31/05/2024
Carlsberg A/S (/ˈkɑːrlzbɜːrɡ/; Danish: [ˈkʰɑˀlsˌpɛɐ̯ˀ]) is a Danish multinational brewer. Founded in 1847 by J. C. Jacobsen, the company's headquarters is in Copenhagen, Denmark. Since Jacobsen's death in 1887, the majority owner of the company has been the Carlsberg Foundation. The company's flagship brand is Carlsberg (named after Jacobsen's son Carl). Other brands include Tuborg, Kronenbourg, Somersby cider, Holsten, Neptun, Belgian Grimbergen, Fix, one of Greece's oldest brands and more than 500 local beers. The company employs around 41,000 people, primarily in Europe and Asia. Carlsberg is currently the 6th largest brewery in the world based on revenue.
Carlsberg was founded by J. C. Jacobsen, a philanthropist and admirer of science. The first brew was finished on 10 November 1847, and the export of Carlsberg beer began in 1868 with the export of one barrel to Edinburgh, Scotland. Some of the company's original logos include an elephant, after which some of its lagers are named, and the swastika,[note 1] the use of which was discontinued in the 1930s because of its association with political parties in neighboring Germany.
Jacobsen's son, Carl Christian Hilmar Jacobsen, opened a brewery in 1882 named Ny (New) Carlsberg forcing J.C. Jacobsen to rename his brewery Gamle (Old) Carlsberg. Carl Jacobsen was an avid art collector. With his fortune he amassed an art collection first housed privately, but since 1897 housed public in the Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek in central Copenhagen. The companies were merged and run under Carl's direction in 1906 and remained so until his death in 1914. Jacobsen set up the Carlsberg Laboratory in 1875, which worked on scientific problems related to brewing. It featured a Department of Chemistry and a Department of Physiology. The species of yeast used to make pale lager, Saccharomyces carlsbergensis, was isolated by Emil Christian Hansen at the laboratory in 1883 and bears its name; this was shared freely by Carlsberg. The Carlsberg Laboratory also developed the concept of pH and made advances in protein chemistry. In 1972, the Carlsberg Research Centre was established and the Carlsberg Laboratory is an independent unit of the Centre.[