Old Vienna (OV) is a brand of

beer Beer is one of the oldest and the most widely consumed type of alcoholic drink in the world, and the third most popular drink overall after water and tea. It is produced by the brewing and fermentation of starches, mainly derived from ce ...

. It was first brewed and bottled by The Koch Beverage and Ice Company in the early 20th century in

Wapakoneta Wapakoneta may refer to: ;Places *Wapakoneta, Ohio *The Lima- Van Wert-Wapakoneta, Ohio Combined Statistical Area ;Ships *, United States Navy ships ;Other *The Treaty of Wapakoneta *The Wapakoneta City School District The Wapakoneta City Schoo ...

Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...

by Henry Koch and his son Karl J. Koch. The Koch brewery went bankrupt, but production was continued in Canada by the

Carling O'Keefe Carling O'Keefe was a brewing company in Canada that is now part of Molson Coors. The company's origins can be traced to Canadian Breweries, which bought the Carling Brewery in 1930 and the O'Keefe Brewery in 1934. Canadian Breweries purchased ...

brewery. It is currently brewed in Canada by

Molson Breweries The Molson Brewery is a Canadian based brewery company based in Montreal which was established in 1786 by the Molson family. In 2005, Molson merged with the Adolph Coors Company to become Molson Coors. Molson Coors maintains some of its Can ...

, which has continued production after Carling O'Keefe was purchased by Molson. This family enterprise was founded as City Company Brewing Company Company in Wapakoneta, Ohio in 1862 by Karl Kolter and his son Charles Kolter. The beer was initially sold in wooden kegs (barrels) and

stoneware Stoneware is a rather broad term for pottery or other ceramics fired at a relatively high temperature. A modern technical definition is a vitreous or semi-vitreous ceramic made primarily from stoneware clay or non-refractory fire clay. Whether vi ...

bottles. Glass bottles dating from about 1880 are embossed as "City Brewing Co." on the side and the family's "TRADE KK MARK" on the bottle shoulder. The "TRADE KK MARK" is said to have been modified from a guild mark for the Kolter family's brewery in Germany. Charles Kolter and his brother immigrated from Wallhalben,

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

, to Wapakoneta, Ohio before the mid-19th century. His father, Karl Kolter, with his third wife and a number of children, followed a few years later. Karl Kolter was a brewer, as was his son, according to the 1880 census. The business was later handed down to Henry Koch, Charles's son-in-law, when the brewery did business as "Koch and Kolter". Following Charles Kolter's death, the brewery became "The Koch Beverage and Ice Company", under the ownership of Henry and Karl J. Koch. Karl J. Koch died in 1934 and the ownership of what was to become "Koch's Old Vienna Brewery" passed to Karl's widow, May Julia Koch, and his son George A. Koch. The brewery was sold following World War II, but the Koch family retained ownership of the brewery's soft drink business, which became George Koch Bottling Company of Wapakoneta, Ohio. George Koch Bottling was later merged with Consolidated Bottling Company of Lima, Ohio to become "Consolidated Bottling Company of Wapakoneta, Ohio", aka "Pepsi Cola Bottling Company of Wapakoneta". Karl W. Koch became the company's CEO in 1962. The business was moved to a new facility on Interstate 75 and 4th Street in Lima, Ohio in 1966. The Lima Pepsi-Cola business was sold to RKO General in 1976, but Karl W. Koch repurchased the company's other assets, including its Pepsi-Cola business in Corpus Christi, Texas. Koch's Old Vienna Brewery entered bankruptcy several years after it was sold by the Koch family. Old Vienna is now a Canadian-produced beer. Old Vienna was brewed by

, which had acquired the United States' rights to the Old Vienna trademark following the brewery's demise. It is now produced by

, where it is still being sold in Canada and in select markets in border U.S. states. Old Vienna is currently produced in bottles, cans and on draft with a 5% alc./vol. content. For a time in the 1970s and 1980s, OV was available in 7 oz. bottles called "OV Splits".thebeerstore.ca

References

{{reflist American beer brands Canadian beer brands Molson Coors brands Auglaize County, Ohio