South Australian Brewing Company

The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited was a brewery located in Thebarton, an inner-west suburb of Adelaide, South Australia. It is a subsidiary of Lion, which in turn is owned by Kirin, a Japan-based beverage company.[1] It manufactures West End Draught beer.

The company was created in 1888 as the South Australian Brewing, Malting, and Wine and Spirit Company, from an amalgamation of the West End Brewery (in Hindley Street, Adelaide city centre), the Kent Town Brewery, and the wine and spirit merchants Rounsevell & Simms.[2] In 1938 the company took over the Walkerville Brewery, whose main site was at 107 Port Road, Thebarton (the original site of Torrenside Brewery established in 1886). The company's operations continued at its two breweries on Hindley Street and Thebarton, with the Thebarton site becoming known as the Nathan Brewery after the takeover in 1838, then again reverting to its former name, Southwark Brewery, before being rebadged the West End Brewery after the Hindley Street premises closed in 1980.

The Thebarton brewery closed in June 2021.[1]

19th century: foundation

The South Australian Brewing Company was established in February 1888 as the South Australian Brewing, Malting, and Wine and Spirit Company[3][4] by the amalgamation of Sir Edwin Thomas Smith's Kent Town Brewery, William Knox Simms's West End Brewery and the wine and spirit merchants Rounsevell & Simms (Ben Rounsevell and Alfred Simms). The managing directors of the new company were Robert Alfred Stock, Alfred Simms, and W. B. (Ben) Rounsevell. Provisional directors were Edwin Smith, W. K. Simms, W. B. Rounsevell, R. A. Stock, Alfred Simms, Charles H. T. Hart, and Frank Rymill of Adelaide, and Hon. N. Fitzgerald, John Robb, Malcolm McEacharn, John B. Watson, and John McIlwraith (brother of Thomas McIlwraith), of Melbourne.[5]

The new company set about enlarging the brewing facilities at West End and centring the malting work at Kent Town. It began a campaign of purchasing hotels freehold or leasehold, and by the end of the 1880s had a stranglehold on the Adelaide market, owning 44 hotels and leasing 65.

20th century

Robert Stock, Edwin Smith's brother-in-law and manager of the Kent Town Brewery, became chairman of the board and general manager of SA Brewing; Stock died in 1904 and Samuel Jacobs served from 1904 to 1937. Jacobs' son (later Sir) Roland Jacobs was managing director from 1948 to 1967.[6]

The black and red colours of the SA Brewing Company came about after the West Adelaide Football Club (whose colours are black and red) defeated Port Adelaide in the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) 1911 Grand Final, and defeated VFL premiers Essendon in the Championship of Australia play-off at Adelaide Oval shortly afterwards in the same year.[9]

In 1927 T. A. Nation was the brewer and G. B. Bryant the general manager. His board of directors comprised S. J. Jacobs (later managing director), Sir Lancelot Stirling, K.C.M.G., Edward Fitzgerald, LL.D., and H. W. Morphett.[10]

21st century

West End Draught was the largest selling beer in South Australia in 2007. West End Draught is a 4.5% abv pale lager, first brewed in 1859.[21]

In October 2020 it was announced that the Thebarton brewery would be closing in June 2021, with the loss of over 90 jobs.[8] It finally closed at close of business on 17 June 2021, with about a third of the workforce, mainly those in sales and sponsorship roles, staying on with the company in South Australia. Artefacts in the on-site museum were catalogued and donated to the State Library of South Australia and other local institutions.[22]

The South Australian Government purchased the 8.4 ha Thebarton site from Lion Nathan for $61.5 million in 2023, intending to develop it with over 1,000 homes, of which 20% would be economical residential. The site is within 2km of the CBD, and is well serviced by trams.[23]

Football

See also

• Australian pub
• Beer in Australia
• List of breweries in Australia
• South Australian food and drink

Further reading