Carlsberg

Carlsberg is a Danish brewery founded in 1847 by J.C. Jacobsen, producing lagers and pilsners including an alcohol-free pilsner. Jacobsen built his first brewery on a hill outside Copenhagen, naming it after his son Carl and the Danish word for hill, with the first brew completed on 10 November 1847. Jacobsen established the Carlsberg Foundation in 1876 and transferred majority ownership of the company to it in 1887.

J.C. Jacobsen also founded the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875. In 1883, Emil Christian Hansen became the first person to isolate a pure yeast culture there, producing the strain Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, now the most widely used lager yeast in the world. Researchers at the same laboratory developed the pH scale.

Carlsberg began exporting its beer in 1868, shipping a barrel to Edinburgh, Scotland. The brand was first brewed under licence outside Denmark in Cyprus in 1966, and in 1968 opened a brewery in Blantyre, Malawi. Carlsberg merged with Tuborg in 1970 to form United Breweries A/S. The group now operates 75 breweries across 33 countries, employs approximately 33,000 people, and is ranked seventh among the world's breweries by revenue.

No animal products, gelatin, or isinglass are used in production, and the beer is brewed from hops, malt, water, and yeast only.

Carlsberg launched its Together Towards ZERO sustainability programme in 2017. In 2024, the group completed a £3.3 billion acquisition of UK drinks maker Britvic.

The Collection

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