Joseph J. Hartmann was born in Germersheim, Rheinland-Pfalz, Germany.  He emigrated to America in 1848 through the port of New York and made his way across the country to participate in the California gold rush.   After a couple of years trying to strike it rich he moved on to plan B.

In 1852 he opened the first brewery in San Jose.  It was a steam brewery so it would have been a tall structure designed to catch the winds blowing off the Pacific Ocean to cool the wort.  The brewery was popular from the start, and Hartmann expanded several times over the next two decades.  He married Dorothea Messing on June 3rd, 1855.  They had five children together.

Hartmann died on March 19th, 1879 at the age of 66.  After his death his lead brewer (and son-in-law) George Scherrer took over the brewery and ran it with the Hartmann sons until his death in 1897.   The brewery afterwards was run as Hartmann & Scherrer and continued until prohibition shut it down in 1920.