Macclesfield Ale from Hills spring water gets gold as world's best in 1873; made at Adelaide's Kent Town from 1888
Henry Lewis (top left) who won the best-beer gold medal at the 1873 International Exhibition in London for his Maccelesfield Ale made at a local brewery (top right0 from spring water at the Adelaide Hills town. The brewery was bought in 1888 by Adelaide's Wigg & Son who began making beer under the Macclefield brand (below) at Kent Town in the city's inner east.
Images courtesy State Library of South Australia
South Australian beer had an early taste of international prestige when Macclesfield Ale was crowned best in the world ahead of those from the big breweries in England, France, Germany and America, at the International Exhibition in South Kensington, London, in 1873.
The secret of the Macclesfield beer’s success was not only skill of Macclesfield Brewery proprietor Henry Lewis and head brewer Guildford Gray but to the special quality of the water from the gushing spring at the rear of the brewery buildings next to the Davenport Arms hotel. The spring’s salts were chemically virtually identical to those of the Burton upon Trent water in the United Kingdom, renowned for its use in brewing since the 11th Century.
The high-pressure spring made it it ideal place to set up a brewery and hotel at Macclesfield, one of South Australia’s earliest European settlements, in the Adelaide Hills, from 1841. Macclesfield Brewery was started in 1849 by James Hackett, licensee of the Davenport Arms Hotel (renamed from Goats Head Inn after Macclesfield’s founder George Davenport).
The brewery was built to the rear of the hotel on riverside land leased from J.M. & H.D. Davenport. In 1851, the brewery was taken over by William Miller and Henry Lewis. Miller was killed in 1845 when he fell into the boiling wort and the brewery and hotel were sold to William Coleman and his son before it returned to Henry Lewis in 1865.
After his 1873 London ale success along with Adelaide Show medals, Lewis, originally a butcher from Essex, sold to James Bryan, Albert landseer and William Dunk, who upgraded the brewery with a new name: the Stag. The next owners Benjamin and Henry Conigrave of the again-renamed Southern Cross Brewery had major award success in their three years. James Mott and the Danker brothers, William and Gustov, were also owners before the brewery was bought in 1888 by Wigg & Son.
Based in Adelaide, Wigg & Son had bought the old Kent Town brewery, operated by Wigg, Beevor and Clare, at the city’s inner east, trading as Macclesfield Brewing and Malting Co. Ltd from 1889. To avoid confusion, it became the Adelaide Malting and Brewing Co. in 1892 but continued to market all beers under the Macclesfield name with the emu logo. The brewery became famous for its stouts and won 21 gold medals at the Adelaide Wine Show. The brewery closed in the early 20th Century.
