THE BEGINNINGS
- Of Bavarian Brewery
THE BEGINNINGS
- Of Bavarian Brewery
ADS - From Newspapers
8A2. BAVARIAN BREWING CO. PLANT No. 1 (1949)
BREW/MILL HOUSE FLOOR PLANS & INFORMATION
Please know that the plans shown below are best viewed on a large monitor or, at a minimum, a laptop or iPad; not a smart phone.
THE BREW (& MILL) HOUSE
As implied by its name, the Brew House contained most of the equipment used for brewing. The Mill House actually occupied most of this combined structure between Lehmer Street and W. 12th Street. However, both parts were sometimes simply referred to as the Brew House. Before the mid twentieth century, breweries were designed so the brewing process could be assisted through gravity, called a gravity or top - down system, where after the grains were delivered on the first floor, they were transported to the upper floors, where the brewing process began. To view how the Brew House was situated in relation to the other brewery buildings, please refer to Section 8A1 - Layout.
THE BEGINNING OF THE BREWING PROCESS
The Brew House section was the curved building on the north side (shown in the first photo below) supported by the adjacent Mill House section situated to the south (that comprises the last two pictures). Grains and hops needed to produce the beer were delivered to the ground floor Receiving Room in the middle of the Brew/Mill House through a garage like entrance. This entrance can be viewed in the lower middle of the second photo below above the cars and next to the left of the stone foundation of the former ice house.
The BLUEPRINTS FOR EACH FLOOR
In the following, blueprints are provided for each floor of the Brew and Mill House from 1949. They provide the ability to describe the brewing process and identify how the different portions of each floor were used. The former Brew House was a dining / entertainment center (BrewWorks and Jillian's) shortly before and after the millenium, but has been repurposed into what is now now the Kenton County Government Center. The blueprints displayed below are created as exhibits placed on their respective floors to help document the historical use of the building. They are located in areas open to the public and can be viewed 8am to 5pm weekdays. (See Visit / Map.) Consequently, the blueprints were designed to reflect accurate north-south directions in the way they are placed as exhibits and therefore directions can be oriented differently among these plans. However, the curved portion of the Brew House provides a good reference point in comparing the blueprints to the building photos. Each of the six floors of the Brew House are shown below, and each level is accompanied by interior photos. The photos shown were taken around the time that the blueprints were made but may be slightly before or after.
First Floor of the Brew / Mill House
Grain Delivery and Ending of the Brewing Process
As shown in the plan below, the Machine Room was on the south, the Receiving Room was in the middle and the ground floor of the Brew House section was on the north. Adjacent to the Machine Room was a Maintenance & Supply Room that was the stone foundation of an old ice house (I), which had a staircase that led to an old lager cellar. It was used as a tunnel to access the Bottling Dept. and Boiler House. (See 4A. The Brewery Tunnels.)
Before the brewing process actually began, grains and hops to produce the beer were delivered to the ground floor Receiving Room. Circular grain elevators were located on the south side of the Receiving Room and used to transport hops and barley to the upper floors. There was also a service and passenger elevator just inside the Brew House section used to transport 100 lb bags of corn grits to the fifth floor of the Mill House section. The first floor not only involved the delivery of grains, it also ended the brewing process before the beer wort was fermented. Near the main first floor entrance to the Brew House was a a cooler that reduce the temperature of the wort from the Brew Kettle on the second floor, next to a hop strainer that separated the hops from the brew kettle. The spent hops were then transferred to the end of the Receiving Room were they were removed.
The first photo is the Machine Room on the south side of the Brew / Mill House, with windows in the back that viewed W. 12th Street. The second photo is of the cooler and hop strainer, which were below the Brew Kettle. Please click any of the photos to enlarge them and obtain more information.
Fifth & Sixth Floors of the Brew / Mill House
As noted, the brewing process actually began on the top (usable) level of the Brew House, i.e. the fifth floor. This floor had a malt hopper, malt mill and scale hoppers to measure the grains. To reduce the dust from the milling process, there was an adjoining room containing a dust collector. The fifth floor also had access to a catwalk on the Cupola. The sixth floor was essentially only a mechanical area for the elevators.
Elevators transported the ingredients to the upper floors of the Mill House, which was above the Machine Room. These grains were then transferred for processing to the floor below. The malt was funneled into Malt Bins below, and where portions of the different malts were processed via hot water to become a malt mash on the fourth floor, while the corn girts were sent to the cereal cooker.
The first photo on the fifth floor below shows the storage of 100 lb. bags of corn grits and in the left background is the service / passenger elevator. The second photo was taken about a decade after the blueprints were made, but include the Grits Bin and the Malt Mill.
The first photo below shows the cleaning reel on the left, the Mash Tub on the center and the Cereal Cooker on the right. The second photo was taken about ten years after the plans were made, but provides a better view of the Cereal Cooker and also shows the Mash Tub behind it.
Third Floor of the Brew / Mill House
This floor of the Brew House section contained the Lauter Tub, bottom of the Cereal Cooker, Laboratory and both service and grain elevators. In the middle section were Malt Bins 1 and 2, a couple offices and a storage room. The Mill House section contained offices with access provided by stairs from the second floor below, and a Hops Storage Room that was believed to be open to the floor below.
Mash from the Cereal Cooker went into the Lauter Tun where it created a "sweet" wort. It was then transferred to the Brew Kettle on the second floor.
The first photo below shows an open well to the floor below, a staircase to the floors above and below and in the background the bottom of the Cereal Cooker and the Mash Tun. The second photo shows the Lauter Tub, which replaced the Mash Tub. The last photo shows and chemist inspecting ingredients in the Laboratory.
Second Floor of the Brew / Mill House
The Brew House section contained the Brew Kettle, the Brewmaster's Office and controling valves and conduits from the Lauter Tub above.
The "sweet" wort from the Lauter Tub on the level above was transferred to the Brew Kettle on this level and processed with hops, which were added. The final liquid "bitter" wort from the brew kettle was cooled on the level below. It was then transferred to one of the open oak barrels in Fermenting Room/Cellar A, located on the top floor of the Stock House (3A), where yeast was added from yeast tubs on this level. (Please see section 8A3 for blueprints and information about the Stock Houses and other buildings comprising the brewery complex.) The grain residue left over from the Lauter Tun, referred to as spent grain, was transferred to an outside tank attached to the second floor of the Brew House where it could be funneled into a truck and used as animal feed.
Photos in the first row show the main office entrance on the second floor from W. 12th Street via an outside flight of stairs, a sign beside the stairs and a view of the office entrance above the Machine Room and Maintenance Room. Upon entering the office space, there was a small lobby opposite a reception and switchboard and access to offices on this second level and a staircase leading to more offices on the third level. The Tap Room could also be easily accessed from the second floor offices to entertain customers and guests. The second row shows the controls at the bottom of the Lauter Tub, the brewmaster inspecting the liquid wort from the Lauter Tub, and the Brew Kettle. The third row shows hops being added to the kettle with the brewmaster's office in the background, and the Bavarian Tap Room.
The Brewing Process Starting on the First and Fifth Floors
As noted, the brewing process, grains and hops to produce the beer were delivered to the first floor Receiving Room in the center and west side of the Mill House. They were then transported via elevators up to the fifth floor. So, the actual brewing process began on the fifth floor.
Architectural Features
As shown by the above floor plans, a distinct feature of the Brew House section is that it had a couple open staircases, as well as floor openings or wells, on most levels. There were also pneumatic tubs in both the Brew and Mill House sections that allowed orders and instructions to quickly be sent and received. So, despite being a multi-level building, it was possible to quickly communicate on the different floors, or on the opposite sides of the same floor. For fire protection and containment, the middle portion of the structure was designed to separate the Brew House from the south side of the Mill House, where most of the grains were stored. Further, the roof top exterior had a a castle-like battlement and cupola, as shown on the accompanying photo.
Several of these interior photos of the Brew House are also contained in an exhibit located in original Brew House wood doors (on the second floor of the Kenton County Government Center south tower) along with a poster that illustrates the brewing process that was discussed above. Please note that most photos shown are from about 1940 until the early 1950s, with only a couple photos from the 1966 auction catalog. Unless otherwise noted, most of the equipment was believed to be present when the blueprints were created around 1950. Unfortunately, no photos have been obtained of the main office situated on the second and third floors of the Mill House section with access from W. 12th Street, or of grain storage on the Mill House floors.
Please see section 8A3 for the blueprints of the Stock Houses and Other Buildings that comprised Plant No. 1 of the Bavarian Brewing Co.
SOURCES:
Timothy Holian, for copies of the blueprints and the 1966 Auction Catalog for the brewery, which provided various interior photos.
Behringer-Crawford Museum, for aerial photos and interior photos from the Schott Family Collection.
L. Ried Schott for various photos and the editing / revision of most photos.
C.B. Truesdell, (The History of) The Bavarian Brewery, 1954. (Unpublished manuscript.)
The Riedlin and Schott families, for information.
Dave Gausepohl, who provided information on the gravity system used by the brewery.
Newspapers.com and Cincinnati Enquirer.
The background is an aerial photo of th Bavarian Brewing Co. Plant No. 1 around 1950.
