Our History
Established in the 1880s the Zig Zag Brewery in Lithgow initially traded for around seventy years, until the 1950s. Originally named Corbett’s Brewery it found success with the opening of the Western Railway with the first train running across the Zig Zag to Bowenfels in 1869. With these new transport links to the Blue Mountains, it supplied beer to the workers of the expanding Lithgow’s collieries and iron foundries.
Its colourful history of the golden ages and the years of depression and disasters mirrors the social and industrial history of the times it existed. The people involved in its creation, development and survival against the odds have become legendary with many colourful stories attached to them, including a mysterious death or perhaps something more sinister.
1897 – 1928 The First Golden Age of the Zig Zag Brewery
Jack A.S Jones or Jackass Jones as he was known was a high achiever and had learnt his trade at the Waverley Brewery in Sydney at the age of 22. His tenure of thirty years brought great success. Then in 1927, together with four others, he floated Lithgow Brewery Ltd and sold the business for £70,000.
1929 – 1937 The Years of Depression and Disaster
These years were marked as chaotic for the Zig Zag Brewery. There were frequent changes of ownership, intermittent closures, bankruptcy and receiverships, and even a large Excise swindle where beer was emptied into the local river. Despite this somehow the brewery managed to stay afloat and by 1937 the Zig Zag Brewery and the Federal Brewery in Mudgee were the only two country breweries left standing in NSW.
1938 – 1958 The Second Golden Age
With the approach of World War 2 followed by the years of the war, Lithgow’s industries again expanded – the Munitions Factory, coal and electricity were in demand and work flowed into Lithgow and with-it people and money. By 1946 Norm Wyld was now the sole owner of the Brewery business and the freehold of the land on which it stood and named it was named Terry’s Brewery. The emergence of the NSW branch of the RSL gave the Brewery the opportunity to lock in a deal to take the whole of Zig Zag’s production. A real confidence boost!
More success came when Allan Wolfenden, the head brewer, entered their best stout at the Brewers Exhibition in London and was awarded First Prize in the ‘British Empire and Commonwealth Bottled Stout Division’. And by 1956 with the closure of Mudgee’s Federal Brewery left Terry’s Zig Zag Brewery as the only country brewery in NSW. However, by 1958 two years later Lithgow’s engineering and power-generating industries were in decline, and the mining industries had moved out of town to larger, more modern mines. Improved transportation also meant that Lithgow could be served by the larger breweries based in Sydney. Terry’s Brewery at Zig Zag finally closed after seventy years.
1981 - Today Modern Times at Zig Zag
In more recent times since 1981, the Schlinder family have run a just as successful water bottling business from the amazing pure spring waters the Zig Zag Brewery is situated.Then in 2014, Adrian Schlinder turned his mind to the history of the site as a brewery, and so the dream of restarting beer-making emerged. By 2014 a slide of history was perceived with the setting up of a small craft brewery in the old cool rooms of the original brewery.
Today, Joshua Udell, a brewer not too dissimilar to Jackass Jones's age is keen to keep this dream alive. He has already won his first award from the Melbourne Royal International Beer Festival with his first brew, an IPA. Trying to keep the dream alive the Zig Zag Brewery has teamed up with the newly launched Zig Zag Railway to soon offer an initial 6 beers on tap in a carriage at the Zig Zag Railway and has big hopes of a taproom coming late in 2023.
