South Australian Brewing Company

The South Australian Brewing Company 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 (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. The new company set about enlarging the brewing facilities at West End and centring the malting work at Kent Town. In 1893 they sold off their wine and spirit business to A. E. & F. Tolley Pty Ltd and Milne & Co., and the name was changed to South Australian Brewing Company, Limited. ==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. 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. 1938: Walkerville/Nathan takeover The Walkerville Cooperative Brewery, which produced the popular Nathan beers, was taken over by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1938, after which operations were concentrated on the old Torrenside Brewery (established 1886, a precursor of Walkerville Brewery). The brewery was renamed Nathan Brewery to remove the Walkerville's "Southwark" branding) was responsible for upgrading the Hindley Street building. From 1949, the brewery was again renamed Southwark Brewery, From 1955 operations were split between the company's two major factories, with the West End Brewery in Hindley Street making only draught beer in kegs; bottled beer only was produced in the Thebarton plant. Until 1974, when the Whitlam government revised the Trade Practices Act, they were legally able to dispense only the company's beer in their pubs. 1980: Hindley St site closed In 1980, faced with mounting problems with traffic on West Terrace and ageing and inefficient equipment, not to mention the rapidly increasing value of City land, the original West End Brewery closed and the property sold, operations moved to the Southwark Brewery in Thebarton, which was rebadged "West End". The old Hindley Street building was demolished in 1983, and in 1993, Lion Nathan took over the West End brands. 1993 Lion acquisition 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", (acquired from the Adelaide Steamship Company in 1990), and subsequently acquired by Lion Nathan's main Australian rival, the Foster's Group. ==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. In October 2020 it was announced that the Thebarton brewery would be closing in June 2021, with the loss of over 90 jobs. The South Australian Government purchased the 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. The West End Brewery chimney tower has been heritage-listed and will be preserved when the site is redeveloped. ==Football==

' colours above runner up North Adelaide's colours. Chimney-painting The tradition of painting the brewery chimney with the team colours of the South Australian National Football League (SANFL) premiership team began in 1954, The tradition of painting the colours of the premier and runners-up was maintained at the Hindley Street premises until its closure in 1980, before transferring to the Thebarton site, The tradition of painting a chimney in the two teams' colours would continue at the Hoffmann Kiln at the Brickworks Marketplace in nearby Torrensville from 2021, with the cost of the painting continuing to be borne by Lion. AFL Showdown SA Brewing was the original sponsor of the "Showdown" in the Australian Football League in 1997, and is one of the sponsors of the "Slowdown" charity football match. ==See also==