An ill-fated brewery in Hoboken was America's oldest | Jersey Firsts

Editor's note: This is the fourth in a month-long series on Jersey Firsts, which spotlights innovators who have changed the way we eat and drink with their inventions and groundbreaking businesses.

What do we know about the ill-fated first brewery in the United States?

Admittedly, not much, said Michael Pellegrino, author of “Jersey Brew, The Story of Beer in New Jersey” (Lake Neepaulin Publishing, 2009). What we do know, is that it’s located in what we now consider Hoboken.

True, Yuengling has long claimed the title of “America’s Oldest Brewery” — it was founded in 1828 in Pottsville, Pennsylvania, and was given that title on the national and states’ registers in 1976.

But, as Pellegrino will tell you, Aert Teunissen Van Putten’s brewery was founded in 1641 — long before the United States became a nation, which is perhaps what precludes it from Yuengling’s title. It should also be mentioned that indigenous peoples were making fermented beverages long before colonists settled in the area.

So, to clarify, Van Putten's brewery was the first-known colonist brewery before the U.S. was founded. It's not much, but it's still an interesting bit of New Jersey history.

What we know about Van Putten can be traced back to Pellegrino’s book; an article called “Beer Barons of New Jersey” by Ken Dowell; Lee Bryson and Mark Haynie’s book “New Jersey Breweries” (Stackpole Books, 2008); and “History of the State of New York” by John Romeyn Brodhead (Harper, 1859).

Van Putten was a Dutch settler, born in 1621, who learned how to make beer in The Netherlands. He was one of the first European settlers to make their home in New Netherland (now called Hoboken).

According to Dowell, Van Putten was granted his land by Willem Kieft, the governor of New Netherland, in 1640. Kieft also built him a house to live in. Van Putten fenced in his square mile of land, brought in livestock and began farming.

Barley was a sought-after crop at the time, wrote Bryson and Hynie, And the Garden State was the colonies’ top supplier of grain, giving Van Putten plenty to brew with.

“He opened a brewery to make beer for the local Dutch settlers,” said Pellegrino. “People that came over from Europe had a mistrust of the water supply. Europe was overbuilt, and they were washing and putting human waste in the same water.”

Beer, it seemed, was the most sanitary option.

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Van Putten also traded beer with the local Lenni Lenape tribe that lived in the area. Van Putten would head down to Beeregat, now known as the Shrewsbury Inlet south of Sandy Hook, to trade, said Brodhead.

It was at Beeregat that Van Putten met his demise. Remember Kieft, the governor who gave Van Putten his land? Kieft also started what is now called “Kieft’s War” with the Native Americans that lived between New York and New Jersey.

Kieft ordered Dutch colonists to attack Lenape settlements and kill those who lived there, against the wishes of the colonists and his advisory council. This sparked the Algonquian tribes (Lenape is part of the Algonquian family) to unite and retaliate. Van Putten was caught in the crossfire. Lenape people killed him at Beeregat and burnt down his land in response to Kieft’s massacre.

So, things didn’t turn out well for the not-yet-country’s first brewery. But, that didn’t discourage more folks from settling in the area and opening breweries.

In the late 1600s, a few breweries were established in Salem County by men with names such as Thompson, Nicholson, Morris and Abbot, reported Bryson and Haynie.

Fast forward some 400 years later, and New Jersey has more than 120 licensed breweries.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: America's first brewery was in Hoboken NJ