A Spark of Inspiration

Back in 1951, a hankering for good barbecue lit a fire under George Stephen.

An employee of Weber Brothers Metal Works just outside of Chicago, George welded metal
buoys for the Coast Guard. But that’s not all he did: George loved to grill. With
a growing family at home, he found it the perfect way to relax, but couldn’t
find a grill on the market that lived up to his high expectations.
The most popular grill of the day was a flat open brazier—
a product George found woefully under-engineered.
He knew there had to be a better way.

Born From A Buoy

One day, George was about to weld two buoy halves together when the idea hit: Why not use the bottom half for the cooking bowl, and the top half for the lid to create a grill? Piece by piece, his vision started coming together. He then added a handle and three legs and took his crazy-looking contraption home to test.

Poking some holes in George’s Theory

Poking some holes in George's TheoryAs the story goes, when George first tried out his prototype, it didn’t work quite as hoped. No matter how hard he tried, it just wouldn’t stay lit. A neighbor peering over the back fence offered a little friendly advice, “Poke some holes in that thing so the fire can get some air!” So George did, and the flames of invention could finally keep burning.

Have Kettle, Will Travel

Shortly after, all of George’s neighbors gathered around to enjoy a taste of the best steak they ever had in their lives. George figured he was really on to something, so he packed up “George’s Barbecue Kettle” and hit the road, demonstrating his funny looking creation at mom-and-pop hardware stores across the country. And the rest, as they say, is history.

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The Next Big Thing in Outdoor Cooking

More than 30 years later, Weber introduced the ground-breaking Genesis® gas grill with a revolutionary new cooking system that would set the standard for all that followed. Unlike other gas grills of the time that used messy and flare-up-prone lava rock, the Genesis® used an ingenious system of metal bars angled to the perfect pitch to distribute heat and channel drippings away from the food. That meant fewer flare-ups and easier clean-up. Pure perfection.

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Grilling Evolves

Nothing would have made George happier than to see grilling rise to an art form. With clever features and cool inventions, the newest products take grilling to a whole new level. Click to discover what we’ve been up to lately.

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