Gulf Brewing Company
[www.brauwesen-historisch.de]
[U.T. Center for American History]
[U.T. Center for American History]
[U.T. Center for American History]
[U.T. Center for American History]
[U.T. Center for American History]
Howard Hughes’ connection with the Houston-based Hughes Tool Company is fairly well-known. It is less well-known that Hughes started a brewery in Houston, on the grounds of the Hughes Tool Company, called Gulf Brewing Company. Hughes opened the brewery at the end of Prohibition, and its profits helped the tool company survive the Depression.
Gulf Brewing Company produced Grand Prize beer, which for a time was the best-selling beer in Texas. It has been reported that a beer called Grand Prize beer was also produced prior to Prohibition, by the Houston Ice and Brewing Company. While that may be accurate, any confusion is likely connected to the fact that Hughes’ Grand Prize brewery was operated by the man who served as brewmaster at Houston Ice and Brewing before Prohibition. In 1913, while he was brewmaster at the Houston Ice and Brewing Company, Belgian-Houstonian Frantz Brogniez was awarded Grand Prize at the last International Conference of Breweries for his Southern Select beer - beating out 4,096 competing brewers. Brogniez left Houston during Prohibition, but Hughes convinced him to return to serve as brewmaster for the Gulf Brewing Company. Brogniez’ son operated the brewery after his father’s death.
More information:
Barlett, Donald L., and Steele, James B., Howard Hughes: His Life and Madness
“Magnolia Ballroom Showcases Brewery Museum,” fohbc.com
Update: The above are photos of a can of Charro Beer, which appears also to have been a Gulf Brewing product.
This appears to clear up some confusion over Grand Prize which I knew had survived the Magnolia Brewery. In the 50s as I recall, Grand Prize sponsored the Baseball Game of the Week on TV (national); one of the announcers was former Houston Buff pitcher Dizzy Dean.
I have a vague memory of commercials in the 50s for Grand Prize saying ‘breweries in Galveston and El Paso.’ Maybe I have that mixed up with some other beer.
Yeah, there is some confusion out there about who made Grand Prize, when, but the post-Prohibition link to Gulf Brewing is very strong. I suppose it’s possible that Brogniez had enough ownership of the name that he was able to take it with him from one brewery to another, assuming there he did brew it at Magnolia previously.
I’ve definitely seen references to Dizzy Dean playing for the Buffs before playing for St. Louis, which is pretty cool for Houston.
I think your memory is likely right about Grand Prize in El Paso. In my post on Brogniez, I mentioned that he moved to El Paso during Prohibition (which a TABC public information officer recently told me didn’t end in Texas until 1935), to work with brewing interests in Juarez - so maybe there’s a connection based on that alone. But I’ve also read that Grand Prize entered the El Paso market in the 1930’s, and by 1936 was taking away considerable business from the Harry Mitchell Brewing Company, which produced Mitchell’s Special Lager, and which had previously dominated the market. And it appears that there was at least a “Grand Prize Distributing Company” in El Paso from 1939 to 1943, based on other info I’ve seen. Put it all together with your recollection, and it sounds like El Paso was indeed a land-locked outpost for Grand Prize Beer, at least for a while.
Your reference to Galveston reminds me that, while I didn’t mention it above, I believe that Galveston, over time, became an important production site for Grand Prize Beer, too.
By the way, the U.T. Center for American History site has a whole bunch of Grand-Prize-in-Houston-related photos - far more than I could post here. Definitely worth a look.
Thanks for the contributions!
- Tracey
do you have any information on the beers Frantz brewed in Teere Haute indiana