Summary

Established by American brothers William M and Ralph R. Foster the company was formed in 1888 and registered in Victoria in 1889. In 1907 the company joined with six other brewers to form Carlton United Breweries Ltd.

Details

In 1886 two brothers W.M. & R.R. Foster came out to Melbourne from New York. They bought with them a Mr. Sieber, a German American who had studied brewing at the College of Cologne, Frank A. Rider, a New York refrigerator engineer, and everything they needed to set a brewery. They bought a site in Collingwood and built a £48,000 brewery. Brewing started in November 1888, with the first public tasting on February 1, 1889.
The Foster brothers sold out of the business on November 13 1889, to a local syndicate. The new directors were Messrs Hart, Thomas and Turner. The company was registered in Victoria, November 13, 1889.
In August 1903 the Society of Melbourne Brewers was formed of which The Foster Brewing Co Pty Ltd was a member. The society helped fix the price of beer. In April 1906, to make themselves more competitive, it was announced that the members of the Society of Melbourne Brewers: Carlton Brewery Ltd, McCracken's City Brewery Ltd, Castlemaine Brewery Co (Melbourne) Ltd, Shamrock Brewing and Malting Co. Ltd, The Foster Brewing Co. Pty Ltd and the Victoria Brewery Pty Ltd, would amalgamate into one company.
The new company Carlton & United Breweries was registered on 8 May 1907 and all the parties signed the agreement on 30 June 1907. Montague Cohen, as the representative from The Foster Brewing Co Pty Ltd was one of the directors on the new board. The Foster Brewing Co Pty Ltd, as one of the smallest companies to make up the amalgamation only received 145,000 of the 200,000 shares divided amongst the six companies. After the amalgamation Carlton & United was to make the beer, while the other companies were to be brewers in name only. Although Fosters had only been a small brewery it had the most modern plant of the six breweries and brewing continued there for some time after the amalgamation.
After the amalgamation The Foster Brewing Co Pty Ltd became a holding company for Carlton United Shares. In a restructure of the capital of the Carlton United Shares Breweries Ltd. group, in 1973 shareholders were reissued with Carlton & United Breweries' shares.

Related entries

Timeline

 1889 - 1959? Foster Brewing Company Limited
       1907 - Carlton and United Breweries Limited

Published resources

Books

• Deutsher, Keith M., The breweries of Australia. A history., Includes brief histories of Australian brewing companies., Thomas C. Lothian Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Victoria, 1999, 374 pp. Details