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HISTORY OF CANTON BREWING COMPANY

Beginning in 1883

OTTO GIESSEN: BAVARIAN IMMIGRANT

The Canton Brewing Company was founded in 1883 by Otto Giessen from Bavaria, born in 1848. He was a bookkeeper when he first immigrated to Cleveland in 1865. He worked at a brewery in Akron and was replaced by Wilhelm Burkhardt when he came to Canton in 1873. He became partners with John Klopfenstein at Graber Brewery. Klopfenstein left the partnership a year later and founded Union Brewing Company. Giessen remained and operated Graber Brewery, later renamed Otto Giessen Brewery until it burned down in 1883.

CANTON BREWING COMPANY

The Canton Brewing Company was founded in 1883 by Otto Giessen from Bavaria, born in 1848. He was a bookkeeper when he first immigrated to Cleveland in 1865. He worked at a brewery in Akron and was replaced by Wilhelm Burkhardt when he came to Canton in 1873. He became partners with John Klopfenstein at Graber Brewery. Klopfenstein left the partnership a year later and founded Union Brewing Company. Giessen remained and operated Graber Brewery, later renamed Otto Giessen Brewery until it burned down in 1883.

STARK-TUSCARAWAS BREWING COMPANY

In 1905, $3,000,000 was raised by the Stark-Tuscarawas Brewing Company to consolidate the Canton Brewing Company with the Dover Brewing Company, the New Philadelphia Brewing Company, the Massillon Schuster Brewing Company and the Stark Brewing Company into one. The new company's initial president was John Schuster and then in 1906 was taken over by John Rommel, William's thirty year old son. The overall capacity of this combined group was in excess of 100,000 barrels per year.

CANTON BREWING COMPANY

In 1908 the Rose Law was passed which made Tuscarawas a dry county. As a result, the New Philadelphia and Dover Breweries were closed and never reopened. After the onset of Prohibition in 1919, the Stark-Tuscarawas Co. remained in business producing Tuscora, Zest, and Stark non-alcoholic cereal beverages out of the old Stark Brewing Co. building on the South side of town it officially dissolved in 1928. The Canton Brewing Company on Third Street North was supposedly decommissioned; however, according to Wilbur Webber, son of Otto Weber (Canton Brewing Co. last brew master), he brewed and bootlegged beer throughout prohibition for all the local establishments.

CANTON BULLDOGS

One of these beers known as Cascade Beer named after the Cascade Hop, indigenous to Canton at the time, was the sponsor of Ralph Hay’s Canton Bulldogs the year prior to prohibition. It undoubtedly was the beer of choice in Ralph’s smoke filled dealership the night of September 17, 1920 when professional football was founded.

HAUS OF GIESSEN

In 1870 Charles Freeze established a brewery in Canton, Ohio, for the manufacture of ale. In 1880 Otto Giessen became its proprietor, adding lager beer to the manufacture, and three years later it was destroyed by fire; a new plant was immediately built on the site of the present plant of the Canton Brewing Company. Mr. Giessen sold the brewery, in the spring of 1887, to William Roemmel, who conducted the business alone until the summer of 1891, when the present company was formed. We renamed our restaurant in honor of Otto Giessen and his original Oktoberfest Marzen recipe

Raise a Glass International Beer Competition

2016 Silver Oktoberfest 2016 Bronze Carpe Noctem Coffee Porter

Stark County Cattlemen’s Association

2018 Restaurant of the year

M. Conley Entrepreneur of the Year

2018 Nominee Dave Beule

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Beginning in 1883

OTTO GIESSEN: BAVARIAN IMMIGRANT

2016 Silver Oktoberfest
2016 Bronze Carpe Noctem Coffee Porter