Albert Krumenaker was in business as a bottler from 1892 to the mid-1920’s.
The business was first listed in the 1892 NYC Directory as a bottler at 167th Street near Amsterdam Avenue. Sometime around 1894 he moved to W 166th Street. According to a March 18, 1902 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle:
Nine years ago (1893) Krumenaker built a house at 512 West One Hundred and Sixty-sixth Street…Two years later (1895), the Deputy Water Commissioner said, he built a house next door…
On a side note, the article went on to say that Krumenaker had installed an unmetered service in 514 and had under reported his water usage for several years.
The business incorporated in December 1899. The New York Times listed them under “New Corporations” in their December 21, 1899 edition.
Albert Krumenaker, Incorporated, of New York City, to bottle beer; capital $500. Directors – Albert Krumenaker, Julius Bach and Daniel Guggenheim, New York City.
The business served as a bottler for George Ehret’s Hell Gate Brewery. This is confirmed by an undated but old photograph of a Gramm Logan truck with a sign on the side that read” George Ehret’s, New York, lager beer, bottled by Albert Krumenaker, 508-514 W 166th St, Telephone 69 Audobon. The truck certainly looks like it’s from the early 1900’s.
At some point he also became the wholesale dealer for Blatz Beer and in 1912 he ran a series of advertisements for Blatz in the “Evening World.”
According to a March 19, 1933 article in the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the Krumenaker operation was absorbed by Liebmann’s prior to the start of National Prohibition.
Before Prohibition put a snag in the beer business Liebmann’s has absorbed many famous brands of beer and breweries. They were Peter Doelger’s, Welz & Zerweck’s, George Ehret’s, Obermeyer & Liebmann’s plaza brew, Beadelston & Woerz and the Krumenaker bottling works – and some 30 other brands. With the possible exception of Peter Doelger’s, all of them will remain absorbed, and they will reappear – are now being bottled as Liebmann’s
The business continued to be listed with the name of Krumenaker through 1925. In later years, the business included 508 to 516 West 166th Street in their address. After 1925, as far as I can tell, the Krumenaker name vanished from the Directories.
Krumenaker passed away in August of 1927. His death notice is printed in the August 8, 1927 issue of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.
Today, the houses Krumenaker built at 512 and 514 West 166th Street no longer exist. 508 West 166th Street is an old apartment building that according to apartable.com. was built in 1910 so it appears to have been utilized by the business in its later years (this dates the above photograph to no earlier than 1910).
I’v found two Krumenaker bottles. One is a champagne style tooled blob (12 oz) certainly from his earlier history. It has the 512 and 514 West 166th Street address embossed on it near the base so it most likely dates no earlier than 1895 when he built 514 and no later than 1910 when he added 508. The other is a machine made export style probably from the decade before the start of National Prohibition.