Ed's Beer Bottles
Part of Ed Newman's Beer Bottle Collection
Ed's collection of Terre Haute brewing bottles date from 1885 to the 1930's. The standard colors are amber, aqua and clear; there are other shades but they were not standard. The sizes range from picnic beer, bigger than a quart to a small pony. Some are applied blob top, applied crown top finished by the blower and the machine made finish using a mold.
Some are common but some are fairly hard to find, sometimes when you're digging and not getting anything they look pretty good and I've dug a few of them.
Terre Haute Brewing Company
Image from Indiana History
Established in 1837 at 904 Poplar Street, at the height of business the Terre Haute Brewing Company employed 950 people and was producing 46.5 million gallons of Champagne Velvet a year. Champagne Velvet was first registered in 1904 and was once the official beer of the Indianapolis 500. CV has been sold in wooden barrels, cans, cone top cans, hand corked blob bottles, glass bottles, kegs, 40oz bottles, pint bottles, and quart bottles. The company became the seventh-largest brewery in the United States but by the time the company closed in 1958, it had a works force of just 300.
The company introduced twist-off caps on its cone-shaped cans in 1935, the same year it installed the largest bottling line ever constructed, under the direction of Oscar Baur. The company began using freshness dates in 1940 and was the first national brewery to feature black models in its advertising in 1952.
As well as once being the 7th largest brewery in the United States it was also the second oldest. Much of it’s production to troops during WWII was for military bases and in the South Pacific Theater THBCo used to employ over 900 people CV has been sold in wooden barrels, cans, cone top cans, hand corked blob bottles, glass bottles, kegs, 40oz bottles, pint bottles, and quart bottles.
The company once brewed Radium Beer that was actually irradiated in order to guarantee freshness. As well as brewing its own beers it also contract brewed Red Top, Griesedieck Bros., and other well known brands of the '50s.
For a fuller history of the Terre Haute Brewing Company see Indiana Beer
Sources:
Brugge Beer
CV Beer Collection
Indiana History
Tribune Star: Champagne Velvet
Vigo County Historical Society: History of Terre Haute
On to Ed's collection...
This page created July 18, 2010; last modified July 18, 2010