On Tap at Morpeth
Tooths Draught Beer Dispenser
Step inside Morpeth’s Commercial Hotel today and you’ll find distinctive Federation-era features throughout, with an upstairs balcony overlooking the Hunter River (Coquun) and the town’s celebrated white wooden bridge crossing.
It’s a pub that’s stood the test of time, evolving to cater to contemporary tastes with a cocktail bar and a nano brewery onsite offering fresh craft brew. The taps still have old favourites ‘XXXX Gold’ or ‘Toohey’s Dark Ale’, alongside Morpeth Brewery’s ‘Black Tractor’ or ‘Pumpkin Ale’.
But if we could ‘step back’ to the 1920s you would have met hotelier Eliza Ann Sucker, a woman described as having a cheerful and charitable disposition – she was loved by many. Eliza ran the hotel for 46 years, and when she died, aged 84, among the flowers sent was a bouquet from Tooth & Co., one of Australia’s oldest breweries.
From 1924-1972 the brewing company Tooth & Co. held the Hotel’s lease. For many of those years it was their draught beer that was exclusively poured from the taps. This cheerful yellow cabinet held the ice and housed the pipes that cooled the liquid gold, and in simpler times. Patrons were happy, so long as the beer flowed.
