CCSI Plastic Crowncap Database - Brewer/Bottler
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 Brewer/bottler #191 | | | | Address | 1501 Michigan Street |
| | | | | | | | Extra info | The Buckeye Brewing Company began operations in 1838 near Front and Consaul Streets on the city's east side. Buckeye was founded just one year after the city of Toledo itself, and was one of the oldest breweries in American history. Very little is known of the company's humble beginnings until it came under new ownership and moved to its Michigan St. address in 1886.
During Prohibition (1919 to 1933), Buckeye switched its production to bottling soft drinks like ginger ale, root beer and cider, as well as utilizing its cold storage facilities. Prohibition hit Buckeye's competition as well, and it's not soon after alcohol is legal again that Buckeye becomes the only brewery in town in 1949. At the height of its success, the brewery could churn out 300,000 barrels of beer a year.
In 1966, Peter Hand Brewing Company of Chicago bought Buckeye and began brewing Meister Brau, in addition to Buckeye, at the Toledo facility. Meister Brau Lite was added to the brewery's line-up as well, but one of the country's largest beer producers would soon catch wind of Toledo's successful brew business. This new-found interest would also signal the beginning of the almost-end for one of Toledo's longest-standing names.
Miller Brewing Company of Milwaukee bought the Buckeye and Meister Brau Lite labels six years later, changing Meister Brau Lite to Miller Lite, and moving Buckeye beer production to Milwaukee in 1972. Toledo's Buckeye plant would close that same summer. When it seemed the Buckeye name would live on in another city, Miller put an end to production just two years later due to disappointing sales. Construction crews demolished the Buckeye Brewery buildings in 1974 and Meister Brau's assets were sold off. It seemed Toledo had lost its hometown brew.
Meanwhile, the Buckeye name went unused by Miller and home-brewers attempted to duplicate the beer's taste to no avail. But much like Toledo, a city that's seen its share of hard times and disappointments and always finds a way make it through, so too has the Buckeye brand managed to revive itself .
In the mid-1990s, Oliver House Owner Jim Appold approached Miller about the Buckeye label and purchased the rights to use it. From then on, The Maumee Bay Brewing Company went to work trying to duplicate Buckeye's taste. |
| | | | | | | Other names used for this Brewer/bottler | | Name 1 | Buckeye Producing Co.,The |
| | | Name 2 | Cleveland & Sandusky Brewing Co. |
| | | Name 3 | Toledo Brewing Company |
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