History of the Ferry Speight's Ale House
Samuel Bealey (1821 - 1901)
Samuel Bealey was born in Lancashire and educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he took his B.A. in 1851 at the late age of 30. He and his brother John bought land orders for 1,000 acres in Canterbury and sailed in the Cornwall which arrived in December 1851. The brothers made nearly all of their land investments jointly and these included a large number of sections in and near Christchurch, two large farms of heavy land and Haldon Station - lying between the Selwyn and Rakaia rivers, which they later built up to 45,000 acres. With a significantly larger amount of capital to invest, the brothers were practical and level headed men who took the best advice for their selections and employed the best managers available. They neither gambled nor lived riotously, and their affairs continued to prosper.*
Elected to the first Provincial Council in 1853, representing Christchurch City, Samuel Bealey was returned again in 1862 and again took office in the stead of Moorhouse in 1863. A likeable and popular man, Bealey was considered, in retrospect, to be a safe if unspectacular executive.
Speight's Brewery
Like the interesting characters of early New Zealand, Speight's has a long and colourful history. In 1876 James Speight, Charles Greenslade and William Dawson set up Speight's Brewery in Dunedin. Still on the same site today in Rat tray Street Dunedin, Speight's is the Pride of the South.
The Founders
Speight's BreweryIn 1876, in the bustling southern city of Dunedin, James Speight's brewing dream became a reality. With a couple of mates, Charles Greenslade and William Dawson, he purchased an evacuated bottling and malt plant, where all three had worked, and set up his own brewery.
The three men made a great team and they wasted no time in getting down to business -in fact, they put through their first brew on April 4th, a month before they received the lease on May lst and two months before they had even obtained a license on June 6th!
By 1887, the combination of clever business sense and great beer had seen Speight's grow to become the largest brewery in New Zealand. But sadly, with his dream at last a reality, James Speight died in August of that year.
Gold Medal Ale
Speight's Gold Medal AleIn 1879 a cask of Speight's Strong Ale won the fledgling brewery its first international award at the Sydney International Exhibition. Sales soared and the future of Speight's was secured. Speight's Ale continued to go from strength to strength, winning major international awards including several gold medals, hence the naming of "Speight's Gold Medal Ale" in 1893.
Speight's Craft Range
Speight's Kauri GyleSpeight's Brewery Dunedin has brewed award-winning ales since 1876. The four brews in the Speight's Craft Range - Distinction Ale, Pale Ale, Porter and Pilsener - were originated from recipes of a bygone era in a quest to recreate flavours as true as possible to the original styles.
Three of the Craft Range brews, Pale Ale, Porter and Pilsener, are fermented in kauri gyles - open-topped wooden fermentation vats which are lined with beeswax. Small volume and labour intensive, these open, shallow vessels help to bring out the seamless character and full aromas of the brews. Only one other brewery in the world is still known to use kauri gyles.
With acknowledgements to Donald Gordon's Speights The Story of Dunedin's Historic Brewery.
*"BEALEY, Samuel" from Encyclopedia of New Zealand, edited by A.H. McLintock, originally published in 1966.