What we have not established
Open Questions
Every archive has gaps. Most of them hide the gaps, which makes the whole record impossible to check — if you cannot see what is missing, you cannot tell a thorough entry from a thin one. So here is ours, written as questions, each one attached to the brewery it belongs to.
None of these are guesses waiting to be printed. They are blanks, and they stay blank until something establishes them. If you can answer one, you will have improved a public record permanently.
273 breweries
Is it still brewing?
We have a brewery, a place, and no reliable answer to the most basic question anyone asks about one. A dead website is not proof of closure and a live website is not proof of production, so these sit unconfirmed rather than being called either.
- 3 MonjesArgentina
- AWASH BrewingArgentina
- Cerveza PiltriArgentina
- Chaura Cerveza ArtesanalArgentina
- Grans ValArgentina
- MambaArgentina
- Grand Bahama Brewing CompanyBahamas
- 10 Saints Brewery Co LtdBarbados
- Bad Bones BeerCanada
- Banished BrewingCanada
- Bavarian Brewing Company Ltd.Canada
- Bay de Verde Brewing CompanyCanada
- Bedondaine et Bedons Ronds Brasseur ArtisanCanada
- Birra FanelliCanada
- Bishop's Arches BreweryCanada
- Brasserie 11 comtésCanada
- Brasserie AnorakCanada
- Brasserie Artisanale Le Saint-GraalCanada
- Brasserie AyawanCanada
- Brasserie BarabasCanada
- Brasserie Bois BlancCanada
- Brasserie ÉlémentsCanada
- Brasserie et distillerie Champ LibreCanada
- Brasserie Grande AlléeCanada
- Brasserie HopfenstarkCanada
- Brasserie L'Histoire Sans FinCanada
- Brasserie Les 2 FrèresCanada
- Brasserie Les Vents d'AngeCanada
- Brasserie LocomotivCanada
- Brasserie LouksCanada
- Brasserie MacFerlyCanada
- Brasserie Mille ÎlesCanada
- Brasserie Saint-Antoine-AbbéCanada
- Brasserie St-LukeCanada
- Brasserie Sutton BrouërieCanada
- Brasserie UpsilonCanada
- Brasseurs Panachés Inc.Canada
- Canton BrasseCanada
- Caporal MicrobrasserieCanada
- Common Crown Brewing Co.Canada
- Cormack Brewing Co.Canada
- Délires et DélicesCanada
- Domaine NokomisCanada
- Farnham Ale & LagerCanada
- Ferme Brassicole Chasseur-CueilleurCanada
- Hans Wich brewery — Harbour Grace (historical name UNKNOWN)Canada
- Herman BrasserieCanada
- L'Albatros, brasserie artisanaleCanada
- L'Ancienne Forge / Nanobrasserie L'Ancienne ForgeCanada
- L'Étale - Microbrasserie GourmandeCanada
- La Maison du BrasseurCanada
- Labatt Breweries of Newfoundland — Stephenville PlantCanada
- Labatt St. John's BreweryCanada
- Laccro MicrobrasserieCanada
- Le Barrage - BrasseursCanada
- Le Cheptel - MicrobrasserieCanada
- Le Hangar à HoublonCanada
- Les Brasseries BêtaCanada
- Les Insulaires MicrobrasseursCanada
- Little North BrewhouseCanada
and 213 more
1,179 breweries
When did it stop?
These closed. We could not establish the year with enough confidence to print one, so we print none. Oldest foundings first — the further back a closure sits, the fewer people are left who could date it, and the more it matters that someone does.
- founded 1431 — closed ?City of London Brewery / Calvert & Co.Upper Thames Street, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1616 — closed ?Barclay Perkins Anchor BreweryPark Street, Southwark, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1650 — closed ?Historic Brasserie Motte-CordonnierArmentières, Nord / Hauts-de-France, France
- founded 1750 — closed ?Whitbread Chiswell Street BreweryChiswell Street, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1757 — closed ?Charrington & Co. - Anchor BreweryMile End Road, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1757 — closed ?Reid's Griffin BreweryLiquorpond Street / Clerkenwell Road, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1764 — closed ?Meux Horse Shoe BreweryTottenham Court Road / St Giles, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1783 — closed ?Brauerei Eichhorn ForchheimForchheim, Landkreis Forchheim / Upper Franconia, Germany
- founded 1787 — closed ?Courage Anchor Brewery / Anchor BrewhouseHorselydown, Bermondsey, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1792 — closed ?Distillerie-brasserie Young / de BeauportBeauport (Québec City), Quebec, Canada
- founded 1793 — closed ?Coventry Brewery - Leicester Row / Coventry Porter BreweryCoventry, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1808 — closed ?Mann, Crossman & Paulin - Albion BreweryWhitechapel Road, London, England, United Kingdom
- founded 1813 — closed ?Carnegieska Porterbruket / CarnegiebryggerietKlippan / Majorna, Gothenburg, Sweden
and 1,119 more in the closed ledger
910 breweries
What proves it?
These carry our two highest confidence grades and no source you can follow. That is a contradiction, not a detail: either the citation was lost on the way in, or the grade was generous. Both are worth knowing, and neither is worth hiding while we work through them.
- Brauerei Schwechatgrade B
- St. Marx Brewerygrade B
- Ambev / Brahma brewery systemgrade A
- 2ndWind Brewery & Eaterygrade A
- 33 Acres Brewing Company Albertagrade A
- A & R / Righton's / Kootenay Brewerygrade A
- À La Dérive Brasserie Artisanalegrade A
- À Outrancegrade B
- Alchemy Brewing Companygrade A
- Anchor Brewery (Joseph Knight Boswell)grade A
- Anormalt - Brasserie artisanalegrade A
- Arcadia Brewing Co.grade A
- Archibald Microbrasseriegrade A
- Arrowhead Brewing Companygrade A
- Atlin Brewing / Northern Brewing Co.grade A
- Au Maître Brasseur / AMB - Maître Brasseurgrade A
- Au Vide Sacgrade B
- Aubier Microbrasseriegrade B
- Backroads Brewing Co. – Osoyoosgrade A
- Banished Brewinggrade A
- Barbe Broue Microbrasseriegrade A
- Barkerville Brewery lineagegrade A
- Batch 44 Brewery & Kitchengrade A
- Battle River Beer Co.grade A
- Bavarian Brewing Company Ltd.grade A
- Bay de Verde Brewing Companygrade A
- Bear Brewing Company Ltd.grade A
- Beat & Betterave Nanobrasseriegrade A
- Beauregard Brasserie Distilleriegrade A
- Bercée Microbrasseriegrade B
- Best of Kin Brewinggrade A
- Bièrerie Sheltongrade A
- Bitter Sisters Brewing Co.grade A
- BNA Brewing Co. – Kelownagrade A
- BNA Brewing Co. – Vernongrade A
- Bob Magnale Artisans Brasseursgrade A
- Bogue et Bière / Coopérative Brassicole de l'Autre Mondegrade A
- Born Brewing Co.grade A
- Boswell Brewery / Boswell and Brothergrade A
- Bottlescrew Bill's Brewerygrade A
- BR77 Microbrasseriegrade B
- Braggot Brewinggrade A
- Brasse Mondegrade B
- Brasserie Alphagrade A
- Brasserie Artisanale Albiongrade B
- Brasserie Artisanale Chez Gambrinusgrade A
- Brasserie Artisanale Gallicusgrade A
- Brasserie Artisanale L'Amère à Boiregrade A
- Brasserie Breughelgrade A
- Brasserie d'Ezekiel Hartgrade A
- Brasserie de Gédéon Rousseau / Louis Chevaliergrade B
- Brasserie de Hardygrade A
- Brasserie de Jacques LeNeuf de la Potheriegrade A
- Brasserie de Joseph Chapmangrade A
- Brasserie de Thomas Dunn / Dunn, Dow & Co.grade A
- Brasserie de Victor Levasseurgrade B
- Brasserie Dépareilléegrade A
- Brasserie des frères Hartgrade A
- Brasserie du Roy (Jean Talon)grade A
- Brasserie Généralegrade A
and 850 more
The whole picture
Where the gaps are
| Question | Unanswered | Of archive |
|---|---|---|
| Is it still brewing? | 273 | 4% |
| When did it stop? | 1,179 | 17% |
| When did it start? | 3,238 | 46% |
| What proves it? | 3,240 | 46% |
A brewery can appear against more than one question, which is why these do not sum to the total above.
How to close one
If you know the answer
Open the brewery, and send us what establishes the answer — a newspaper notice, a licence record, a company filing, a photograph of a sign with a date on it. We would rather have one sourced correction than fifty confident recollections, and we will record where it came from. Breweries correcting their own entries are welcome and are treated the same way: the source gets named.
If the honest answer is that nobody knows, that is also worth telling us. A question we have established to be unanswerable is a different thing from one nobody has tried, and the archive should say which.
When a question closes
No weekly newsletter. A note when something on this list gets answered, or when a brewery here turns out to have been trading all along.
One confirmation email, then only when it matters. Unsubscribe any time.
Why a brewery might be missing entirely rather than listed here is a different question, covered in how we count.