History of Carling lager

The Carling Brewing Company was founded by Sir Thomas Carling, at London, Ontario, Canada in 1843. Thomas Carling is a native of Yorkshire, England.

In 1849, John Carling and his older brother, William purchased their father’s brewery in London, Ontario. The Carling brothers took advantages of Canada’s expanding railway network into enhances their sales reach to the point where their brewery had become one of Canada’s biggest by the 1870s.

On February 13, 1879, massive fire destroyed the brewery. John supervised the rebuilding of the brewery, managing to begin operations in April 1879. In the first month of operation, the new plant was able to produce 150,000 gallons of ale, lager, and port.

In the early twentieth century Carling maintained its place as major Canadian brewer by continuing its national promotional strategy. In 1880, to try to help the company expand quickly and overcome the loss of the original brewery, the Carlings bought a brewery in Cleveland, Ohio.

In 1827, the company was reincorporated as Carling Breweries Limited. In 1930, E. P Taylor bought the overextended Carling Breweries Limited and folded it into his recently formed conglomerate, Brewing Corporation of Canada Limited.

Taylor saw that in exchange for introducing British style beer into Canada, he could expand sales of his Carling beer brand into the UK and onward onto Europe. In 1953 he began discussion with the Hope & Anchor Brewery of Sheffield.

Brewing and Distilling International of October 2001 reported that Carling was the UK’s number one beer brand, being worth over £1.7 billion in retail terms.
Carling lager