Heinrich Beck (21 December 1832 â 10 June 1881) was a German brewer and co-founder of the Kaiser-Brauerei Beck & May brewery, later known as Brauerei Beck & Co. (Beck's), founded in Bremen on 27 June 1873.
Beck was born in GroÃÂeislingen (today Eislingen/Fils) in the Kingdom of Württemberg, the son of a butcher; he learned brewing at the Gasthof und Brauerei Zum Adler. He emigrated to the United States as a brewer and returned to Germany in 1864 before settling in Bremen. He married there Christine Düring in 1865, with whom he had four children.
On 27 June 1873 Beck co-founded the Kaiser-Brauerei Beck & May o.H.G. in the Neustadt district of Bremen with Lüder Rutenberg and Thomas May.
In 1874 Beck received a gold medal at the international agricultural exhibition in Bremen, presented by the future Emperor Friedrich III. In 1876 the brewery's Kaiserbier exhibited at the Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition and obtained again a gold medal for the "best continental beer".
Thomas May had left the partnership in October 1875; after that the firm traded as Kaiser-Brauerei Beck & Co. Rutenberg and Beck complemented each other with Rutenberg as entrepreneur - company builder, and Beck as brewmaster, and shaped the export oriented brewery.
Beck died in Bremen on June 10, 1881.
Beck's name remained attached to the company as it evolved into Brauerei Beck & Co.; both gold medals (Bremen 1874 and Philadelphia 1876) are still depicted on the Beck's beer label.