From the Archives - Andrew Crooke

Andrew (Andy) Crooke was an active student at St Laurence’s College and in 1925 was a member of the First Cricket team and premiership winning ‘C’ grade Football team. He may, however, be more well-known for his accomplishments after leaving the College. Andy became one of the leading innovators of his time in the brewing industry when he took up the role as Head Brewer at Castlemaine Perkins Milton, more commonly known as the XXXX factory. He changed the title of Head Brewer to Production Manager and under Andy’s direction, during the 1950s, the brewery expanded and underwent several innovative changes.

Andy began his career at Castlemaine Perkins in 1928, starting his 40 year tenure, until he was dismissed by then Head Brewer AK (Archie) Hall. He then headed south and took up the Head Brewer position with the South Australia Brewing Co. until 1958. Ironically, Andy’s return to Castlemaine Perkins came when he was invited to take over the Head role after Archie was sacked from his duties. Andy’s first task was to introduce science laboratories to maintain quality control within the brewery and to test recipes for new and upcoming brews.

Under his tenure the factory introduced Castlemaine 2.2 Bitter, Castlemaine Special Dry and XXXX Lite. XXXX Lite wasn’t as successful as the company had hoped and although the team thought this was the best tasting brew they had introduced, the sales did not eventuate. They realised that although Queenslanders loved the taste of the beer, they were unwilling to drink a beer with such low alcohol content. They went back to the drawing board and raised the alcohol content from 3.5% to 4.5% and decided to re-brand it as XXXX Gold. Today it remains one of the country’s most popular brews, selling 1 in 8 beers in Australia and 1 in 4 in Queensland.

Soon after the release of XXXX Gold, Andy and the team devised another ingenious innovation, the ‘stubby’. A compact-sized bottle which was stronger and easier to hold. Andy went one step further inventing something to hold your stubby in. The stubby cooler was introduced to keep your drink cold and Australians have been using them to keep their beers cold ever since.

Workers at the factory would call Andy the ‘grey ghost’, because at night-time when you passed the brewery, he would still be in his office working. Andy was a XXXX legend, memorialised in the Castlemaine Perkins Hall of Fame. Revered amongst the XXXX brewing technical cognoscenti as an early adopter of the scientific method and statistical control, his discipline and passion for the role set XXXX up for the stellar growth they experienced during the 60’s and 70’s when volume famously doubled and doubled again.

Andy, being the avid cricketer and former First cricket player, is rumoured to have set up a makeshift pitch right in the middle of the brewery adjacent to where the current Head Brewer’s office is now. Andy retired from his position as Production Manager and became adviser to the Board of Directors in March 1971.