"To the honoured public in city and state, I herewith announce that I will open my newly acquired and furnished restaurant and the Engel Brewery, next Sunday, July 29, 1877. You are invited to visit them, and I will do my very best to satisfy my honoured guests in my new property with fast and cheap service, good food and drink ...
Therefore I recommend frequent visits to my inn, I respectfully sign: Fach zum Engel."
The first records referring to the existence of the brewery date back to the year 1738.
„The records state: "Annual production – 150 buckets" (A 'bucket' was the equivalent of about 100 litres). When Georg Fach took over the brewery and pub more than 130 years ago, and placed the above notice in the Crailsheimer Gazette & News Sheet (Crailsheimer Amts- and Intelligenzblatt), Crailsheim had a population of only 4000. To ensure that these 4,000 didn't have to go thirsty, there were a great many pubs, and 13 breweries; so that great-grandfather Georg Fach really wasn't short of competitors. At first, the brewery's only function was to supply the restaurant's requirements. But when the second generation came along, and the founder's eldest son, Wilhelm Fach, took over the business, the motto became "Invest, Modernise, Rationalise". |
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The brewery installed a steam engine in 1903 and, in 1907, brother Friedrich Fach joined the business, which, in the course of time, had to service an ever growing clientele. In 1920, the first automobile, a WWI military vehicle, was added to the horse-drawn fleet. That this technological wonder was still a rarity at the time is best illustrated by the fact that it also served as a fire engine.
After WWII, in which Crailsheim was virtually destroyed, the Fach family, like the town's entire population, was left with nothing. After investing incredible effort and overcoming many hurdles, the brewery was rebuilt from scratch in Haller Street.
After a modest start, things soon improved, and Engel beer was enthusiastically received, not only in Crailsheim, but also by the entire regional population.
From 1967 until present the brewery underwent ongoing modernisation, and a state-of-the art, craft brewery emerged.
If, today, the Engel Brewery, under the guidance of the 4th and 5th generation of the Fach family, has survived as a competitive, productive business, then this is largely owed to the fact that, in the company's history, its leaders always found the right entrepreneurial courage at the right moment – from the founders until this day.
And, of course, because Engel knows how to brew an honest beer. |
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