An Amber Ale from Melbourne’s long defunct McCracken’s City Brewery is the latest beer to be released by Carlton & United Breweries under its heritage brands program.

Founded in 1851 on Collins Street, Melbourne, McCracken’s City Brewery operated until 1907 when it became part of CUB, together with Foster’s and Carlton.

“It was the second largest and the oldest of the six independent breweries that formed Carlton & United Breweries, so for us as a company it’s an important part of our heritage,” CUB’s Tim Ovadia told Australian Brews News.

A laneway named after the brewery still exists in Melbourne CBD today, alongside where the brewery once was.

McCracken’s branded beers lived on as part of the CUB portfolio until the 1950s.

McCracken’s Amber Ale at the Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy

Ovadia said the McCracken’s Amber Ale created by Scott Vincent, CUB’s manager of beverage innovation, is a modern iteration of the beers McCracken’s made its name for.

“McCracken’s had a juxtaposition against the darker ales of the time,” he said.

“Robert, who was one of the brothers who founded it, wanted to create lighter more refreshing style ales for the Victorian marketplace.”

The beer was launched last night at the Union Club Hotel in Fitzroy and Ovadia said it will be rolled out to 50 or 60 inner city Melbourne venues.

He said the previous heritage beer launch, that of Tooth’s Pale Ale in Sydney, had been verywell received.

Tooth’s is still available in around 80 venues and Ovadia said there are no plans to withdraw it from sale.

“Our plan is for them to be ongoing SKUs. We recognise that some venues will put it on and take it off, as is the way in some of these venues that have rotational taps,” he said.