Vancouver Breweries Limited

Formed in April 1900 by the merger of Red Cross Brewery and Doering & Marstrand. A NEW entity created by that merger, not a rename of either predecessor. Brewing continued at the original Scotia Street and 7th Avenue site until production transferred to the Yew Street and 11th Avenue plant in approximately late 1910. Merged into British Columbia Breweries Limited on 20 February 1911. DATE CONTRADICTION PRESERVED: April 1900 is best supported (SFU Archives authority record; SFU BC beer-history material; a Museum of Vancouver historical timeline), but a Museum of Vancouver Cascade beer-glass object record dates the merger to 1902. 1902 is independently associated with the Cascade Beer naming contest, so conflation is possible - no source establishes that and it is not asserted. FILLED 2026-09-24. The founding-merger date has three readings (1900, 1902, 1909) and the plant's end two (1980, 1990); none is resolved here. 'Old Style' as a Vancouver Breweries brand: not found. CIPO record for CASCADE: not reached.

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

1. 1900
   Vancouver Breweries Limited — three readings of the start

   The archive's ownership record has the Red Cross / Doering & Marstrand merger at 1900 (SFU Archives) with a Museum of Vancouver object saying 1902; Illustrated Vancouver has "the first company named Vancouver Breweries Limited" formed in 1900; the City of Vancouver Archives' blog says "The Doering and Marstrand Brewery changed its name to Vancouver Breweries Limited when Marstrand left in 1909" and that Red Cross and others merged in "soon after". All kept; none overwrites the ownership record.

2. 1902
   Cascade

   The Cascade name "was found by the Red Cross Brewery through a contest with a $50 prize"; "Cascade beer became the Vancouver Breweries' flagship product". The Cascade Room on Main Street is named for it.

3. 1909
   Kitsilano

   "Vancouver Breweries built its new headquarters at 11th and Vine" in 1909 and later "operated the former Canadian Brewing and Malting brewery, which had been built at 11th and Yew Street in 1912" (a $70,000 addition by James Kelly in 1913). Addresses vary between accounts — 11th and Vine, 11th/12th and Yew — most likely one complex.

4. 1911
   Into British Columbia Breweries

   A member of the holding company British Columbia Breweries Ltd from 1911 (see that record); receivership 1915, reorganised 1918, Brewers & Distillers of Vancouver from 1923.

5. 1957
   Carling

   "Vancouver Breweries was sold to Carling Breweries in the late 1950s" (City Archives); "acquired by Carling O'Keefe in 1957" (Kits Beach Beer). No source read supports a 1953 Western Canada Breweries deal for this company; 1957 is the better-attested year and matches the record.

6. 1980
   The Yew Street plant after

   The Arbutus Walk tower "is a reconstruction of the Carling O'Keefe Brewery that stood on that site from 1909 to 1980"; the plant was sold to Molson in 1990 and the site redeveloped as Arbutus Walk in 1995 — the archive's earlier note that the Yew Street plant ran until 1990 and this account's 1980 are both kept.