Walking back to my office from the scholarship luncheon today (a really nice event where MSOE scholarship sponsors and recipients get to meet over a meal), I noticed the old Blatz Brewing Company logo atop MSOE’s Alumni Partnership Center.
The Alumni Partnership Center once served as the company offices for the Valentin Blatz Brewing Co., and the building still contains several walk-in safes and other remnants of its days as a major brewery’s headquarters. I’m in that building a few times a year, mostly in connection with MSOE’s Great Books events, but I never have occasion to see it from across the street. So today I noticed for the first time how the old Blatz logo contains
- The “Brauerstern” (brewer’s star)
- The initials “V” and “B” entwined
- A hop flower (beneath the V and B)
- A sheaf of barley (across the top)
Cool to see! Here’s a closeup showing that same basic symbol on an old Blatz label.
So anyway, the Blatz logo is obviously the “old” in today’s post. The “new” is the huge crane that dominated most of the MSOE landscape across the street from where I stood. That crane is part of the construction project that will eventually result in MSOE’s Dwight and Dian Diercks Computational Science Hall, which will house the school’s new AI program. Very exciting! (My photo below is about half a “panorama” shot, hence the weirdly bent street . . . )
Katherine Wikoff 
Oh Cool!! That label looks like a beer coaster to me. I remember my dad buying a case of Blatz at the beer depot many moons ago. That’s what they were called then in Milwaukee and now the liquor store.
LikeLike
I was wondering if that might be a coaster. It has the look! I can remember the cases of beer, too. I’m not a beer drinker so I don’t know: Do they still sell those flippity-topped cases of bottled beer? We used to decorate those and use them as our “suitcases” when out Girl Scout troop went camping. Smh 😂
LikeLike
I haven’t seen those beer cases in ages. There was a deposit on the cases of beer so
my dad always would take the case of empties back to the beer depot for a full case of Pabst, Schlitz, Blatz, Hamms or Foxhead from what I recall. I would say whatever was on sale that week was the choice. A cousin told me a great uncle of mine invented the flip top case where he worked. I should investigate that one more thoroughly. I do like your use of them for your GS camping trip. They were a good storage case for the boys wooden blocks and Lincoln log house blocks all mixed together. Times were simpler back then in Milwaukee.
LikeLike
Wow, it would be a really interesting thing to look into your great uncle’s role in inventing that flip-too beer case! Those cases were super sturdy, and the tops flipped up and down very easily and also stayed shut well once closed. Plus they had those great carrying holes in the sides, like bankers boxes do. Just perfect for storage!
LikeLike