Tally's Beer Archive
← All breweries

Archive record · Brewery

Dow Brewery Limited

Montréal / Québec City, Quebec, Quebec, Canada

Closed · 1997Ownership unknownMicrobrewery
Founded
1952
Closed
1997
Archive ID
TB-7TJYMPKH
Last checked
2026-09-24

Who owns this brewery?

Not yet establishedNot yet established

The archive is still digging. That is a gap in the research, not a finding of independence.

Know who owns it? Tell us, and we will correct the record.

01

From the record

Summary

Quebec cultural-heritage records state National Breweries, controlled by Canadian Breweries Ltd., became Dow Brewery Limited in 1952, consolidating Dow, Dawes, Frontenac and Boswell. Heritage records treat Dow Brewery Limited as operating from 1952 to 1973; it later merged into the O'Keefe/Carling O'Keefe lineage. RESEARCHED 2026-09-24: closedYear 1997 = the brands' discontinuation, not a dissolution. See the 1952, 1966 and 1997 entries. Related records: dow-breweries (1790 lineage) and dawes-and-co (Lachine). Death toll of the 1965-66 affair: 20 (Wikipedia) or 20-25 (Beer Et Seq); the peer-reviewed account is PMC1923410, unread.

A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.

Events

  1. National Breweries Ltd. becomes Dow Brewery Limited1952

    CORPORATE NAME CHANGE

  2. Canadian Breweries acquires Dow Brewery Limited1963

02

The Museum

Timeline

  1. 1952
    National Breweries becomes Dow

    After Canadian Breweries acquired National Breweries Ltd. in 1952, "the corporate name was ultimately changed to 'Dow Breweries Ltd.'" (Beer Et Seq). This record is that company; dow-breweries (TB-19G1GECC) carries the older lineage back to Thomas Dunn's brewery of 1790, which William Dow took over, and dawes-and-co (TB-5TMWATHY) the Lachine brewery that came into National Breweries in 1909. Related, not merged.

  2. 1966
    The cobalt affair; Quebec City closes

    Cobalt sulphate had been added to the Quebec City beer since July 1965 to hold the foam, at ten times the Montreal concentration; over eight months 51 cases of cardiomyopathy and 20 deaths (Wikipedia) — "something like 20-25 persons" (Beer Et Seq). The Quebec City brewery ceased operations on 31 March 1966 (Wikipedia; not yet checked against a newspaper). The Montreal beer was not implicated.

  3. 1997
    The Dow brands end

    The Dow brands were discontinued in the spring of 1997 (Wikipedia), by then in Molson's hands after Carling O'Keefe merged with Molson in 1989 (Canadian Encyclopedia). The 990 Notre-Dame West brewery, built 1925 to Louis-Auguste Amos's designs, stood empty from 1998 by urban-heritage accounts and was converted in 2010 into the Centre d'innovation INGO (Images Montréal). When the last brew ran, and when the company was struck off: UNKNOWN.

04

The Beer Library

Beers

Kingsbeer

Discontinued

Lager

Born at Dawes Brewery, Montreal, in 1912 as Königsbier; renamed Kingsbeer by a Montreal Gazette advertisement of 28 September 1914, the war having made a German name unsellable. The Canadian trademark (UCA47317) gives first use in Canada as 12 November 1914 and Dow Brewery Limited, 990 Notre Dame Street West, as registered owner from its 1953 filing; title passed to Carling O'Keefe on 31 March 1976 and to Molson Breweries on 1 August 1989, and the mark was expunged for non-use on 2 August 1991. The recipe went from all-malt lager to a rice-based one by 1949 and back to all-malt in late 1963. The beer itself faded out in the 1980s; exact year UNKNOWN. No source ties its end to the 1965 Dow cobalt affair, which concerned Dow Ale, so this record does not. Filed here because Dow is the registered owner and the Montreal plant drinkers remember; the brand's Dawes and National Breweries years are in these notes, not on a second record.

Drank this? Add it to your passport →
08

Show your working

Sources

  1. recordProbable

    Brewery record taken from Tally's Quebec master, Pass 83, which cited https://www.patrimoine-culturel.gouv.qc.ca/detail.do?id=234496&methode=consulter&type=bien for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.

    Tally's Quebec master, Pass 83 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026

    CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19
    Claim last checked 2026-08-19

Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.

09

Straight answers

Common questions about Dow Brewery Limited

Is Dow Brewery Limited still open?
No. Dow Brewery Limited has closed (1997). Quebec cultural-heritage records state National Breweries, controlled by Canadian Breweries Ltd., became Dow Brewery Limited in 1952, consolidating Dow, Dawes, Frontenac and Boswell. Heritage records treat Dow Brewery Limited as operating from 1952 to 1973; it later merged into the O'Keefe/Carling O'Keefe lineage. RESEARCHED 2026-09-24: closedYear 1997 = the brands' discontinuation, not a dissolution. See the 1952, 1966 and 1997 entries. Related records: dow-breweries (1790 lineage) and dawes-and-co (Lachine). Death toll of the 1965-66 affair: 20 (Wikipedia) or 20-25 (Beer Et Seq); the peer-reviewed account is PMC1923410, unread.
When was Dow Brewery Limited founded?
Dow Brewery Limited was founded in 1952 in Montréal / Québec City, Quebec, Canada.
Collect what you discover

Drinking Dow Brewery Limited? Stamp it in your passport.

Discover it here — collect it in the Passport. Track every beer, earn stamps, and build your own beer passport.

Open the Passport →
Is this your brewery?

Every brewery deserves its full story told.

If you're the owner or team behind Dow Brewery Limited, we'll build out your complete profile — history, the people, every beer — and feature you in a Tally's documentary. No cost, just your story.

Get featured →Something look wrong? Suggest an edit

No payment affects this record — editorial policy