South Australian Brewing Company


The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited, was established in February 1888 as the South Australian Brewing, Malting, and Wine and Spirit Company 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.
The Managing Directors of the new company were Robert Alfred Stock, Alfred Simms JP., and W. B. Rounsevell.
Provisional directors were Sir. E. T. Smith, W. K. Simms, MLC., W. B. Rounsevell, MP., R. A. Stock, Alfred Simms, Charles H. T. Hart, and Frank Rymill of Adelaide, and Hon. N. Fitzgerald, MLC., John Robb, JP., M. D. McEacharn, John B. Watson, and John McIlwraith, of Melbourne.
In 1927 T. A. Nation was the brewer and G. B. Bryant the general manager. His board of directors comprised S. J. Jacobs, Sir Lancelot Stirling, K.C.M.G., Edward Fitzgerald, LL.D., and H. W. Morphett.
The Torrenside Brewery at Southwark, on the banks of the River Torrens north-west of the city centre producing "Southwark" beers, was founded by A. W. & T. L. Ware in 1886 and became the Walkerville Cooperative Brewery in 1898. This business was taken over by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1938.
The West End brewery was closed between the wars, and the operations consolidated with the Southwark brewery operations at the Thebarton site.
According to legend, the black and red colours of the SA Brewing Company came about after the West Adelaide Football Club defeated Port Adelaide in the 1909 South Australian National Football League Australian rules football Grand Final.
West End Draught remains the largest selling beer in South Australia. West End Draught is a currently a 4.5% abv pale lager, first brewed in 1859. The brand is actively involved with the SANFL, was the original sponsor of the "Showdown" in the Australian Football League, and is one of the sponsors of the "Slowdown" charity football match. The tradition of painting the Thebarton brewery chimney with the team colours of the SANFL premiership finalists began in 1954.
Other beers brewed under the West End brand are West End Export, West End Gold and West End Light.
Prior to the acquisition of the brewing assets by Lion Nathan in 1993, SA Brewing split its brewing assets into "SA Brewing Holdings", and its diversified operations were formed into a new listed company named Southcorp. One of Southcorp's major assets was "Southcorp Wines",, and subsequently acquired by Lion Nathan's main Australian rival, the Foster's Group.