Frederick Schaefer was born in Wetzlar, Germany, where he received training in the brewery business. At age 21 in 1838 he left Germany to find his fortune in the new world. With him, according to lore, he had just one dollar and the recipe for Lager Beer, the first of its kind in America. He found employment immediately at the brewery of Sebastian Sommer in New York City. When Schaefer's younger brother Maximilian arrived in New York in June of 1840 he too was taken up by the Sommer's brewery. The brothers began pooling their paychecks and in 1842 they bought out the Sommer's brewery, lock, stock and barrel and renamed it the F. & M. Schaefer. Demand for their lager beer was so great in New York that just two years later, in 1844, the brothers were compelled to expand the brewery and they removed to a larger building on Sixteenth and Seventeenth Streets. Five years later demand again necessitated a larger facility so they relocated once more, to Fiftieth and Park. Frederick Schaefer was an active manager of the ever-expanding brewery right up until his death, on the 21st of May 1897. He was 79 years of age, and left six children who would lead the brewery into the next century. In a testament to the family's brewing skill and business acumen, Schaefer's Lager Beer is brewed to this day.

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