History
In 1983 Phil Sexton (a former brewer for the Swan Brewery), together with Garry Gosatti, John Tollis and Ron Groves, formed Brewtech Pty Ltd to brew commercial boutique beers. Due to lack of support from Perth Hotels the company purchased and renovated the Freemasons Hotel on the corner of South Terrace and Henderson Street, Fremantle. The hotel was renovated, a micro brewery installed and renamed the Sail & Anchor, under the banner of Anchor Brewing Company. The first beer, Anchor Ale, "a dark, copper-coloured, traditional ale", was produced in late 1984.
In 1985 Brewtech opened their second venue, The Brewery Alehouse on Stirling Highway in Nedlands. The Company also established a second micro brewery at 31 Carrington Street in Nedlands, which housed the Matilda Bay Brewing Company and began producing beers in 1985. In 1986 the company launched its first wheat beer, Redback, which went onto be one of the company's best commerical successes. In 1987 Brewtech Pty Ltd changed their name to Brewtech Limited, following which they made the decision to consolidate their business under the Matilda Bay Brewing Company banner. The Company purchased another three outlets in Perth (including the Queens Hotel in Beaufort Street and the Brass Monkey in Northbridge).
In 1988 Carlton & United Breweries (a wholly owned subsidiary of Elders IXL) purchased a 20% shareholding in the Matlida Bay Brewing Company, which lead to the company in 1989 purchasing a larger premises, the former Ford Motor Company building, on Stirling Highway in North Fremantle to brew their beers. In 1990, Elders IXL renamed to the Foster's Group purchased the Matilda Bay Brewing Company, in a deal that valued Matilda Bay at more than A$50m. Carlton & United then sold the Sale & Anchor Hotel to the Australian Leisure and Hospitality Group (ALH), a subsidary of Woolworths Limited, who subsquently closed the micro-brewery operations at the hotel.
In 2005, the Matilda Bay Garage Brewery began operating in South Dandenong, Victoria in an effort to brew small batches of more experimental beers, such as Alpha Pale Ale and Dogbolter, Crema, Barking Duck and Rooftop Red Lager.
In June 2007 Fosters announced the Perth based brewery would close in September and its beer production would be moved to its other breweries to improve cost and capital efficiency, with most of the larger volume production beers, such as Redback, Beez Neez, Fat Yak and Bohemian Pilsner being moved to the Cascade Brewery in Hobart.
In 2012 the company opened the Matilda Bay Brewery Bar in the former Cadbury factory building in Port Melbourne, relocating the brewery operations from Dandenong.
Read more about this topic: Matilda Bay Brewing Company
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The foregoing generations beheld God and nature face to face; we, through their eyes. Why should not we also enjoy an original relation to the universe? Why should not we have a poetry and philosophy of insight and not of tradition, and a religion by revelation to us, and not the history of theirs?”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“... all big changes in human history have been arrived at slowly and through many compromises.”
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962)