Wrexham Lager
Encyclopedia
Brewery
A brewery is a dedicated building for the making of beer, though beer can be made at home, and has been for much of beer's history. A company which makes beer is called either a brewery or a brewing company....
in Wrexham
Wrexham
Wrexham is a town in Wales. It is the administrative centre of the wider Wrexham County Borough, and the largest town in North Wales, located in the east of the region. It is situated between the Welsh mountains and the lower Dee Valley close to the border with Cheshire, England...
, north-east Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, that produced alcoholic drink for more than 120 years. It closed in 2000 and was mostly demolished between 2002 and 2003. Only the historic building in which brewing started still remains, however there are currently plans to resume brewing using the original ingredients. Wrexham lager recently made a comeback on October 29, 2011 at the Buck House Hotel in Bangor-on-dee, Wrexham.
Foundation
The company was founded in 1881 by GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
immigrants, Ivan Levinstein and Otto Isler, trying to recreate their local lager
Lager
Lager is a type of beer made from malted barley that is brewed and stored at low temperatures. There are many types of lager; pale lager is the most widely-consumed and commercially available style of beer in the world; Pilsner, Bock, Dortmunder Export and Märzen are all styles of lager...
. Wrexham itself had good water quality, and at one time had as many as nineteen different breweries operating, Wrexham Lager being the first Lager Brewery. The specific site was chosen as it was on a hill and the brewers could dig cellars into it for insulation from external heat, and the nearby River Gwenfro could be tapped for the required water. Brewing of the first lager began in 1882. However, the brewers could not easily keep the temperature down, affecting the quality of the lager and the brewery went into voluntary liquidation.
Early Years
In 1886, Robert Graesser, another German immigrant who had established the chemical works at Cefn MawrCefn Mawr
Cefn Mawr is a large village in the community of Cefn within the County Borough of Wrexham, Wales. Its name translates as "great ridge".The community of Cefn comprises the villages of Cefn Mawr, Cefn-bychan , Acrefair, Penybryn, Newbridge, Plasmadoc and Rhosymedre and is situated on the northern...
bought a majority shareholding in the brewery, introducing mechanical refrigeration demonstrated at his chemical plant to keep the cellars at -1°C. Local sales did not improve as the people of Wrexham were used to drinking ale
Ale
Ale is a type of beer brewed from malted barley using a warm fermentation with a strain of brewers' yeast. The yeast will ferment the beer quickly, giving it a sweet, full bodied and fruity taste...
as their staple drink; In 1892, the brewery was bankrupt. However Graesser reformed the brewery as, and found a non-local market in export sales, primarily through railways such as the Great Western Railway
Great Western Railway
The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament in 1835 and ran its first trains in 1838...
(who were also the primary method of shipping the beer out of Wrexham), shipping lines such as Cunard
Cunard
Cunard may refer to:* Grace Cunard , American silent film actress* Nancy Cunard , English writer, editor, and publisher* Samuel Cunard , British shipping magnate-Other:...
, and the British Army
British Army
The British Army is the land warfare branch of Her Majesty's Armed Forces in the United Kingdom. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdom of England and Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707. The new British Army incorporated Regiments that had already existed in England...
; there was documentary evidence of the lager appearing in many places, such as Khartoum
Khartoum
Khartoum is the capital and largest city of Sudan and of Khartoum State. It is located at the confluence of the White Nile flowing north from Lake Victoria, and the Blue Nile flowing west from Ethiopia. The location where the two Niles meet is known as "al-Mogran"...
as early as 1898.
Maturation
Although successful abroad, local sales remained low in the local area until the brewery bought the Cross Foxes public housePublic house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
in Abbott Street in Wrexham in 1922, today known as the Last Orders public house. Such tied house
Tied house
In the UK a tied house is a public house that is required to buy at least some of its beer from a particular brewery. This is in contrast to a free house, which is able to choose the beers it stocks freely.- Definition of "tied" :...
s boosted trade for most breweries, but sales expansion relied on local hostelries becoming available for takeover. When a rival local brewery shut down, Wrexham Lager was able to buy the freeholds of their tied houses, expanding to a total of 23 pubs.
Mergers and Decline
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the export market was lost and was difficult to reclaim after the hostilities ceased. Wrexham Lager's debt increased and the company was bought out by Ind Coope of Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent
Burton upon Trent, also known as Burton-on-Trent or simply Burton, is a town straddling the River Trent in the east of Staffordshire, England. Its associated adjective is "Burtonian"....
.
Lager grew in popularity after the War and domestic sales began to rise. In the early 1960s, Ind Coope invested £2.5million in a modernisation programme. Wrexham Lager and Ind Coope later joined with Ansells and Tetley Walker to become Allied Breweries
Allied Breweries
Allied Breweries was the result of a 1961 merger between Ind Coope , Ansells , and Tetley Walker .- Ansells :...
, which became the largest brewing group in Britain of the time. Now a popular local drink, the lager and brewery had a cultural impact on the town, and the brewery once sponsored Wrexham F.C.; To this day Wrexham fans still shout a Football chant
Football chant
A football chant or terrace chant, is a song or chant sung at association football matches. They can be historic, dating back to the formation of the club, adaptations of popular songs, or spontaneous reactions to events on the pitch. They are one of the last remaining sources of an oral folk song...
to the tune of Bread of Heaven, substituting the lyric of Bread of Heaven, with Wrexham Lager.
In 1992, Allied merged with the Danish
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
Carlsberg group and the resulting company became Carlsberg-Tetley, who ran the brewery until it closed. In 2000, brewing of Wrexham Lager was moved to Leeds where it was brewed for two years, finally ending in 2002.
Attempts were made during these two years to buy the brewery as a going concern before it was demolished but failed. Brewing equipment was auctioned and the building demolished, the stages being recorded by the BBC. A small retail park, "Central Retail Park", has now been built on the site of the former unlisted buildings.
Revival
In 2002, Martyn JonesMartyn Jones
Martyn David Jones is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Clwyd South from 1987 until his retirement at the 2010 general election.-Early life:...
, a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for the nearby Clwyd South constituency
Clwyd South (UK Parliament constituency)
Clwyd South is a constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom . The constituency was created in 1997, and it elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post method of election.The Clwyd South Welsh Assembly constituency was created with the same...
who had once been employed by the brewery, bought the original name and building for £1 in 2001. Local activists hope that brewing may continue from this building, at least on a small scale. The building itself is listed.
Wrexham Lager made a comeback on October 29 2011 at the Buck House in Bangor-on-dee and is now available at a range of pubs throughout the county including the town centre pub the golden lion, which reopened on November 7th 2011. At this moment in time they are focusing on the pub trade. They are currently using a new logo until they claim the rights for the old logo.