Tudor Ale: Circa 1950s

 

This is a favorite from Norfolk, Virginia.  They're pretty common to dig up in Virginia, but I like the color and the design so I still enjoy pulling a nice one out of the ground.

Tudor Beer and Ale

Tudor was the house or "store brand"  for A&P grocery stores.   The first Tudor cans were filled by Metropolis Brewing in New York around 1949 or so.  In the 1950s multiple breweries around the country made Tudor Beer and Ale and it was produced at least into the 1980s.  The labels changed over time, but the different breweries that made the beer (and ale) used the same labels.  Further down this page I have made a chart showing the different labels and which breweries produced them.  The knight's head label was used by eight different breweries that I know of, nine if you count the two different names for the same company in Norfolk.

Norfolk Brewing

There have been numerous breweries in Norfolk since the Consumers Brewing Company was founded in 1896.  It closed in 1916 when Virginia went dry.  It reopened as the Southern Brewing Company in 1934 and operated under that name until 1942.  In 1942 the large New York brewing company, Jacob Ruppert, bought the facility and ran it as Jacob-Ruppert-Virginia.  They made Red Fox beer having purchased the brand name and formula from the Largay Brewing Company in Waterbury, Connecticut. 

Ruppert pulled out of Norfolk in 1953 and the Century Brewing Company took over.  They seemed to make mostly store brand and low priced beer.  A friend in Richmond told me that he once found a 1950s brothel dump in rural Virginia.  The dump was full of oyster cans and cans from most every brand made by Century Brewing. 

Century used multiple names.  They produced Tudor Beer and Ale both under the Century name as well as under "Tudor Brewing."  The can featured this month is one from "Tudor Brewing." The company produced multiple brands under different brewery names including Banner, Embassy Club, Granay, Monticello, Red Fox*, Regent, Spearman, Tudor, and Tuxedo.  In 1967 Century became the Champale Company which closed for good in 1980.

See also my February 2009 COM, a Regent Beer.

* In bottles only? I am not aware of a Red Fox by any Norfolk brewery name but Century.

Tudor Labels

Label	Made By
	Best, Chicago, IL Cumberland, Cumberland, MD Metropolis, Trenton, NJ George F. Stein, Buffalo, NY Hornell, Hornell, NY Metropolis, New York, NY (IRTP) Burkhardt, Akron, OH Century, Norfolk, VA Tudor, Norfolk, VA
	Best, Chicago, IL Cumberland, Cumberland, MD Metropolis, Trenton, NJ George F. Stein, Buffalo, NY Hornell, Hornell, NY Metropolis, New York, NY (IRTP) Burkhardt, Akron, OH Century, Norfolk, VA Tudor, Norfolk, VA
	Metropolis, Trenton, NJ

 

Sources Used