| In 1841 a cellar was constructed on town acre 208 located on Pirie Street. The cellar was used to store imported ales and porter, but was put up for sale in 1842. Mr. James Walsh leased the land from James King in 1845, A brewery and malthouse were constructed on the site along with a storehouse and a cottage. The brewery was operational by September 1845 and supplied XX Ale to the surrounding hotels. James Walsh was a predominate person in early South Australia being the Captain of the Brighton Rifles, and a large shareholder in the Kadina and Wallaroo railway company. After much success Mr Walsh purchased the property in 1848. Mr. James Walsh leased the brewery in 1851 to William K. Simms, Samuel W. Humble, James Chambers and James Hayter. The brewery ran as Simms and Humble - Pirie Street Brewery. William Knox Simms would later go on to establish the West End Brewery on Hindley street and would also help setup the South Australian Brewing Company. Both James Hayter and James Chambers had retired by 1855 and the brewery was closed. William Clark from the Halifax Street Brewery leased the brewery in 1855 but had left the site unused. Eventually in late 1858 Mr Clark put the brewery up for sale. The site lay dormant until Edward Crawford from the Hindmarsh Brewery leased the premises in 1860. Mr Crawford used the site for a year, but then left the brewery to lease the new Hindmarsh brewery on Richard street. The Pirie Street brewery was again dormant for three years until 1864 when the brewery was leased by Mr J. Syme and Mr. F. Sison. James Thompson Syme migrated from Perth, Scotland in 1857 and he started brewing for John Primrose at the Union Brewery, and Frederick Samuel Sison was a traveller for Edward Crawford at the Hindmarsh Brewery. The brewery was renamed to the Adelaide Brewery and Syme & Sison had immediate success and were said to have brewed one of the best Porters in Adelaide. The brewery was remodelled in the 1870's with new offices, stables and malthouse constructed off Wyatt Street. By 1880 the brewery had established both Star and Tiger brands of ale, these brands would continue on until the brewery closed in 1902. In 1882 the brewery was sold to Mr. W.P Wicksteed, Mr. H.S.Anthony & Mr. A.McIntyre. The new owners continued to use the Syme and Sison name and continued to expand the business selling to the country areas using the new train lines into the country towns. Joker ale was introduced in 1885 and quickly became on of the most popular bottled ales in Adelaide. By the end of the 19th century the Temperance Union had gathered pace and to keep up with the current market trends the brewery introduced a Buxton tonic ale as well as Ranji Ginger beer. Prince Ranjitsinhji of India was a world renowned cricketer who visited Adelaide in 1897. It was said that he liked the filtered and pasteurised ginger beer from the brewery, so they named the ginger beer after him. By the end of the 1890's the brewery was falling into hard times with a fire in the brewing tower in 1897 and Anthony and Wicksteed dissolving their partnership in 1899, leaving Henry Anthony to continue the business. The brewery was sold to the South Australian Brewing Company Ltd in 1902. The South Australian Brewing Company continued to manufacture the Syme and Sison beers for years after the closure, Buxton Tonic Ale was manufactured at the Port August branch until the mid 1930's. The Adelaide Brewery brewing plant was distributed throughout the S.A. Brewing Co's sites (Adelaide, Broken Hill, Port Augusta & Tarcoola) |
|
|
 B5099 State Library SA 
 |
||
|
||
