Old Lion Brewery Hotel


The Lion Hotel Brewery have a long history with brewing, The site has been used for brewing since 1870 with the Lion Brewery started by William James Bailey, and a hotel constructed on the site in 1881. The brewery was renamed to the Lion Brewing & Malting Company Limited in 1888. Brewing stopped in the 1920's but the company continued to manufacture soft drinks into 1974. In 1972 the hotel premises were purchased and the hotel redeveloped into a modern nightspot.

Micro brewing had taken off in Australia by 1986 and the owners of the Lion Hotel joined into a partnership with the Sail and Anchor brewpub in Fremantle to start a micro brewery on the site. A 20 Hectolitre British Morton brew tower was purchased and brewing started in November 1986. Only draught beer was produced on site. Bottled beer was made by the Sail & Anchor brewpub in Western Australia.

In September 1989 the partnership between the Lion and Sail & Anchor had dissolved and the brewery sold off. The new owners continued to brew beer at the site and it was still being sold in the Old Lion Hotel even thought they were both under different ownership. The new owners tried to spice up the stale micro brewing environment in Adelaide by brewing a Wheat beer and selling it in a 2 Litre Persian Jug. And despite there initial success the brewery closed in 1990.

The bank had sold the brewery in 1991 and new owners had started the Lion Brewery in 1992. The new owners had revived some of the old labels that the brewery produced in the 1930's. The new beers were bottle conditioned and were sold in traditional longneck bottles. This sales plan was not very successful and bottling stopped shortly afterwards. One of the owners of the brewery left in 1994 to concentrate on his new creation '2 Dogs Lemonade'. In late 1994 the brewery once again started to bottle beer and in May 1995 the Lion Brewery won the contract to brew Swanky beer for the Copper Coast festival, but shortly afterward the brewery closed.
 

Logo

Old Lion Brewery Hotel

Brewery ID : 5.001.M002

Jerningham Street, North Adelaide

Established : 1986

Closed : 1996

Brewery / Contract : Brewery

Draught & Bottled Product

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Picture

Picture

Labels from the brewery

Label
5.001.M002.001.001
1987

Label
5.001.M002.001.002
c1988

Label
5.001.M002.001.003
c1988

Label
5.001.M002.002.001
1988

Label
5.001.M002.002.002
1991

Label
5.001.M002.003.001
1990

Label
5.001.M002.003.002
1990

Label
5.001.M002.003.003
1990
Growler Label

Label
5.001.M002.003.004
1991

Label
5.001.M002.004.001
1992

Label
5.001.M002.005.001
1992

Label
5.001.M002.006.001
1995

Label
5.001.M002.007.001
1991

Label
5.001.M002.0S1.0N1
1987
Magarey Medal Neck Label

Label
5.001.M002.0S2.001
1990
Growler Label for Clipsal

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