"In 1832 Friedrich Billiods and his cousin Peter Jonte started their small brewery on the southeast corner of Sycamore and Abigail (12th) Streets. They earned a reputation for brewing good beer. It was brewed in the Strassbourger style, and the brewery workers were Swiss and French Alsatians.
Billiods left Jonte on his own in 1835 to Esatablish the Lafayette Brewery on Hamilton Road (McMicken Avenue) near Vine. Billiods chose the name of the famous hero of the American Revolution because his memory was still cherished by Cincinnatians. He visited Cincinnati in 1825.
In 1835 the city water pipes did not reach the location of the brewery. Therefore, when Billiods bought the land from Nicholas Longworth, the brewer also negotiated the rights to spring water from the hill above the brewery. Longworth owned the hillside between McMicken and Calhoun Street. Halfway up the hill there was an ever-flowing spring. In the lease of this spring, it was agreed that the water would be supplied to the brewery at Longworth's cost. As time went on, this expense grew. If Longworth, an attorney, had written this lease, he would have allowed some kind of loophole in order to extricate himself from this contract. Nevertheless, he honored the terms which had been drawn up by his attorneys, even when the cost doubled for him. Eventually city water reached this point.
Billiods increased his capacity every year and built the first so-called "Felsen" or Lagerbier cellar, a tunnel dug out of the rock of the hillside. It kept the beer cool in the days before ice machines and refrigeration.
The first bookkeeper at the brewery was Heinrich Roedter, popular captain of the Lafayette Garde, the first German volunteer military company in this city. Later, Roedter went into the newspaper business.
in 1847 much of the brewery was destroyed by fire. However, Billiods rebuilt the plant and improved it. The dangerous frame building was replaced by the brick structure seen today.
John Hauck, Billiods' son-in-law, joined the brewery in 1858 as its brewmaster. He stayed until 1863, one year after Billiods died. His brother, George Billiods, joined the brewery in 1851. He had a bakery and saloon next to the brewery.
After her husband's death. Mrs. Margaretha Billiods managed the brewery for one year. Then she sold it to William Fey and Company." Cincinnati Breweries, Second Edition, Robert J. Wimberg (1997)
