A brief history of the Waikato Brewery

This plaque is secured to the side of the walkway of the Victoria Bridge across the Waikato River in Hamilton.

It gives a brief history of the once-celebrated brewery which occupied the southern end of Hamilton's main street, Victoria Street.

Readers might find the story on the plaque amusing, about how Mr Charles Innes, who began this brewery, passed away.

His wife, Mary Jane Innes however was a clever businesswoman as the story above shows. The beer that her brewery made was called "Waikato" after the region and the river which ran near by.

In Hamilton they not only made beer, but also set up a factory near-by to make many flavours of bubbly cordials, or soft drinks as we called them. They were nice and were called Innes' soft drinks.

This building was the office for the once thriving Waikato Brewery, but now is probably a branch office for another brewing company elsewhere which hold the rights to continue to brew the only surviving Waikato beer variety, Waikato Draught, which used to be one of many. It is still being made because there are still a lot of Waikato people who drink it. Where the brewery stood, behind this building, are now modern accomodations - compact living. The business was sold to one of the bigger brewers and the factory here has now gone.

These are more of the photos taken during my recent walk.