Rowlandsn & Lewis Brewing Ballarat

[geoffd]

I've come into possession of a very unusual beer bottle of the title brewery.
It is a clear glass bottle shaped like an afl ball - upright oval, with a metal tripod holder. The trademark is dated January 1880, the holder is kind of like those you'ld see a fabrigee egg in, but completely devoid of any patterning.

There is a raised imprint of two brewers at work on the glass, so i believe this indicates beer as opposed to soda water etc. There are hallmarks on the base of the stand which i should be able to get identified.

I am primarily looking to find out any known history of this brewery, what types of beer was made, I cant find much on google other than they produced soda water & were originally miners.

 

[floppinab]

I'll check this book (unless someone beats me to it first) when I get home tonight FJ

http://www.amazon.com/Breweries-Australia-...1266&sr=8-1

If it's not in there it didn't exist.

Hmmmmm, reminds me need to check something on the Pyrmont Brewery for crozzy as well.

 

[Howlingdog]

I'll check this book (unless someone beats me to it first) when I get home tonight FJ

http://www.amazon.com/Breweries-Australia-...1266&sr=8-1

If it's not in there it didn't exist.

Hmmmmm, reminds me need to check something on the Pyrmont Brewery for crozzy as well.

No mention of the said brewery in the index of this book or under the Ballarat section.

HD

 

[geoffd]

Cheers guys, I also believe they had a warehouse in Sydney at some point in time.
Bottle says ROWLANDS & LEWIS Ballarat & Melbourne
Possible name of product: ROWLANDS late

It is a registered trademark, so the govt records might be a recourse of sorts.

 

[geoffd]

Seems it is not beer after all, ginger beer at best. This is an exerpt from a book on technology in Australia between 1788 & 1988. Still interesting reading even if it's not beer, I'm sure some hard slogging startup microbrewers would appreciate the story, as always a good company ends when bought out by a multinational.

hallmarking appears to read 2749 WP&S with an icon of either an owl or hand pending on which way you look.


Soft Drinks

Reference has already been made to the introduction of soft drinks to the Australian colonies. Two examples of the early establishment of the technology, virtually as we know it today, will suffice. Heavy drinking on the gold fields seems greatly to have been exaggerated and when Evan Rowlands and Robert Lewis in 1854 began to manufacture drinks in a tent on the shores of Lake Wendouree at Ballarat, there were already thirteen other aerated water 'factories' slaking the miners' collective thirst.[URL="http://www.austehc.unimelb.edu.au/tia/references2.html#106"][106] They were all manual operations, so that when Rowlands and Lewis introduced a Taylors No. 1 machine they had a distinct advantage. They made lemonade, soda water, and ginger beer, and as their business grew, they purchased more equipment. In 1858, they introduced steam power and began to use Warrenheip spring water. [/URL]In 1870, Rowlands and Lewis opened a new factory in Dana Street and installed three double action soda water machines with a combined capacity of 3,500 dozen bottles per day. This plant was made in Ballarat by G. G. Norman, supervised by Rowlands and was claimed, with understandable local pride, to be the equal of anything anywhere. There was no reason why it should not have been good for, at this time because of the demands of the gold fields, the Victorian engineering infrastructure was excellent. In July 1873, a Melbourne plant was opened. The first day's output was six dozen bottles, surely a ceremonial production, but by the mid-eighties output was over 3,500 dozen per day. Warrenheip spring water was supplied to the Melbourne factory and all other lines of a steadily expanding range were made at both locations except that soda water was made only at Ballarat. Lewis retired in 1876, but Rowlands continued and invented and patented an improved soda water bottle. The water used in Rowlands products was filtered four times but his attempts to use local corks failed on quality grounds. He was a stickler for quality, which was so good that many outside Victoria paid the 'premium' imposed by inter-colonial customs duty payable at that time, but by the 1890s, Rowlands had factories in Ballarat, Melbourne, Sydney, and Newcastle. He died in 1894 but his company continued until well after the Second World War, when it was sold to Schweppes.

 

[geoffd]

here's a few pic's of the bottle & stand.

 

[Atwood]

I've come into possession of a very unusual beer bottle of the title brewery.
It is a clear glass bottle shaped like an afl ball - upright oval, with a metal tripod holder. The trademark is dated January 1880, the holder is kind of like those you'ld see a fabrigee egg in, but completely devoid of any patterning.

There is a raised imprint of two brewers at work on the glass, so i believe this indicates beer as opposed to soda water etc. There are hallmarks on the base of the stand which i should be able to get identified.

I am primarily looking to find out any known history of this brewery, what types of beer was made, I cant find much on google other than they produced soda water & were originally miners.

Hi

Would you be interested in selling the bottle? My family is descended from Rowlands and I like acquiring trinkets to do with my line.

Cheers.

 

[Atwood]

Hi

Would you be interested in selling the bottle? My family is descended from
Rowlands and I like acquiring trinkets.

Cheers.