John Menninger Weiss Beer

Business Type: Brewery (NY 130 a & c)

Years of Operation: 1879 to 1884 & 1897 to 1902

Location: 183 Cook Street, Brooklyn

Description: John Menninger can be found in business listings as a Brewer and also a producer of mineral waters. Menninger is listed in American Breweries II (Van Wieren, 1995) as opening his brewery on Cook Street in 1879 and closing in 1884. Another Brewery operated by Robert Schleicher is then listed at this address from 1884 to 1897. Interestingly enough Menninger must have regained ownership of the location and is listed once again as operating the brewery at this location from 1897 to 1902. Menninger primarily and perhaps exclusively brewed Weiss Beer.

This Aqua Wiess style bottle is the only variant I have seen from John Menninger. In addition to the brewery name and address “BROOKLYN E.D.” is also embossed, the E.D. initials were commonly used to denote “Eastern District”. This area of Brooklyn was mostly occupied by German Immigrants and a hot spot for breweries & beer bottling. This example still has the wire bail portion of the original enclosure attached to the neck of the bottle.
The back of the John Menninger bottle is embossed “WEISS BEER”