Jacob Darmstaetter was born in Framersheim Germany. His family emigrated to America in 1845, when Jacob was just 12. They settled in New York City where young Jacob apprenticed as a baker.  At age 18 Jacob and his family moved to Detroit, where his brother William established a brewery on the corner of Riopelle and Sherman Streets.  William brought Jacob in as a partner in 1856.

In 1860 Jacob married Louisa Koch, a 20-year-old fellow immigrant from Saxony.  Together they had eight children, one of whom died in infancy.

Darmstaetter's brewery prospered until 1865, when, as brothers do, they had a falling out.  Jacob left the firm and started a competing brewery called the West Side, across town on Howard Street near 13th.  Despite the brotherly competition, both businesses did well.  In 1886 Jacob Darmstaetter retired from business and passed his brewery on to his two sons Hermann and Gustave. 

Jacob Darmstaetter died on the 2nd of June, 1898.  He was 65 years of age.

Under his son's leadership the West Side Brewery prospered until prohibition, after which brewery operations were shut down.  The factory was re-named the Mundus Products Company and struggled making near beer and other products for thirteen dry years.  Upon repeal the firm re-opened as the Mundus Brewing Co., but it was a new world, and competition, both locally and nationally was fierce, and the brewery closed for good in 1935.