The Eiffel Tower

Eiffel Tower Brewery (J. Chocqueel & Co.), Tauranga, 1912-1913
Real photo postcard by unidentified photographer
Collection Tauranga City Libraries, Pae Korokī Ref. 99-1149

Paris has its Eiffel Tower but how many people know that Tauranga had its own Eiffel Tower, albeit a brewery with French connections. The brewer was Joseph Marie Barthelemy Chocqueel who was born in Bergues, France in 1881, where he learned his trade as a brewer. Joseph was in New Zealand by 1906 to join his older brother Andre, who had settled in the Waikato area. Joseph married Madeleine Marie Demasure on the 24 June 1906 and the couple had three children born during their time in New Zealand. In 1908 both brothers became naturalized New Zealand citizens. Before coming to Tauranga, Joseph had successfully owned the Three Star Brewery in Old Farm Road, Hamilton which he had sold to Edward Cussen in 1910.

On 22 May 1912 Joseph arrived in Tauranga to make arrangements for setting up a new brewery. He had chosen a site at the corner of Durham Street East and Hamilton Street South. Messrs Schreiber and Johanson won the contract for the erection of the brewery premises. The building was to be two storeys high with a ground area of 1200-1400 square feet. Constructed of wood and iron it was to be built on a solid concrete foundation. On 12 June 1912 Joseph wrote to the council applying for an entrance to be made to 34 Durham Street and for the street to be graded and levelled with the front entrance.

“Eiffel Tower Pale Ale” advertisement by J. Chocqueel & Co., Tauranga
Published in the Bay of Plenty Times, 18 September to 2 December 1912
Courtesy of Papers Past

By 23 August 1912 the work had been completed. The building consisted of two main floors, with several small rooms built in tiers above the second floor. On the ground floor there were five rooms: a bottling room, main cellar, bottle washing room, engine room and a coal storage room. The boiler house and office were detached. The second floor was made up of two rooms and twenty-four feet above this floor was the room for the heating vat. This vat was connected to the municipal water supply by pipes and the water was heated by steam pipes connected to the boiler. Pipes took the hot water throughout the whole building.

Directly under the heating vat was the mash tun, a vat in which malt is mashed with temperature-controlled water. After the mash had been treated it was filtered through the perforated bottom of the tun into the boiling vat, twelve feet over the second floor, where the hops were added and boiled. The hot liquid was then moved to a strainer, leading to the refrigerator where the liquid was chilled to the required temperature. Next stop on the journey was the fermenting tun on the second floor where, after a certain period, the beer was drawn off, ready for its final treatment from the brewer in the main cellar. The main cellar was capable of holding two thousand gallons of liquor. The bottling room was fitted with the latest machinery. Next door was the washing room with massive concrete tubs for washing and spraying the bottles.

Birds Eye View, Tauranga, with Eiffel Tower Brewery in foreground (Talma Photo 27)
Real photo postcard published by Michael McMahon (The M. McM. Series)
Collection of Justine Neal

Joseph and his partner Mr C.A. Brabant, who had been the local agent for the Northern Steamship Company and was now to manage the commercial side of the business, declared that the ale and stout brewed at the Eiffel Brewery would be the best table beer brewed in the Dominion. It was made using the old French method without the addition of sugar, glucose or any chemical additive. During September 1912 their first ale and stout went on sale and from there on they advertised regularly in the Bay of Plenty Times.

13 December 1912
“Here’s Luck!” Eiffel Tower Pure Beer. Brewed without chemicals. At all Hotels – Chocqueel and Co. Brewers and Bottlers. Tauranga.

 

14 Mar 1913. Eiffel Tower Beer is Pure Beer.

It is brewed without chemicals of any description.

It is made from the best malt and hops, and lovely mountain water.

It can be drunk at any time and does not give you that gassy, heady feeling.

If you are run down it will do you good.

Eiffel Tower Is Pure Beer.

Chocqueel and Co. Brewers and Bottlers Tauranga.

On March 28, 1913 Mr. J. Brown, auctioneer offered the Eiffel Tower Brewery, including land, plant and stock for sale. Mr. G. A. Brabant bought it for £700. On March 31 1913 a further article pointed out that Chocqueel and Brabant’s partnership had been dissolved. The business would still continue but be known as Tauranga Brewery, Brabant & Co., Brewers and Bottlers. An expert brewer was shortly expected from the South.

On April 7, 1913 the following advertisement appeared in the Bay of Plenty Times:

House and Section For Sale.
Messrs Wilson and Robbin have been favoured with instructions from Mr. Chocqueel (who is leaving the district) to sell as above. Six roomed house and section Cameron Rd; Launch ‘Yvonne’ 24 feet long, 3½ horse power Zealandia engine, sails etc. together with new dinghy. Also: New ‘Brinsmead’ piano. Note – The House and Section can be had on very easy terms. Piano on view at owner’s house.

Sad news was to follow in the Auckland Weekly News on 24 December 1914.

CHOCQUEEL. Killed in action, Mr. Marcel Chocqueel, brother of Andre Chocqueel of Hamilton, at the battle of Betheny on 17 September 1914. Mr. Joseph Chocqueel, formerly a resident of Tauranga and Hamilton is among the missing at the fighting round Diksmuide.

References

Ancestry.com
Papers Past
Tauranga City Library
Auckland Weekly News
Waikato Times, The Dead Tell Tales, 17 November 2014
New Zealand Marriages, 1836-1956