The Life of an Anglo-American: Before the Ban Part 4 - Pre-Prohibition Baltimore Breweries

Theodore Seeger and Edward W. Stiefel opened the Seeger and Stiefel Lager Beer Brewery on Frederick Road in Carrollton about 1858. This site, while in Baltimore County at the time of its establishment, is now within the bounds of Baltimore City. Stiefel was born in 1825 in Bavaria and came to Philadelphia in 1845 as a merchant. In 1857 came Stiefel moved to Baltimore and set up the first lager beer brewery in Baltimore with Theodore Seeger in Federal Hill.

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They moved to Carrollton a year later to due to disturbances by the Know-Nothings in Federal Hill. Business continued for ten years but in 1868 it was dissolved with Stiefel continuing the brewery alone. In 1878 the brewery sold 4,253 barrels of beer and in 1879 it sold 3,568 barrels of beer. In 1892 Stiefel sold the brewery to the Germania Brewing Company. Conrad Eurich, who was also born in Germany, was president of the Germania Brewing Company.

Seeger & Stiefel Lager Beer Brewery 1869

In 1899 the brewery was consolidated into the Maryland Brewing Company with most of the independent breweries in Baltimore, namely George Bauernschmidt Brewing Company, George Brehm, Wehr, Hobelmann & Gotlieb Co., National Brewing Co., Eigenbrot Brewing Co., Darley Park Brewery, Bayview Brewery, Mount Brewery, Vonderhorst Brewing Co., Baltimore Brewing Co., George Gunther Sr. Co., Oriental Brewing Co., S. Helldorfer's Sons, John F. Weissner & Bro., and John B. Berger.

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In 1901 the Maryland Brewing Company went into receivership and all the breweries in Baltimore which were part of the Maryland Brewing Company were bought by the Gottleib-Bauernschmidt-Strauss Brewing Company.

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It was one of the least productive breweries of this company and was closed in 1904 and sold to Rennous, Kleinle & Company, brush manufacturers. Today only the fermenting building, built between 1858 and 1869, survives.