A large, hulking brick building, currently used as a garage, stands at the NW corner of Liberty and Sheffield Avenues in East New York. A row of bricked-up windows on the Liberty Avenue side and a quartet of arched entranceways and two large arched windows attest to its former grandeur. This was the original home of Piel’s, once a widely distributed and famed brand of beer sold in NYC and the Northeast.
The brewery was found by three immigrant brothers from Dusseldorf, Germany, Gottfried, Wilhelm and Michael Piel in 1883. The youngest, Michael Piel, was the company innovator and employed new refrigeration technologies in the brewing and storage process. The windows you see on the Liberty Avenue side originally looked into a beer garden, similar to the existing Bohemian Hall beer garden in Astoria, until 1912 when operations expanded and the Piels needed the space. After surviving Prohibition by brewing “near beer,” the company built what was the USA’s largest neon sign to date and placed it on the corner in 1936.
The 1950s was Piel’s golden age as it purchased the Trommer brewery in Bushwick and the Rubsam and Hormann brewery in Stapleton, Staten Island. During this time, popular commercials featuring animated fictitious owners Bert and Harry Piel, voiced by the comedy duo Bob and Ray, appeared on TV. When sales slowed in the 1960s under pressure from other regional brands (Schaefer, Rheingold) and national brands (Schlitz) Piel’s sold off its acquired breweries, and closed the East New York plant in 1973. In subsequent years, Piel’s was acquired by Schaefer, which was in turn bought by Stroh’s, itself purchased by Pabst, which ended the Piel’s label in 2015. A new Piel’s was founded in 2018.
I don’t remember the Bert and Harry Piel commercials, but I do recall Jimmy Breslin’s “Good Drinkin’ Beer!” spot from 1978. What else can you do with it, clean windows or wash floors?
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4/24/23
30 comments
The Jimmy Breslin commercial is eternal.
I believe women used to wash their hair with beer.
Women & girls used to set their hair in curlers using flat beer. Before chemicals were invented!
Great posting. I remember the Jimmy Breslin ad very well. I too am quite partial to beer, and used to drink Piels on occasion, especially its draft beer in a can. I also remember another Piels TV ad from the early 1960s that featured a chorus singing “Piels, Piels, Glorious Piels” against a collage of various people. And of course, Bert and Harry on TV and radio – classic.
It’s incredible how larger breweries literally swallowed up the smaller ones over the years, as described so well in this posting. First smaller regional brewers like Piels gave way to bigger ones like Schaefer, who in turn were absorbed by national brands like Stroh’s. And then Budweiser, the classis American big national brand, is now part of a vast multinational brewing conglomerate, InBev. The traditional smaller local market brewer, such as Piels, Schmidt’s (Philadelphia), and Iron City (Pittsburgh), has completely vanished.
On a better note, there are countless small craft breweries today. For example, Connecticut is a small state yet has 100 of them.
I was an apprentice tool and die maker for the Ideal Clamp Co a few blocks away on Vermont Street (1959-1963). On a hot summer’s day we would go in these very doors to what was the boiler and refrigerant plant that supplied all that was necessary to brew the beer. We knew the guys real well and they had 3 to 4 inch copper pipes made into beer mugs sitting on the outlets of the refrigerant pumps, frozen solid,
and they would go upstairs and fill them with fresh brewed beer. It was the closeted I’ve ever been to heaven. My best friend was a fork truck driver and they had access to as much beer as they wanted . His dad lived next door and he would throw beer out the second story window into his dads above ground pool for the weekends. I remember it like it was yesterday. Wow, what a find seeing these pictures.
Trommer’s was a “great drinkin’ beer”. It was sold until the mid 1970’s.
Malty with a great taste.
Trimmers White ladle a really good beer with limited distribution
Wasn’t Piels the bottle with the wide top which made it easier to chug?
That was Schmidt’s Beer
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/393079873699245674/
The Piels ads were animated by Terrytoons in New Rochelle. Animation historian Mike Kazaleh posted a collection of them here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mHroxyoCwV4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=26HtmV0DmRU
Here’s the link to the early 60s Piels TV ad that I referenced in my earlier posting. Note that the cans required an old-fashioned opener.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AL2PHbAUglw
When I was a youth in the early 1990s you could buy a case of Piel’s in bottles cheaper than in cans. Maybe $10 a case? I believe they were making it out of Utica or some such place back then.
Wade,
I am a bit older than you, but I used to buy Piel’s at Masten Beer Distributors on Metropolitan Avenue in Middle Village. I would pay $3.99 for a case of the brown label or can.
For a treat I’d sometimes buy a case of Michelob in those wonderfully shaped bottles. I’d shell out $6.99 for a case.
I grew up in East New York. My uncle worked at Piels & retired after many years. My dad was a Schaefer beer man & teased my uncle about Piels’ “inferior” product. And yes, I remember the Piels brothers commercials.
My dad was a Piels fan for years. I remember those Bert and Harry Piels commercials starring Bob and Ray very well.
The Piels Brewery in Stapleton was on Canal Street in Staten Island-My dads store Caro Beverages was located next store- Great memories
The first sip of beer I ever had was Piel’s. My grandfather would sit in his garage on a summers afternoon and have a bottle of Piel’s. I used to sit with him sometimes when my Mom had him watch me when I was 4 or 5 in the early 1960’s. When nobody was around he’d let me have one sip out of his bottle! Very fond memories. It was the only beer he drank.
In the 1960s, I lived a 10-minute walk from the Staten Island Piel’s brewery. It was abandoned and I think there was a fire. The site was fenced and it was full of rubble. It stayed that way for years. As a child, I didn’t realize that was a sign of a depressed neighborhood. I thought it was normal.
I remember that fire although I lived in Tottenville. I can remember that the site was unsafe because they had removed the big vats and there were huge holes in the floors where the vats were.
The correct name appears to be “Piels,” not “Piel’s.”
Since the brothers were named Piel, not Piels, I’m going with Piel’s.
It was spelled “Piels” and “Piel’s” on the labels. “Piel’s” was used through at least the 1940s. C. Fletcher was correct. Piels was also sold in widemouth bottles.
I was friends with the great grandson of one of the founders. His last name was Piel, not Piels.
My beer was Rheingold, the dry beer.
I’ve been researching Pennsylvania breweries since 1980. At some point I created a list of known standing brewery buildings and this one just got added to the list. Thanks! Here’s a link to the list:
https://pabreweryhistorians.tripod.com/successlst.html
I think this is Forgotten New York, not Hidden New York.
I miss piels and bresslyn