Genesee Brew House finds grandson of veteran whose name was on bottle from 1940s

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — A local woman found a bottle of Genesee beer from the 1940s with a custom label, dedicating the bottle to veteran Col. Townson.

Genesee Brew House says they’ve found the grandson of that U.S. Coast Guard Artillery veteran. The brew house thanked everyone for their help finding him.

.@news10nbc was kind enough to come by the @GennyBrewHouse yesterday to help spread the word about the old Liebotschaner bottle with the custom label for Col. Kenneth Townson. And good news! We found his grandson thanks to everyone's help! #ROC https://t.co/GPab5UOImA

— Genesee Brewery (@GeneseeBrewery) November 11, 2022

The woman found the bottle in her great uncle’s bar. We stopped by the Genesee Brewhouse on Thursday afternoon to take a look at the bottle. Our crew was told it was a special bottle made for a veteran born in Rochester in 1889.

The neck reads “best wishes to Colonel Townson and the officers and men of the 209th U.S. Coast Guard Artillery.”

Here’s what the brewing historian had to say about the amazing find.

“The brewery did special runs and special labels for all kinds of different special events, for things like retirements or production milestones, things like that,” said Paul Constantine, the historian at the Genesee Brewing Company. “To be honest, this is the oldest example we’ve found some collectors might be aware of something different but this is the oldest thing I’ve seen.”