The South Australian Brewing Company, Limited, was established in 1888 by the amalgamation of Sir Edwin Smith's Kent Town Brewery and W. K. Simms's West End Brewery. T. A. Nation was the first brewer and G. B. Bryant the general manager. His board of directors comprised S. J. Jacobs (later Managing Director), Sir Lancelot Stirling, K.C.M.G., and Edward Fitzgerald, LL.D., and H. W. Morphett.
The Torrenside Brewery at Southwark, (pronounced SUTH-uk, now Thebarton, pronounced THEB-uh-tun) on the banks of the River Torrens north-west of the city centre producing "Southwark" beers, was founded by A. W. & T. L. Ware in 1886 and became the Walkerville Cooperative Brewery in 1898. This business was taken over by the South Australian Brewing Company in 1938.
The West End brewery was closed between the wars, and the operations consolidated with the Southwark brewery operations at the Thebarton site.
According to legend, the black and red colours of the SA Brewing Company came about after the West Adelaide Football Club (whose colours are black and red) defeated Port Adelaide in the 1909 South Australian National Football League (SANFL) Australian rules football Grand Final. The legend states that, had West Adelaide not won the match, the brewery's colours would have become the black and white of Port Adelaide.
West End Draught remains the largest selling beer in South Australia. West End Draught is a currently a 4.5% abv pale lager, first brewed in 1859. The brand is actively involved with the SANFL, was the original sponsor of the "Showdown" in the Australian Football League, and is one of the sponsors of the "Slowdown" charity football match. The tradition of painting the Thebarton brewery chimney with the team colours of the SANFL premiership finalists began in 1954.
Other beers brewed under the West End brand are West End Export, West End Gold and West End Light.
Prior to the acquisition of the brewing assets by Lion Nathan in 1993, SA Brewing split its brewing assets into "SA Brewing Holdings", and its diversified operations were formed into a new listed company named Southcorp. One of Southcorp's major assets was "Southcorp Wines", (acquired from the Adelaide Steamship Company in 1990), and subsequently acquired by Lion Nathan's main Australian rival, the Foster's Group.