The Pirie Street Brewery was a brewery situated on Pirie and Wyatt Streets, Adelaide, in the early days of the British colony of South Australia. It was succeeded on the same site after a few years by the Adelaide Brewery. Its original address was 50-62 Wyatt Street; today the buildings at 54–60 are heritage-listed in the South Australian Heritage Register, and there is a remaining building at 113 Pirie Street now occupied by the Hill Smith Gallery.
This Adelaide Brewery is not to be confused with the Adelaide Brewery founded by Charles Mallen for W. K. Simms in Waverley, New South Wales.
History of the company
Pirie Street Brewery was operated by James Walsh (1847 to 1851), Simms & Hayter (1851 to July 1853) then Simms & Humble (July 1853 to August 1855), followed by E. J. F. Crawford. Walsh founded the Pirie Street Brewery in 1847 or earlier. It was not popular with those living nearby. In 1851 he sold the business to William Knox Simms and John Hayter, who operated the business as Simms & Hayter.
Samuel Humble joined in 1853, and they traded as Simms & Humble until 1854, when the partnership (which by then included James Chambers) was dissolved. and the business disposed of to E. J. F. Crawford, who ran it until at least 1859. Simms & Co., took over William Clark's Halifax Street Brewery in 1856.
In 1861 J. T. Syme and F. S. Sison formed a partnership Syme & Sison, and established the Adelaide Brewery on the same Pirie Street site. Syme & Sison were also associated with several hotels in Adelaide: the Queen's Arms in Wright Street, the Somerset at the corner of Pulteney and Flinders Streets, and the White Conduit House Hotel in North Street.
In June 1882 they sold the business to Andrew McIntyre, William Wicksteed and Henry Anthony, none of them with any brewing experience, who continued trading as Syme & Sison. while the originals left for England. Wicksteed and Anthony were found insolvent July 1886.
The Adelaide Brewery was acquired "on very advantageous terms" by the South Australian Brewing Company around 1900.