The India Wharf Brewing Company operated a brewery complex along the Brooklyn, New York waterfront for almost 30 years, from 1889 until approximately 1918, manufacturing both lager beer and ales. This 1914 newspaper advertisement touting their India Pale Ale appeared in several January and February editions of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”
The August 20, 1889 edition of “The Brooklyn Citizen” announced the incorporation of the business under the headline, BEER FOR BROOKLYN.”
The India Wharf Brewing Company of Brooklyn, which was incorporated yesterday at Albany with a capital of $1,000,000 is entirely a new interest in the brewing trade of the city. The company is composed of capitalists, or their representatives, mainly residents of this city (Brooklyn) and New York. The following are trustees of the new company:
Uriah Hermann, Louis B. Schramm, Alfred F. Britton, W.H. Thatchener, Wm. M. Wilcox, Thomas H. Bennis, Michael Dillon.
The new company, it is said, has secured the option on the Atlantic Sugar Refinery on Hamilton Avenue, near India Wharf, hence the name. It is intended to refit this large establishment, so as to provide for the manufacture of all kinds of malt liquors….
The story went on to say that the driving force behind the syndicate was a man named Juan Ceballos
Mr. J. M. Ceballos, of the firm of J. M. Ceballos & Co. of No. 80 Wall Street, New York, has, been one of the principal movers in the new enterprise.
It was the Ceballos connection that not only served as a catalyst for the brewery’s formation, but for its location on the Brooklyn waterfront as well. The October 12, 1906 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” tells the story.
Juan M. Ceballos is well known in South Brooklyn because of his connection with the India Wharf Brewery, which he established several years ago. The concern is intimately connected with the troubles in Cuba. Some forty-years ago a Señor Aldama, a Cuban sugar planter of great wealth, purchased nearly all the long block on Hamilton Avenue fronting the Atlantic Basin, between Conover Street and the ferry… On this he had erected the big structure now known as the India Wharf Brewery. Aldama fitted this out for a sugar refinery. The most elaborate machinery then known to sugar refiners was installed, but no fire was ever lit in the refinery. War broke out in Cuba and Señor Aldama, an ardent patriot, sided with the Cubans. When Spain finally crushed the insurrection Aldama was a ruined man and his great estate was confiscated. It is said that he spent $16,000,000 in the struggle. This ended the sugar refining project; the copper pans, machinery and appliances that cost a vast sum were sold as junk. J.M. Ceballos’ father held a heavy mortgage on the property; he finally foreclosed it and so the property passed into his hands.
For years it was a veritable white elephant of the costliest kind. Part of the India Wharf was used to manufacture sugar from molasses by outside parties, but this was abandoned. The whole place was then practically idle with the exception of two saloons, the middle pier house and another on the corner of Conover Street… Much of the Hamilton Avenue side consisted of vacant lots. Figuring out what could be done with the costly property the present Mr. Ceballos thought of the brewery, and formed the India Wharf Brewing Company. His original idea was to manufacture a beer that would replace ale in Cuba and South America… The brewery proved an immense success from the commencement, even though it failed to replace ale in the tropics.
According to a September 25 1890 “Brooklyn Times Union” story the brewery began actual operations sometime in late June, 1890, and by the end of the year they were selling their product in both kegs and bottles as evidenced by their bottling notice that began appearing in several Brooklyn newspapers beginning in late December.
A feature published in the June 15, 1895 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” provided this late 19th century snapshot of the business.
The plant takes up in all two city blocks with offices at 60 Hamilton Avenue. It was formerly the site of a sugar factory. Here is manufactured a pale and a dark lager, also at present an East India, a stock ale and a porter, sold in New York State, New England and New Jersey, there being many valuable customers in New York City and Brooklyn.
This turn of the century depiction of the brewery appeared in an 1899 advertisement that was recently offered for sale on e-bay.
The 1895 “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” feature went on to say that the company’s sales had almost doubled during their first four years in business.
The sales were 67,000 barrels in 1890 and for the fiscal year ending July 1, 1894, we are informed 127,000 barrels. These sales are phenomenal, and the company has passed competitors, one by one, until it is now third in sales in Brooklyn.
By 1906 that number had grown to as high as 175,000 barrels.
Up to this point the brewmaster was Leonhard Michel who had spent 20 years as chief brewer with the Yuengling brewery prior to joining India Wharf as both an investor and brewmaster. He remained in that capacity until 1906 when he and Ceballos apparently had a falling out and Michel went on to start his own brewery. The move made headlines in the February 26, 1906 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”
John Michel, Leonhard’s son, was interviewed for the story.
When asked about the rumored rupture in the India Wharf Brewing Company he said it was quite true.
“My father sold his interests to the company,” he said, “and is now starting to build a brewery…
“What was the trouble in the India Wharf Brewing Company that made him leave?”
‘Well he didn’t like some things connected with the business, so he sold out his interests to the company…”
“Does J.M. Ceballos retain his interest in the concern?”
“He does. He turned over the real estate to the company and the latter now owns the property…
Michel’s new brewery opened in the Spring of 1907 with the announcement appearing in the March 17th edition of “The Brooklyn Citizen.”
Both the India Wharf and Michel breweries continued on quite successfully up until the eve of Prohibition with the 1914 version of the India Wharf Brewery pictured in this India Pale Ale advertisement found in the January 25, 1914 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”
It was also in 1914 that the India Wharf Brewery added an ice plant to their operation. The announcement appeared in the January 14, 1907 edition of the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle.”
TO ERECT ICE PLANT
India Wharf Brewery to Manufacture Artificial Ice
The India Wharf Brewing Company is about to start the erection of an ice plant on property adjacent to the main building of the brewery, which will have a capacity of 300 tons a day with additional storage facilities. The new undertaking of the company was fully approved by the stockholders of the company at a meeting which was held yesterday at the office of the company. It is expected that this new addition will be ready for the summer ice trade and the contracts for the construction of the building call for the building being ready by May 15.
The plant is situated in an excellent manufacturing vicinity and has all of the conveniences that are necessary for the carrying on of their business. They have an excellent water frontage as well as an abundance of freight railroad facilities…
As far as I can tell by 1918 the rationing of fuel as a result of World War I, not to mention looming prohibition, was taking its toll on the brewing industry. In response, according to a September 8, 1918 “Brooklyn Times Union” story,
…several brewers have combined and reduced the cost of operation by closing one or several plants.
From other sources it was learned that the Ulmer and Schaefer breweries, Fallert’s and Huber’s, Stevenson’s and the Loewers, the India Wharf and the Lion brewery, respectively, have been combined.
Another “Brooklyn Daily Eagle story” this one published on June 6, 1920, confirmed that it was the India Wharf Brewery that closed as a result of it’s combination with the Lion.
The India Wharf Brewing Company’s drinks have been manufactured for some time in the Lion Brewery in Manhattan, and unless the Lion people decide to abandon the business the India Wharf brewers are going to make near-beer brewing a permanent business
The India Wharf Brewing Company remained viable through much of the Prohibition era, scheduling stockholder meetings in the years 1920 up through 1929, however, in 1928 the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” announced that their capital stock that had once been as high as $1,000,000 had been reduced to $127,100.
Sporadic newspaper items during this time suggest they were operating in both the cold storage/ice and warehousing industries. While committing to near-beer production back in 1920, how much, if any, they actually produced during Prohibition is not clear.
In 1933, with Prohibition soon to end, a June 22nd “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” story announced that a company called the 60 Hamilton Avenue Corporation was apparently planning to reopen the brewery.
Conover Street Brewery to Cost $500,000
Shampan & Shampan, architects, are preparing plans and supervising the construction and equipment of the India Wharf Brewery, located at the northwest corner of Hamilton Ave. and Conover St. for the 60 Hamilton Avenue Corporation, Emanuel Jackson, president, to cost $500,000.
Later that year, on December 18th, the “Brooklyn Times Union” announced that the brewery had been granted a brewery license by the State of New York. That being said, as far as I can tell, financially overextended, it never reopened. A story in the March 28, 1934 edition of the Brooklyn “Times Union” serves as the final chapter in the India Wharf brewery’s history.
Although its beer has been smooth for more than half a century, the repeal of prohibition finds the going rather rough for the India Wharf Brewery, Inc., 60 Hamilton Ave.
An involuntary petition of bankruptcy was filed today on behalf of creditors whose claims against the brewery total $1,700. The order was signed by Federal Judge Campbell.
Silberman & Steinfeld, attorneys of 16 Court St., representing the brewery, said that close to $250,000 had been invested in the plant since repeal; that the additional amount, approximately $60,000 representing the outlay for Federal and State stamps and taxes, had brought about the present situation.
A receiver will be appointed, it is expected, to conserve the assets, which include many vats and barrels of beer for the benefit of the creditors.
The “Bankruptcy Notice” appeared in the April 20, 1934 edition of “The Brooklyn Citizen.”
Subsequently a judgement of foreclosure and sale was entered into on October 27, 1934.
The subject bottle, champagne style with a mug base, was blown in a mold with a blob finish. The embossed lettering, “Indian Wharf Brewing Company” is all in script and does not match any of the three round or elliptical patterns mentioned in their 1890 bottling notice. suggesting it was not one of their earliest bottles.