Today, along with Binding, Henninger is one of the top two breweries in Frankfurt am Main. What many don't know is that the founder of the Henninger brewery in Frankfurt, Heinrich Henninger, actually began his brewing career in Erlangen.
In 1816, Henninger's father, Johann Henninger, purchased a beer company from Georg Vierzigmann, one of Erlangen's early beer giants. In 1847, ownership passed to his son, Heinrich. In 1861, Heinrich Henninger sold his company and went on to make beer in Nuremberg and eventually Frankfurt in 1872.
In Erlangen, the company retained the Henninger name. In 1906, it merged with the Reif Brewery to become Henninger-Reifbräu. That was the same company that existed in the 1960s when I was stationed in Erlangen. I still have a Henninger mug (shown above) and a Henninger glass to this day. Henninger in Erlangen was eventually bought up by a larger brewery and disappeared from Erlangen except for the annual beer fest when the recipe is revived for 12 days.
* Source: Erlangen-An American's history of a German town (University Press of America, 2005, p 108.)
