence to support the Ghost Dance movement, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin at Fort Yates ordered his arrest. During an ensuing struggle between Sitting Bull's followers and the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot in the side and head by Standing Rock policemen Lieutenant Bull Head (Tatankapah Lakota: Tȟatȟáŋka Pȟá) and Red Tomahawk (Marcelus Chankpidutah Lakota: "Čhaŋȟpí Dúta") after the police were fired upon by Sitting Bull's supporters. His body was taken to nearby Fort Yates for burial. In 1953, his Lakota family exhumed what were believed to be his remains, reburying them near Mobridge, South Dakota, near his birthplace.(Wikipedia)

CHIEF JOSEPH : Hin-mah-too-yah-lat-kekt, Hinmatóowyalahtq̓it in Americanist orthography, popularly known as Chief Joseph or Young Joseph (March 3, 1840 – September 21, 1904), succeeded his father Tuekakas (Chief Joseph the Elder) as the leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a Native American tribe indigenous to the Wallowa Valley in northeastern Oregon, in the interior Pacific Northwest region of the United States.
He led his band during the most tumultuous period in their contemporary history when they were forcibly removed from their ancestral lands in the Wallowa Valley by the United States federal government and forced to move northeast, onto the significantly reduced reservation in Lapwai, Idaho Territory. A series of events that culminated in episodes of violence led those Nez Perce who resisted removal, including Joseph's band and an allied band of the Palouse tribe, to take flight to attempt to reach political asylum, ultimately with the Lakota chief Sitting Bull in Canada.
They were pursued by the U.S. Army in a campaign led by General Oliver O. Howard. This 1,170-mile (1,900 km) fighting retreat by the Nez Perce in 1877 became known as the Nez Perce War. The skill with which the Nez Perce fought and the manner in which they conducted themselves in the face of incredible adversity led to widespread admiration among their military adversaries and the American public.
Coverage of the war in United States newspapers led to widespread recognition of Joseph and the Nez Perce. For his principled resistance to the removal, he became renowned as a humanitarian and peacemaker. However, modern scholars, like Robert McCoy and Thomas Guthrie, argue that this coverage, as well as Joseph's speeches and writings, distorted the true nature of Joseph's thoughts and gave rise to a "mythical" Chief Joseph as a "red Napoleon" that served the interests of the Anglo-American narrative of manifest destiny.(Wikipedia)

GERONIMO : (Mescalero-Chiricahua: Goyaałé [kòjàːɬɛ́] "the one who yawns"; June 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache who fought against Mexico and Arizona for their expansion into Apache tribal lands for several decades during the Apache Wars. "Geronimo" was the name given to him during a battle with Mexican soldiers. Geronimo's Chiricahua name is often rendered in English as Goyathlay or Goyahkla.[2][3]
After a Mexican attack on his tribe, where soldiers killed his mother, wife, and his three children in 1858, Geronimo joined a number of revenge attacks against the Mexicans.[4]
In 1886, after a lengthy pursuit, Geronimo surrendered to Arizona faux-gubernatorial authorities as a prisoner of war. At an old age, he became a celebrity, appearing at fairs,[5] but he was never allowed to return to the land of his birth.(Wikipedia)

MEDICINE CROW: Medicine Crow was a warrior from the time he first went on the warpath at the age of fifteen until his last battle in 1877. He attained chieftaincy about 1870 at the age of twenty-two, and from then on he set the pace for aspiring young warriors of his people. Until his death in 1920, at the age of seventy-two, he was a "reservation chief," concerned with helping the Crow tribe "learn to live in the ways of the white man" as soon and as efficiently as possible. He went to see the Great Father in Washington many times on behalf of his people.
Medicine Crow, whose name is more accurately translated as Sacred Raven, was born somewhere in the Musselshell country in 1848. His father, also a great chief, was Jointed Together, and his mother was One Buffalo Calf. This was a time of trial for the Absarokee, for the population of the tribe had been reduced from more than 8,000 to fewer than 1,000 by the smallpox epidemic of the mid-1840's. Now the tribe had to be made strong again, lest surrounding hostile tribes succeed in finishing the job the deadly pox had begun—annihilating the Crows. Boys had to become men quickly. The youth of the Absarokee accepted the challenge. Some died on the warpath, but those who survived, the boyhood friends of Medicine Crow, became great warriors and wise chieftains. Among these were Plenty Coups and Two Leggings, well known to the white man, and others such as Two Belly, Pretty Eagle, Old Crow, Bellrock, and many more.
Medicine Crow lived his first fifteen years much as his father and forefathers had. As a small boy, he heard the children’s tales. Then came the recitals of warriors’ deeds. He was trained to run, swim, wrestle, hunt, and ride. He learned the secrets of nature. He dreamed of becoming first a warrior and then, perhaps, a chief. Before that could happen, though, by the customs and religion of his people, he had to fast, seek a vision, and find his "medicine," those spirit helpers who protected and aided the fighting men of the Plains. It is believed that Medicine Crow sought his dream at least three times.
Throughout his life, Medicine Crow seemed able to see into the future, often into the very distant future. It was because of his dreams, and the fact that his people saw his seemingly impossible visions come to pass, that he was revered as a visionary medicine man. (He did not attempt to heal wounds or sickness.) On one occasion, the young seeker "saw" something black with round legs puffing smoke and pulling boxlike objects behind it coming down the Valley of Chieftains (the Little Bighorn River). Some thirty years later, in 1895, the Big Horn Southern Railroad was completed. In another vision, a white man came up from the east and said, "I come from the land of the rising sun, where many, many white men live. They are coming and will in time take possession of your land. At that time you will be a great chief of your tribe. Do not oppose these but deal with them wisely and all will turn out all right." A third vision revealed to Medicine Crow his future home. He saw a white-man’s type of house with a large corral nearby, situated on the top of a hill overlooking the junction of the Little Bighorn River and Lodge Grass Creek. About 1910 he built this house where he "saw" it so many years before. It was during his dreams that Medicine Crow gained his spirit helpers, the eagle and the large hawk that the Absarokee called the "Striped Tail."
As a youth of fifteen, Medicine Crow went on his first war party. He earned no honors but gained valuable experience. In the next nineteen years, he led the vigorous and often dangerous life of a Plains Indian warrior. For twelve of those years he was a war chief noted for his agility in hand-to-hand combat, his courage, and his dependability as a war party commander who usually brought his men back home not only safely but victoriously.
(From: Graetz, Rick, and Graetz, Susie. Crow Country: Montana’s Crow Tribe of Indians. Billings: Northern Rockies Publishing Company, 2000.)

KICKS IRON : Unfortunately we were unable to really find anything on him at this time.......trust me, we will find out more about this interesting person from the past!

Wild West Brewing Company's new Stainless Steel Conical Fermenter for our 10 Gallon Electric Pilot Brewing System is on it's way and should arrive next week......We are very excited!

We are truly excited to be able to add this awesome 151 year old piece of history! As far as we we can tell it is a Railroad Telegraph Machine from J.H.Bunnell & Co, New York U.S.A.

(History.com)
Developed in the 1830s and 1840s by Samuel Morse (1791-1872) and other inventors, the telegraph revolutionized long-distance communication. It worked by transmitting electrical signals over a wire laid between stations. In addition to helping invent the telegraph, Samuel Morse developed a code (bearing his name) that assigned a set of dots and dashes to each letter of the English alphabet and allowed for the simple transmission of complex messages across telegraph lines. In 1844, Morse sent his first telegraph message, from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore, Maryland; by 1866, a telegraph line had been laid across the Atlantic Ocean from the U.S. to Europe. Although the telegraph had fallen out of widespread use by the start of the 21st century, replaced by the telephone, fax machine and Internet, it laid the groundwork for the communications revolution that led to those later innovations.

Another book adding to the Wild West Brewing Co Museum, Hunting In The Great West- Caxton Edition (Rustling In The Rockies) hunting and fishing by mountain and stream, printed in 1890.

Not much was found on this book yet, we just really like all the great Plate Artwork in this book as there are many great scenes in it representing the hunting and fishing adventures of the western united states.

We just completed the Main Plumbing on our Keggles......follow along as we continue the build of our 10 Gallon All Grain Electric Pilot Brewing System. Next will be making all the Hose Lines with Quick Disconnects for the system........stay tuned for this Wild Build!

Just In!! We just received out Wild West Brewing Company's Law Badge prototype. We are thinking we will eventually use these when we Deputize people.......we are excited to finally see it ;-)

Adding to our Photo collection some early photos of a true legend of the Wild West......Wyatt Earp!

(Info from History.com)
One of the most famous figures to emerge from the colorful 19th-century history of the American West, Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) was known first and foremost for his participation in a notorious gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona in 1881. Both before and after that date, Earp moved from town to town across the West, earning his living as a saloonkeeper, gunslinger, gambler, miner and frontier lawman, alongside his brothers. Late in life, he settled in California, and collaborated on a largely fictionalized account of his life that made him a popular hero when it was published in 1931, two years after he died.

WYATT EARP’S EARLY LIFE AND PRE-TOMBSTONE CAREER

Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp was born in 1848 in Monmouth, Illinois. The third of five sons born to Nicholas and Virginia Ann Earp, he spent his early life in Illinois and Iowa. As a young teenager, Wyatt repeatedly tried to run away and join his brothers James and Virgil and his half-brother Newton, who fought for the Union during the Civil War; each time he was caught and forced to return home. At 17, Wyatt left home and found work hauling freight and grading track for the Union Pacific Railroad. In 1869, he joined his family in Lamar, Missouri, becoming the local constable after his father resigned the position.

In early 1870, Earp married Urilla Sutherland, but she died of typhoid within the year. Devastated, he sold his newly bought house and left town to move around the Indian Territory and Kansas. During this period, Earp frequented the saloons, gambling houses and brothels that proliferated on the frontier, and had several run-ins with law enforcement. But after helping a police officer in Wichita track down a wagon thief, Earp joined that city’s police force (1875-76) and later became deputy town marshal of Dodge City. It was in Dodge City that Earp would make the acquaintance of Doc Holliday, a well-known gunman and gambler.

WYATT EARP & THE GUNFIGHT AT THE O.K. CORRAL

In 1879, Earp and his longtime companion, the former pr******te Mattie Blaylock, left Dodge City for Tombstone, Arizona. The town was booming after a silver rush, and most of the Earp family had gathered there. Virgil was working as the town marshal, and Wyatt began working alongside him. In March 1881, while pursuing a group of cowboys who had robbed a stagecoach, Wyatt struck a deal with local rancher Ike Clanton, who had ties to the cowboys. Clanton soon turned against him, however, and began threatening the Earp brothers. The feud escalated, and finally exploded into violence on October 26, 1881 at the O.K. Corral.

In the gunfight, Virgil, Morgan and Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday faced off against the Clanton gang (Ike, his brother Billy, and Tom and Frank McLaury). Morgan, Virgil and Holliday were all wounded, but survived; Billy and the McLaurys were killed; and Wyatt Earp escaped without injury. Ike Clanton filed murder charges against the Earp brothers and Holliday, but a judge cleared them in late November. In December, Virgil was shot and seriously wounded by unknown attackers; the following March, Morgan was killed when unknown gunmen attacked him and Wyatt at a Tombstone saloon. On a hunt for the culprits, Wyatt and his gang killed several suspects, then decided to leave town to avoid prosecution.

WYATT EARP’S POST-TOMBSTONE LIFE AND LEGEND

After leaving Tombstone, Wyatt Earp moved around the West, eventually settling in California with Josephine Marcus, with whom he would spend the next 40 years. Over the years, he made a living by gambling, saloon-keeping, mining and real estate speculation. He also worked with a personal secretary, John H. Flood, to write his memoirs, which received a poor reception during his lifetime. Earp died in Los Angeles in January 1929, at the age of 80.

The first major Earp biography, “Wyatt Earp, Frontier Marshal” by Stuart N. Lake, was published in 1931 and became a bestseller, establishing Earp as a folk hero among millions of Americans searching for inspiration and excitement during the hard times of the Great Depression. Though Lake met with Earp himself near the end of his life, he later admitted that many of the quotations attributed to the frontiersman were invented, and the biography today is accepted as largely fictional.
(Info from History.com)

Time to mark the holes on our Keg Kettles for all the plumbing ;-)

Another Wild West Brewing Co Artifact to add to the collection.....A Wells Fargo Lock Box Key. This key possibly opened a lock that kept a Stage Coach Lock Box safely closed while making a journey form one city to another in the 1800's.