Andrew Wales
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Andrew Wales (1737–1799) was an American brewer. As the first commercial brewer in
Alexandria, Virginia Alexandria is an independent city (United States), independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of Downto ...
, Wales also became the first commercial brewer in the
District of Columbia ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
after Alexandria's 1791 incorporation into the District. Wales served as
brewmaster A brewery or brewing company is a business that makes and sells beer. The place at which beer is commercially made is either called a brewery or a beerhouse, where distinct sets of brewing equipment are called plant. The commercial brewing of beer ...
at John Mercer's Marlborough Brewery in Stafford County, Virginia before opening his own Alexandria brewery in 1770.
George Washington George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of th ...
frequently purchased beer and barley from Wales over the course of thirty years.


Early professional life

Andrew Wales was born in
Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
in about 1737. He arrived in the
Colonies In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state'' ...
before 1765 and held a position in John Mercer's Marlborough Brewery from 1765 to 1769. He rose to the position of brewmaster after a previous brewmaster failed to produce quality beer. Washington purchased a cask of Wales' beer from the Marlborough Brewery in 1768 and would remain a customer of Wales' for thirty years. Mercer wrote in a 1767 letter that, “Wales affirmed that he had some years the charge of a brewhouse at Edinburgh.”


Wales Brewery

Wales rented space in Alexandria's Town Warehouse on Duke Street and began brewing there commercially in 1770. Within two years, Wales purchased a building to house his brewery, but did not fully relocate brewery operations until 1773. After this second brewing site burned down in 1788, he moved it a block closer to the waterfront. Cornelius Coningham, the first brewer in the City of Washington, took control of the Wales Brewery in 1798, renaming it the Alexandria Brewery. Coningham held the brewery for Wales until a new owner was found. The brewery complex was purchased by John Fitzgerald in 1798, but was sold in 1802 to settle Fitzgerald's debts after his death in 1799. The brewery complex no longer exists. Remnants of the Town Warehouse, where Wales rented space for his first brewery, were found in November 2015 during construction of a new hotel.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wales, Andrew 1737 births 1799 deaths People from Alexandria, Virginia American brewers