The history time-line.
1882 -The brewery was constructed in 1882 by German immigrants who had the intention of reproducing a Bavarian-style lager. The site in Wrexham was chosen because cutting into the hillside would provide natural insulation for the cellars. Although the location did indeed provide good insulation, the storage temperature could not be kept at a sufficiently low temperature. In Bavaria, there was a reliable supply of ice, which was evidently not available in the Wrexham area. As a result, sales failed and the brewery sank into voluntary liquidation.
1886 -A gentleman named Robert Graesser who was a director at local firm Monsanto met with one of the original brewery directors, Mr. Ivan Levenstein, on a train and agreed to buy a majority shareholding. It was his innovation to refrigerate the cellars that made brewing possible once more. Low temperatures of around minus one Celsius are required to deliver the best lagers.
1898 - Unfortunately, at his point, sales remained low as the dominant drink in the area remained ale. Very soon however, Mr. Graesser traveled to the USA on the steamship SS Baltic and took a supply of his own lager with him. What stood out about Wrexham lager was that the beer kept in excellent condition throughout the trip whilst competitors did not. The resulting demand from other ship companies developed a healthy export market.
1910 - There still remained an entrenched problem regarding sales to the local market, although miners did arrive occasionally to buy the lager directly from the brewery.
1922 - The brewery bought the Cross Foxes in Abbott Street. Naturally, this aided sales until 1938 when a local brewery, Beirnes, shut down. This expanded the estate to 23 pubs.
1947 - By the end of the Second World War, much of the export market had been lost and as a result, financial trouble loomed.
1950 - The brewery was rescued by Ind Coope of Burton-on-Trent. Lager sales continued to rise into the early 60s and Ind Coope invested £2.5 million in a modernisation programme. During this period, Ind Coope joined with other breweries to form Allied Breweries, becoming one of the largest brewing groups in Britain, which put a further £4 million into Wrexham Lager resulting in one of the most modern breweries in Europe.
1997 - The company had proposed to stop making the lager within three years but now an agreement has been reached that will see the brand name kept in trust until Mr. Jones finds a new brewer.
1999 - In 1999 Carlsberg-Tetley announced plans to close the Wrexham Brewery, believed to be the oldest lager brewery built in Britain, and the site is currently being sold off. Mr. Jones, who used to work as a microchemist at the Wrexham Brewery in North Wales, has long campaigned to keep the local brand alive, even calling for a boycott of Carlsberg in the Commons.
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