National Brewing Company

As the name states, National Premium was an upscale beer. It was the ritzy brother of Baltimore’s National Brewing Company’s more popular blue-collar brew, National Bohemian. National Premium’s icon Mr. Pilsner, (originally spelled with an extra “e” Pilsener) sported a monocle and often donned a tuxedo. Not an outfit Mr. Boh would wear.

First brewed in 1936, National Premium was the proud product of brewmaster Carl R. Kreitler. Kreitler joined National shortly after repeal of Prohibition and oversaw the remodeling of old East Baltimore brewery that had been shuttered during the dry years of 1920 to 1933. An exacting, some would say dictatorial brewer, Kreitler imported a yeast from the Carlsburg brewery in Demark, he grew hops on his 247 acre farm near Jarrettsville and was renown in the brewing industry for his skills. National touted Kreitler’s expertise proclaiming in a 1941 advertisement in The Baltimore Sun that while there were over 500 beers in America the “decisive element which distinguishes one beer from the others is the skill, the blending, the sure touch” of its master-brewer.