John P. Alderete, CBO of Mayfield Brewing Company, will talk about the history of the company and host a beer and ale tasting after the talk. Please RSVP by October 27 to Charlotte Glasser at cglasser@stanford.edu or (650) 725-3332. For more information, please contact Stanford Historical Society at (650) 725-3332 or cglasser@stanford.edu.
Alsace native Michel Klineclaus founded the original Mayfield Brewing Company in 1868. The brewery's first location was on the corner of College and Yale Streets in the College Terrace Neighborhood of the unincorporated community of Mayfield, now Palo Alto. The brewery was later moved to the corner of Lincoln and Second, which are the modern-day California and Birch Streets. In 1871, Christopher Ducker bought the brewery from Klineclaus and ran it for 35 years. In 1906, Ducker retired and sold the Mayfield Brewing Company to Ernest Klevesahl, who ran it with his son Carl until Prohibition forced the brewery's closure in 1920. At its peak, the brewery produced 1000 barrels of beer a month and supplied a steam beer to the communities of Woodside, Portola, Redwood City, San Mateo and South San Francisco. Eighty-seven years after the original Mayfield Brewing Company closed its doors, it has emerged once again to serve Palo Alto and its surrounding communities.