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The Cyclopedia of New Zealand [Auckland Provincial District]

The Campbell And Ehrenfried Company

The Campbell And Ehrenfried Company, Ltd., Brewers, Bottlers and Cordial Manufacturers and General Merchants, Lower Queen Street and Elliot Street, Auckland. This company, which is the largest brewing business in the North Island, if not in New Zealand, was formed by the amalgamation of the firms of Messrs Brown, Campbell and Co., and Messrs Ehrenfried Bros., and their incorporation in May, 1897, with a capital of £300,000. The firm of Messrs Brown, Campbell and Co. was formed in May, 1839, by Dr. J. Logan Campbell and the late Mr. William Brown, who carried on business at Thames, and at the Crown and Domain breweries, New-market. The firm of Messrs Ehrenfried Bros. was established in 1868 by the late Messrs Louis Ehrenfried and Bernard Ehrenfried, and was conducted under the same style until the late amalgamation, the negotiations for which were initiated previous to the death of the late Mr Louis Ehrenfried, and after his demise were completed by Mr. Arthur M. Myers and Dr. Campbell. The three directors of the company are Dr. Campbell and Messrs Arthur and Leo Myers; Mr. Arthur Myers being managing director and Mr. A. S. Bankart, formerly with Messrs Brown, Campbell and Co., secretary. When Messrs Ehrenfried Bros. began business in 1868 their output amounted to about sixty hogsheads per month, or an average of 720 per year. In 1879, the output was 6440 hogsheads; in 1892, 6055 hogsheads; in 1893, 6598 hogsheads; in 1894, 7123 hogsheads; in 1895, 7376 hogsheads; in 1896, 8127 hogsheads; and at the date of the amalgamation in 1897, 10,238 hogsheads. The company's output for 1897 and 1898 reached 13,552 hogsheads. In addition to brewing both firms carried on a large wine, spirit, bottled ale and stout trade. The wines were imported from Europe and Australia, and the bottled ales and stout enjoyed
Interior of Offices.

Interior of Offices.

page 330
Messrs Campbell, Ehrennfried & Co.'s Premises.

Messrs Campbell, Ehrennfried & Co.'s Premises.

page 331 a high reputation throughout the Colony. Since the company has been formed this branch has been largely increased, and there is a strong demand for its brands throughout the colonies. The Company has large malt-houses at Newmarket, where it malts its own barley. It purchases largely from Blenheim, Nelson, Canterbury and the Lake districts, and also a small quantity locally in order to encourage the growth of the grain; and it pays top prices for southern barley. In all, it uses about 12,000 sacks, or over 55,000 bushels of barley annually. It is also a large buyer of hops, and uses annually about 65,000 pounds; principally Nelson, and partly English; Bavarian and Californian hops are used for blending purposes. In 1895 the wine and spirit trade of Messrs Brown, Campbell and Co, amounted to £37,000, and that of Messrs Ehrenfried Bros, to £37,874, while in the first year of the company's operations, the output nearly reached £100,000. In 1896 the bottled ale and stout trade of Messrs Ehrenfried Bros. amounted to 13,355 dozen, while the output of the company in 1897–8 reached 33,000 dozen. The company has erected a handsome four-storey building in Lower Queen Street; it runs right through Little Queen Street, and contains the offices, bottling and labelling departments, and the department for the manufacture of cordials, etc. Beneath the ground floor are extensive cellars containing the bins where the fresh brews of beer are kept for the purpose of maturing before bottling, and after being bottled, kept another three months before being delivered. Handsome offices for the manager, secretary and clerical staff abut on the front entrance on the ground floor. The rear portion is used for the storage and delivery of goods at the Little Queen Street entrance. The corking, labelling and capsuling are carried out on the second floor, and there are rows of racks filled with gross upon gross of bottles of ale and stout awaiting delivery, or to be packed in cases for export. The third floor is set apart for the wine, spirit and cordial department, and has a row of sixteen large vats, each containing 350 gallons of spirits and different wines, all duty paid, for small buyers. The foreman in charge is an expert, and is continually experimenting in the manufacture of cordials, bitters, tonics, etc. The company has placed its own brand of “Braemar” whisky on the market, with the most satisfactory results, as the sales last year reached 2500 gallons, and it also deals largely in “Goldeck,” a Hungarian claret which has become very popular. The company's Bavarian hop bitters find a ready market, and last season the output of lemon squash ran to over 3000 dozen bottles. The fourth floor is used principally for bottle washing. An elevator conveys the bottles in crates from below, and they pass into the hands of expert bottle-washers, who average fifty to sixty dozen a day. The board room is a comfortably fitted up apartment in the front portion of the second floor, and contains very handsome and speaking portraits of the late proprietors. The original Albert Brewery was built about fifty years ago; it passed through several hands, and was finally taken over by Messrs Ehrenfried Bros. in 1880. As it stands at present, the building forms two separate portions known as the “old” and “new” building. Each is provided with a complete brewing plant of sixty hogshead capacity, one auxiliary to the other, one being
Interior of Premises.

Interior of Premises.

page 332 driven by gas-power and the other by steam. The two plants are connected by an auxiliary shaft, so that in the case of the failure of the gas or steam power, as the case may be, both can be run by either motive power alone. The brewery is built on the very latest elevation principle. When the malt is received at the brewery it is elevated to the top floor, where it is dumped into bins; thence it goes through a Boby rotary polishing machine, and all foreign substance is separated, thus allowing nothing but polished grain of a uniform size to enter the mill which crushes the malt and elevates it back to the top of the brewery, to be deposited in the crushed malt-bins. From these bins it passes through a Maitland masher, where it is saturated with water by means of a perforated double jacket, and thence conveyed to the mash tun. This tun has a capacity of 200 bushels, and is fitted with a Morton's patent slotted gun-metal false bottom, and a throe-arm ball-bearing sparge. After treatment in the mash tun the liquor is received in a 4000 gallon copper, where the hops and sugar are added, and is boiled for about two hours; then a valve allows it to escape into a “hopback” fitted with strainers, which permit the liquor to run clear into the cooler and keep the hops back to be pressed. The cooler has a capacity of 4000 gallons, and the beer continually passes through it and thence over a Morton's latest patent sixty-barrel refrigerator into the gyles. These gyles consist of eight vats of 800 gallons capacity, and here the liquor passes through the process of fermentation, which lasts for forty-eight hours. It next passes by gravitation into cleaners placed in the cellars to finish the process of fermentation, which takes about eight or nine days, when the beer is practically fit for consumption. The water used for the manufacture of the beer is pumped from an artesian spring in the brewery ground and from a depth of 1104 feet. One hundred feet below the surface there is a large reservoir, and the water consumption amounts to about 20,000 gallons per day. The cellarage capacity of the brewery is apportioned as follows:—No, 1 cellar has a capacity of 500 hogsheads; No. 2, 400 hogsheads; No. 3, 600 hogsheads; No. 4 cellar, 1000 hogsheads; and the stock cellar has a storage capacity equal to 2500 casks of beer. The average temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit, the roofs being insulated with pumice to preserve its uniformity. All the casks are made from imported oak staves, and the company keep four coopers regularly employed. On the second floor of the new building are the offices, and the forwarding department opening on Elliot Street. The machinery comprises three fifteen horse-power gas engines, a six-ton freezing machine, and one of Morton's sixty-barrel refrigerators; and the beer casks are raised from the cellars to the flooring stage of the delivery department by an endless chain elevator. The cask-washing department is at the main entrance from Elliot Street, its dimensions being 140 by 60 feet. There the casks are mechanically washed by steam and boiling water, and then put on drying stages, after which they are carefully examined and put down into the cellar by means of an automatic eage. The company owns ten delivery carts and provides two traps for travellers; and the brewery is under the supervision of Mr. Griffiths, an expert brewer, who has been with Messrs Ehrenfried Bros. for many years. About forty-two hands are employed in the brewery, and the company altogether employs about eighty-four men. The company also owns the well-known “Puriri Natural Mineral Water,” the consumption of which is rapidly increasing, and bids fair at no distant date to beat its rival “Apollinaris” in the larger markets of the world. The company is extremely popular owing to its honourable dealings with its clients and customers, and also on account of the practical interest taken by its managers in all works appertaining to the good of the city or to sporting and charitable organizations.
Mr. Myers.

Mr. Myers.

Interior of Premises: Another View.

Interior of Premises: Another View.