Thursday, March 1, 2018

Recently Had a Baby? Drink Anheuser-Busch’s Malt-Nutrine!

Regular blog contributor and researcher extraordinaire Rick Kurish (having already come up with Monday and Tuesday’s topic this week) has certainly noticed how I have tended to “hit the bottle” when it comes to selecting topics for this blog – as recently as yesterday.

Rick recently wrote, "Your recent blogs featuring various liquor and whiskey ads in the newspapers of the 1950s and 1960s, reminded me of a turn-of-the-19th century product produced by the Anheuser - Busch Company. It was called Malt -Nutrine, and was advertised in the local newspapers of the time.

"The two attachments advertising Malt-Nutrine are from the Elyria Reporter of 9/25/1905 and 7/26/1904, respectively.”

As the top ad notes, it was distributed locally by Geo. C. Frederick, Wholesale Dealer, in Elyria.

So what was Malt-Nutrine?

As Rick explained, "It was a concoction of malt and hops with a low alcoholic content of less than 2%. It was sold as an elixir, which was advertised as a “food drink” which was ideal for convalescents and nursing mothers and as an aid for anyone with digestive problems. The product was sold by druggists, and advertisements for the product frequently appeared in doctor’s offices.

"The product was introduced in 1895, and my guess is that the Anheuser - Busch Company saw the handwriting on the wall and devised the product in response to the growing sentiment for prohibition. The product had a fairly long life, and was not discontinued until 1942. However, with the advent of prohibition in 1920, Anheuser - Busch was required to reconstitute the beverage for an alcohol content of less than half of one percent. 
"While the beverage was touted as the sovereign remedy to build the strength of nursing mothers, consumptives, and anyone suffering from a wasting disease, the virtually alcohol free beverage had to compete with Bevo, an alcohol-free beer also sold by Anheuser - Busch during prohibition which helped seal its fate. 
"Needless to say, Anheuser - Busch was overjoyed when prohibition was repealed in 1933 and they could go back to their strength — brewing quality beer.

Thanks as always to Rick for sharing his research!

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