Since the first brew by Captain James Cook and the crew of the Resolution at Dusky Sound in April 1773, the story of beer has been deeply intertwined with the history of Aotearoa – from the early settlers’ prodigious consumption of golden ale to the six o’clock swill, from prohibition to the ‘Black Budget’, from the domination of Lion and DB to the rise of craft beer.
In this extract from Chapter 2 of Continuous Ferment, Greg Ryan examines Aotearoa’s early days as a beer-drinking nation exploring the trials and tribulations of importing beer by ship as well as early home and commercial brewing efforts.

The Domain Brewery, Auckland, seen here around 1890, was originally established by prominent merchants William Brown and John Logan Campbell in 1850 as the Hobson’s Bridge Brewery. Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections, 7_A5067

‘It is a Brewer’s Paradise’: Beer and Settlement, 1840 –1860

While anecdote abounds, the evidence for a popular notion that most of New Zealand was drunk for most of the 1840s and for many years beyond is sketchy. Rather, as David Hughes observed of early Australia, if alcohol was consumed with the psychological desperation suggested by some, then why did the settlers expend so much effort to establish a brewing industry producing a weaker beverage than easily obtainable spirits? Attention must turn to the perspective of the brewer and the drinker to understand how and why beer became such a significant component of colonial life, an important feature of daily rituals and public occasions, and an indicator of prosperity and stability.

Prior to the establishment of colonial production in New Zealand, the beer drinker who could not produce their own was reliant on imports. Because statistics were not kept, there is no way of knowing the amount of beer imported into New Zealand before 1853 or its proportion in relation to spirits and wine. While much British wealth during the nineteenth century was generated through the export performance of key industries such as textiles, engineering and shipbuilding, brewing was not to the forefront. Britain exported no more than 3 per cent of its total output during the nineteenth century. Exporting was the most difficult component of the brewing trade, due to it being a bulky product and issues of durability and quality during many months at sea. If the beer was too old when exported, it was frequently undrinkable upon arrival. If it was too young, then the continuing fermentation could cause bottles and casks to explode during a rough voyage. There was also little incentive to overcome difficulties in determining price, obtaining payment from distant creditors and dealing with high shipping and insurance charges when it was all too easy to sell in local British markets that were ever expanding with the decline of domestic, home-based or publican brewing from the late eighteenth century.

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Variety notwithstanding, imported beer was relatively expensive and one can perhaps understand the greater consumption of spirits. A dozen bottles of ale, perhaps 9 litres at most and likely less depending on the size of the bottles, cost 21 shillings in Wellington in April 1840, before falling gradually to 12 or 13 shillings, where it generally remained until at least 1845. By contrast, a gallon (4.5 litres) of rum never cost more than 10 shillings 9 pence and fell as low as 4 shillings for most of the period 1842–45; a gallon of brandy, aside from a few spikes to 15 shillings, was generally 6 or 7 shillings; and gin was generally 7 to 10 shillings a bottle, although as low as 2 shillings in 1842. Only wine, which reached 32 shillings per dozen bottles during 1842–43, was consistently more expensive than imported beer.

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The sharp variations in quantities of alcohol imported (Table 2.1) also suggest some challenges for the dedicated beer drinker. While the actual liquid quantity of beer imported kept pace with and eventually exceeded that of spirits, by far the greater portion of the imported pure alcohol volume was spirits. Further, whereas spirits and wine could be stored and distributed at a fairly even rate of supply to meet demand, the comparatively limited keeping qualities of imported beer, remembering that it may already have spent six months or more maturing on its journey to New Zealand, made stockpiling less likely. In short, the beer drinker desirous of a familiar pint or two from home almost certainly encountered a more volatile market in terms of price and availability than the confirmed spirit drinker.

One way to bypass obstacles of price and supply was to brew your own. Yet the skill of domestic brewing, already noted as being in decline during the eighteenth century, was in wholesale retreat by the time settlers embarked for New Zealand during the 1840s. The collapsing economic position of the rural working class and the departure of large numbers for the expanding industrial cities ensured that the cost of brewing equipment, materials and fuel were increasingly beyond the means of many, and that the chain of brewing expertise handed from generation to generation was broken. It is estimated that private brewing constituted two-thirds of all beer in England in 1700, half in 1800, one-fifth in 1830, one-eighth by 1851–55, and one-fortieth by 1866–70. These developments paralleled a rapid concentration in the commercial brewing industry, where the large firms of London and Burton in particular gradually squeezed out small firms and publican brewers to such an extent that by 1914 the ten largest brewers produced a quarter of all beer in England.

No doubt some colonists made it their business to be equipped with all of the skills for life in the new pre-industrial New Zealand society, but one should not overestimate the number who had some skill in malting their own barley or maintaining a reliable yeast for fermentation. Indeed, the evidence for their activities is scarce. In July 1848 a Nelson newspaper sought to encourage the home brewer by publishing ‘Directions for the management of barley intended for malting’, supplied by a brewery in a ‘neighbouring colony’. Three years later Thomas Smith of the Bridge Street Brewery in Nelson seemed to sabotage his own business prospects by offering malt and hops for anyone interested in brewing their own, while in September 1852 Charles Homeyer of New Plymouth repeatedly advertised two kinds of ‘home-brewed farmhouse ale’ – a mild dinner ale and a good pale bitter ale, described as ‘a good stomachic’, in 2-gallon kegs at 1 shilling 6 pence per keg. Alternatively, farm produce or firewood would be taken in exchange. In October 1853 Vicesimus Lush, vicar of Howick, Auckland, recorded a near calamity with his family beer supply.

Blanche busy brewing: when the large tub was almost full of warm liquor, Allie [his son] must needs go peeping over and suddenly lost his balance and went plump, head foremost, into the beer. Fortunately… he was out again in an instant but got a good ducking and a terrible fright. How thankful we should be that the beer was not scalding hot.

If the import supply was problematic and home brewing limited, conditions were therefore ideal for the establishment of local breweries. Following Polack’s brief endeavour at Kororāreka, it is not entirely certain when and where New Zealand’s second commercial brewery was established. In later years a number of prominent firms were inclined to embellish their history to ensure they were present at or near the beginning. Typical is John Logan Campbell, who claimed to have opened a brewery in Auckland early in 1842, where evidence clearly shows that his first Hobson’s Bridge Brewery did not begin operations until December 1850. The most likely successor to Polack was William Smithson in Auckland, who advertised his Norfolk Brewery from January 1842:

Unadulterated Beer, from English Malt. W. Smithson begs to inform the inhabitants of Auckland that he has commenced brewing Ale and Table Beer from Imported English Malt, at his Brewery, adjoining the New Court House, and can supply the former at 2s. 6d. per gallon, and the latter at 1s. 6d. per gallon, Cash. Also, Yeast at 3s. per gallon, suited for Bakers and private Families.

Next after Smithson was probably Wellington’s Te Aro Brewery very late in 1842, followed in quick succession by the rival Wellington Brewery, two in Nelson and probably one each in Auckland and New Plymouth. Wellington could have had its first brewery even earlier. In March 1841 a brewery plant was advertised for sale by one Frank Losack, who was leaving the settlement due to ‘domestic calamity’, his wife having died of dysentery the previous month leaving five young children, and ‘thereby resigning his sanguine expectations for success as a brewer here’. He was happy to lend expert advice to any purchaser as he had been for many years connected with the ‘famed Windsor Brewery’ in Berkshire.

The following year it was reported that ‘enterprising gentlemen’ were establishing a brewery in Wellington on the basis that if it was worthwhile to import barrels of beer, it was more worthwhile to import a few pounds of ingredients to add to the local water. But there is no sign of anything tangible until January 1843 when the Te Aro Brewery appeared in a subscription list for the Wellington anniversary fête. Two months later the apparently much larger Wellington Brewery began advertising ‘ale and table ale in draught or bottle in any quantities from 2 gallons and upwards’.

Extract from Continuous Ferment: A History of Beer and Brewing in New Zealand by Greg Ryan (Auckland University Press).

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