Sieben's Brewery, Established 1865

(Closed 1967) label

GENEALOGY Founded by Michael Sieben in 1865, Sieben's Brewery was originally located on Pacific Avenue near Clark and Polk Streets in Chicago. It was narrowly missed by the Great Chicago Fire due to a change in the wind direction. In 1876 the brewery was relocated to 1466 Larrabee Street, just a short walk from where the Larrabee-Ogden Station of the Chicago Loop ("L") Transit System would be built in 1900.

Circa 1876-1880 photo of the Brewery frontage on Larrabee Street. Larrabee Street front of the Bier Stube

1938 photo of the Bier Stube and Sieben residences

In 1896 Michael Sieben built a larger brewery on Clybourn Avenue. In 1898 it was merged into the United Breweries Company. By 1903 Michael Sieben was back in the original Larrabee Street location. It was perhaps due to the short alliance with United Breweries Company that Michael Sieben's wish was that the brewey bearing his name not be owned by anyone outside the Sieben family. [image from One Hundred Years Of Brewing. pub. 1903] It is claimed that Dion O'Banion was killed by the Genna Brothers, under the direction of Al Capone and Johnny Torrio because O'Banion had set up Torrio, selling Torrio his claimed share of Sieben's Brewery, which was raided the next day, May 19, 1924 by the Chicago Police. Thirty one bootleggers were arrested including Torrio. In 1925, after serving his jail sentence, Torrio transfered his claimed share of the Sieben's Brewery to Capone. The Prohibition Era story of the battle between the Chicago Gangs, including the battle over the Sieben's Brewery can be read about in an article entitled The Genesis Of Organized Crime In Chicago by Robert M. Lombardo.

IMPORTANT NOTE! Numerous sources incorrectly state that Al Capone et al actually owned Sieben's. [as opposed to my usage of "claimed share"] In actuallity, the physical Sieben's Brewery plant was leased out during prohibition to an entity which was supposed to be engaged in producing a non-alcoholic beer. Depending upon the source, the entity was either Mid-City Brewing [Chicago Tribune, Sep. 6, 1980, Section 1, page 4, Action Line column] or George Frank Brewery [Various court affidavits relating to the May 19, 1924 raid by the Chicago Police. None of the famous mobsters (Capone, Torrio or O'Bannion) are mentioned in these affidavits.]

If you are into homebrewing your own beer, there is a recipe out there which is alleged to have been used by Al Capone when he "owned" Sieben's. I have no information on the veracity of this claim regarding the Sieben's/Capone Prohibition Era Beer ever being used at the Sieben's Brewery, by Capone, nor by anyone else. That the recipe states that it is from 1924, and Capone didn't receive Torrio's interest in the brewery till 1925, may or may not have relevance. This is not to say that it may or may not make a decent beer (I've never tried it), but if you try it and it doesn't work out well, you can find other beer recipes at the same Cats Meow web site.

Sieben's Bier Stube as depicted on a post-prohibition postcard. Out back, between the bier stube and the actual brewery, was a German style beer garden. In the pictures below, the brewery can be seen on the other side of the fence from the beer garden. After Prohibition ended, the govenment came in and required that the fence be built in order that all product going into the bier stube travel through the public street and be properly taxed. This demand actually had a silver lining for the Siebens, as they no longer had pub patrons deciding to wander around the brewery property after a few drinks.

Sieben's Beer Garden as depicted on a post-prohibition postcard.

Four of Michael Sieben's grandchildren in the beer garden in 1934

Four of Michael Sieben's sons outside the brewery in 1914 All things must end. Faced with the competition of mass produced beers, the Sieben's Brewery and associated stube closed in 1967. In the early seventies the area was leveled and took on an entirely different look. Larrabee Street as it appeared in a 1999 USGS aerial image can be viewed on the Microsoft TerraServer. Gone! is it all. (Java required for the TerraServer) Looking at the TerraServer image, North Street, where the Larrabee/Ogden/North station was, is just out of the top of the picture. Ogden is the diagonal street which ends at the bottom left of the baseball field. Larrabee Street is the street which runs from top to bottom, just to the right of the baseball field. Sieben's was located just a half a block south of that baseball field, where now appears a flat roofed school, the Near North Career Metropolitan High School, itself due to be leveled in the next few years. History, not wanting to fade.

1908 photo of the brewery skyline In the 1980's the name Sieben's Brewery was resurected by some entrepreneurs not related to the Sieben family. (although they were not completely unrelated to the brewing industry in Chicago over the same period of time as Sieben's brewery). As an example of poor management, the failure of Sieben's River North, a 398 seat hall style restaurant and brewery, and which at one point in it's short history served German style beer, Cajun food and jazz music, recieved two write-ups in Inc. Magazine. Inc Magazine did acknowledge that the beer was good however, which is supported by the resurected brewery winning awards for its Bock and Barley Wine in 1988 at the Great Americal Beer Festival. Various other photos from the Sieben history.

Michael Sieben Founded Sieben's Brewery in 1865

Ida Mathilda Fausch Wife of Michael Sieben

1910 - In the brewery office, Theodore Sabastian Sieben, age 30 President of Sieben's Brewery from 1947 to 1963

1910 - In the brewery office, Catherine Josephine Hennebohle, age 20 (soon married to Theodore Sabastian Sieben)

1927 - Frank and Louisa Hennebohle F. Hennebohle Steam and Hydraulic Specialties, Chicago Father of Catherine Hennebohle

1911 - Albert Phillip Sieben, age 45 Church organist, music professor.

Sieben's Brewery Goes To The Movies

In 1949, the producers of the film The Golden Gloves Story, selected the North Room of the Sieben's Bier Stube as the location for the filming of a two minute scene which was set in a Catholic Rectory conference room. The attraction Sieben's North Room had on the film makers was the stained glass windows, which they found more appropriate than any windows in any nearby rectory. Throughout the entire two minute (1 min 45 second) scene, there is not one second where the windows are not visible.


Art Van Harvey as Father McGuire	James Dunn as Joe Riley

The movie men have left and it is now five years later. This photograph is from the July 1954 issue of Chicago magazine in the article Sieben's Bier Stube written by Alan Whitney and photographed by William Miller.

AUDIO FILE - MIDI Gambrinus March by H. Sallmann Dedicated to the Sieben's Brewery Co. Copyright MCMXV (1915) by Sieben's Brewery Co., Chicago, ILL. Click image to go to the page with the MIDI sound file and lyrics of this work.

12 quart box - unfortunately empty.

Crown cap, no bottle. (crown image courtesy of Eric Budesheim)

Copyright 1998 - Michael D. Maxfield <tweek@io.com> Author's home page: http://www.io.com/~tweek/ If this page interests you. Bookmark it and return occasionally. More history, photos and memorabilia will be added as time and circumstances permit.

My URL: http://surf.to/siebens/

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