The Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co., which is the only beer company in this year’s Findlay Market Opening Day Parade, is proud to have the following honored guests on its float:
· Vietnam veteran and active member of VFW Post 10380 Ed Murphy
· U.S. Marine Corp Vietnam veteran and Purple Heart Recipient Mark Andrus
· U.S. Army Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran Melissa Rogers, and
· George Wiedemann V–the great, great grandson of the original Wiedemann brewery founder George Wiedemann–and his son Spencer, who flew in from New York just to be in the Findlay Market Parade and support plans for a new Wiedemann Brewery.
Wiedemann’s Fine Beer will once again enter a 1940s-era, horse-drawn beer wagon in this year’s parade. The authentic Wiedemann’s Fine Beer delivery wagon is in original, unrestored condition, complete with 1948 and 1949 city of Cincinnati license plates and wooden image006.jpgbeer barrels once brimming with Wiedemann’s famed Bohemian Special Brew.
The historic wagon is owned by Ray Wegman and stored at Wegman Farm in Green Township. The Wiedemann Brewery delivered beer by horse-drawn wagons in Cincinnati, Covington, and Newport during the 1940s in response to gasoline rationing. The massive five-acre brewery complex in Newport, which included stables to house 150 draft horses, was shut down by out-of-town owners in 1983.
The legendary Wiedemann beer brand was revived in 2012 by Cincinnati native Jon Newberry, a home brewer and beer enthusiast who covered the local brewing industry for 30 years as a business reporter for local newspapers. Newberry plans to open a new Wiedemann brewery, taproom and beer garden later this year. A Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign is currently underway to raise money and publicity to support the new brewery.
Wiedemann’s Fine Beer has a long history with Cincinnati baseball. Wiedemann and professional baseball were both founded in the late 1800s in the Cincinnati area. In the early 1900s, the brewery sponsored the Wiedemann Baseball Club—known as the “Brewers” — a semi-pro team that played its home games at Wiedemann Ballpark along the Licking River in Newport. They even played the Reds there once in 1908, losing to the Cincinnati club 7-2.
Many Reds fans remember the Wiedemann billboards that were a fixture at Crosley Field in the 1960s when Wiedemann was a sponsor of the radio broadcasts. It was Wiedemann that hired Joe Nuxhall to call Reds games in 1967 to take over for Waite Hoyt.
The iconic local beer with so much baseball history is still not sold at Great American Ball Park, even though Wiedemann’s beers have been sold in this market for nearly 140 years—longer than any other local beer brand. The first George Wiedemann began brewing beer in Newport in 1870 and left a mark on Northern Kentucky that runs generations deep. Wiedemann’s remains Northern Kentucky’s biggest and best-known consumer brand ever.
From Geo. Wiedemann Brewing Co.