Becker Brewing and Malting Company

The Becker Brewing and Malting Company (BBMC) was founded in 1890 in Ogden, Utah, by the Becker family and was located on the southwest corner of 19th Street and Lincoln Avenue. Gustav L. Becker was president and treasurer, and his father, John S. Becker was secretary. Albert E. Becker, Gustav's younger brother, became vice president in 1893.

The company manufactured and sold various kinds of beer, over time expanding its manufactures to include near beer, soft drinks, including "Zest," ice, and related products. The company sold to a regional market, including the states of Utah, Nevada, Idaho, Oregon, Colorado, Arizona, and California. A few sales were made as far away as Illinois and Pennsylvania. In 1906, BBMC became agents for the Anheuser-Busch Brewing Association.

By the mid-1910s BBMC's operations began to be challenged by local and state laws restricting the sale of alcohol. As Utah began passing Prohibition laws forbidding the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages, the Becker family examined alternatives. In 1917, BBMC began the production of "Becco,"a very low alcohol (0.3% by volume) near beer. That same year BBMC split its operations. The Ogden operation was renamed the Becker Products Company, and the Becker Brewing Company, which took over beer production, was established in nearby Evanston, Wyoming, which was still a "wet" state. When national Prohibition laws took effect in 1920, however, the Becker companies ceased all beer production. These two businesses operated independently for some years, and apparently remained separate entities even after national Prohibition ended in 1933. By 1968, both Becker companies had ceased operations.

>Gustav Lorenz Becker

Gustav Lorenz Becker was born 7 April 1868 in Winona, Minnesota, to German immigrants Johann Stephan Becker and Katharine Marie Fehr Becker. G. L. Becker attended Lambert's College in Winona before moving in 1890 to Ogden, Utah, with his father, J. S. Becker, and brother, Albert E. Becker. There they established the Becker Brewing and Malting Company. On 18 August 1892, G. L. Becker married Thekla Bohn, sister of Conrad Bohn, office manager for Becker Brewing and Manufacturing Company.

Becker resided in Ogden for the rest of his life, but maintained family, business, and recreational ties to the upper Midwest, and appears to have traveled there frequently. In addition to running the Becker Brewing and Malting Company, Becker served as president of the United States Brewers' Association and the National Brewers' Association. He was also a director of the Amalgamated Sugar Company, the Ogden State Bank, the Utah-Idaho Central Railway Company, the Superior Rock Springs Coal Company, the Ogden Morning Examiner, the Tintic Standard Mining Company, and the Lion Coal Company. He maintained memberships in various Masonic organizations, the Elks, and the Eagles. Becker was also active in many athletic associations and clubs, including the Chicago Athletic Club and the South Shore Country Club in Chicago, and the Weber Club, Rotary Club, Ogden Golf and Country Club, Bear River Duck Club, and Ogden Gun Club in Ogden, Utah. He was also a world-class trap shooter.

Apparently to show his loyalty to the United States, Becker joined the Utah National Guard in 1893, and in 1918, at the age of fifty, the Home Guard. At the time of his death, Becker was one of only twelve people to have been awarded the American Legion Medal for Distinguished Service. Becker died in Ogden, 12 January 1947, at the age of seventy-eight.

Albert Ernest Becker

Albert Ernest Becker was born 4 August 1871 in Winona, Minnesota. A. E. Becker attended Northwestern University before serving a brewing apprenticeship in Chicago from 1890-92. Subsequently, Becker spent a year studying at the Wahl and Henius Research Laboratories. He moved to Ogden, Utah, in 1893 to serve as vice president of the Becker Brewing and Malting Company. In 1906, Becker married Josephine Aadneson of Ogden. After her death in 1909, Becker married Nell Caruth of Coalville, Utah, in 1910.

A. E. Becker was active in the Ogden Chamber of Commerce and was director of the Wasatch Insurance Company and the Rotary Club. He was also a member of several Masonic organizations. Becker served as a member of the Utah House of Representatives in 1929. He became president of the Becker Products Company late in his life, when he bought out the heirs of his brother, Gustav L. Becker. A. E. Becker died in Ogden, Utah, on 15 January, 1961, at the age of eighty-nine.

From the guide to the Becker Brewing and Malting Company records, 1893-1954, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives)