The lager that was sunk on the Titantic before the Titantic itself was sunk, the first British lager to be exported to Africa, Australia and even China, the lager that British soldiers in the Sudan sought refreshment with, whilst besieged with General Gordon in Khartoum in 1898 is back.
This was a brew that travelled the world, a British lager that was truly
world class, a British lager with a history, a British lager with a proud
heritage, almost lost for good, thanks to the bean counters of an industrial and
multinational brewer, who knew the price of everything and the value of
nothing. How did blow such a great marketing opportunity whilst they were
prepared to put millions behind the marketing of inferior brews.
Otto Isler and Ivan Levinstein, two German immigrants from Saxony
established the Wrexham Lager Beer Company in 1881 and, a year later, started
brewing lager in accordance with the Reinheitsgebot, which dictates that beer may contain only three ingredients: water, barley, and hops.
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| (Courtesy Wrexham Museum) |
Their brewery struggled to survive in the early years, but a chance
meeting on the train to Liverpool between Ivan Levinstein and Robert Graesser, an
industrialist with a chemical works in Acrefair. Graesser joined the brewery as
he felt his mechanical refrigeration could cool the brewery's cellars. Even
though now they started winning brewing prizes, the tied pub system ensured
that there were few outlets in the town for Wrexham Lager. In 1892 the
company went bust.
Graesser re-launched the Wrexham Lager Beer Company but
still, faced poor sales, as people in Wrexham drank ale.
A chance event altered that. Graesser went to the USA on the steamship
SS Baltic and took a supply of his own lager with him. It kept in excellent
condition throughout the trip whilst competitiors' beers deteriorated and thus
a ships' stores market was developed as other shipping lines took his lager. Wrexham Lager travelled well over water and the firm boomed and because of this ship
trade, an export market began to develop in two big markets: the Empire and the
Army.
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| (Courtesy Wrexham Museum) |
Despite this history it was abandoned by its multinational brewing owners Carlsberg-Tetley in 2000.
Now, it has been rescued and restored by local brew-master, and former
brewing manager at Wrexham Lager, Ian Dale, to its former glory
following the brew's 1970's recipe when the lager was at 4% strength (reduced to 3.2% after
the merger with Carlsberg).
Ian Dale has teamed up with local businessmen John, Vaughan and
Mark Roberts to set up a new micro-brewery in one of the old warehouses of the
Roberts brothers' distribution firm, F Jones.
Together they formed a plan. Research was undertaken which resulted in a
new German connection "We travelled to America and round Europe in search
of the best equipment, but in the end we decided to go with a German family-run
firm which are the oldest makers of [lager] brewing equipment
in the world” said Mark Roberts talking of their conclusion to award the
fitting out of the new brewery to Kaspar Schulz.
"We did our homework because it was an important decision to make"
Mark says of their deliberations. Their German engineers have now completed the
new micro-brewery and brewing the new Wrexham Lager has begun.
Ian Dale finds it an exciting proposition to recreate Wrexham Lager following
the brew's recipe from the 1970s. "They've gone for the best equipment
possible, and the new plant is second to none. The fact that this plant is much
smaller doesn't matter. We're going to start off slowly though, let the new
plant bed in and get established."
Concentrating on delivering consistent quality, initially the lager will be available
only in kegs, consequently only on-tap in local pubs for the time being.
Mark Roberts feels the new logo for the new Wrexham Lager encapsulates the town's history "We use the Welsh colours, have a dragon and also a football inside a rugby ball, as we do have a great tradition for rugby, be we didn't want to leave out the football fans," he explained, "Then we've got the gold for hopefully future success and the black for Wrexham's coal mining days".
From a marketing perspective it does look as if Carlsberg-Tetley and its predecessors Ind Coope and Allied Breweries missed a big trick here. Pure and premium lagers are big business and they had one of their own that they just ignored.
Unlike other lagers this isn’t just any old lager...
This isn’t just probably the best lager in the world...
This is Wrexham Lager – “feed me till I want no more”.
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