Carling Black Label
A Black Label Draught in a Johannesburg Pub.
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| Type | Beer |
|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Carling Brewing Company |
| Distributor | Carling Brewing Company |
| Country of origin | Canada |
| Introduced | 1927 |
| Alcohol by volume | 5–5.5% |
Black Label is a Canadian brand of lager distributed by Carling and well-known throughout the former British Empire. In several countries, it is also known as Carling Black Label, and in Sweden, it is known as Carling Premier. However, in the United Kingdom it is now known as just Carling in response to public demand for a snappier call at the bar (according to the company).
Although its original focus was on ale, Carling has been brewing lager-style beers since the 1870s. In 1927, as part of an overall corporate re-branding effort under new president J. Innes Carling, the company renamed its already popular Black & White Lager to Black Label.
Three years later, Carling was purchased by Toronto business tycoon E. P. Taylor, who merged the company into his Canadian Breweries Limited (CBL), which grew to be the world's largest brewing company, at least for a time. Under Taylor, Black Label was promoted as CBL's flagship brand and went on to become the world's first beer to be brewed on a mass international scale, becoming particularly popular in Commonwealth countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
In response to a shift in popular taste away from ale, Carling added a three-story lager plant to their main London, Ontario, brewery in 1877. Carling's Lager (later renamed Carling's Bavarian Stock Lager, and then Carling's Imperial Club Lager) was the company's first lager brand. Carling's Black & White Lager was introduced in the 1920s and later renamed Black Label Lager, in contrast to their recently launched Red Cap Ale.
Due to its strength and price, the brand quickly became popular with the country's working class, perhaps most famously among the loggers and miners of Northern Ontario, where the brand gained a tough, blue-collar image.
Around 1990, Black Label had probably one of the most successful advertising campaigns ever made in Canada, which used the phrase "The Legend is Black." The genius of the advertising campaign came from the tendency for people in alternative music bars on Queen Street West in Toronto to drink Black Label because it was cheap and as a way to dissociate themselves from mainstream people drinking mainstream beer.
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