Christian Benjamin Feigenspan was born in Mühlhausen, Germany. He emigrated to America at age 22 and obtained work at a brewery in Cincinnati. He left there in 1869 for New York City where he continued to pursue his career. In 1872 he accepted a job as the superintendent of the Leible Brewery in Newark, New Jersey. In 1875 he purchased the brewery. Feigenspan's ambition was expansive. In 1880 he built a larger brewery on Freeman Street, through which he soon put out of a half-million barrels of beer annually. He sent beer to the West Indies and South America. When he had reached his limit geographically he explored limits with his product. He began brewing English Ales and Porters. Christian Feigenspan died an untimely death on April 10th, 1899. He was 55 years of age. His brewery continued it's prolific ways and survived the dark days of Prohibition by selling de-alcoholized versions of his beverages. They came back after Repeal and were a strong player for many years. The brewery closed in 1948.

Christian William Feigenspan, son of the founder of the Feigenspan Brewery of Newark, was born in Essex, New Jersey. He would become president of the brewery at the age of thirty, upon his father's early death.