 | |
| Industry | Brewing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1761 |
| Founder | William Worthington |
| Headquarters | , |
| Owner | Molson Coors |
Worthington Brewery, also known as Worthington & Co. and Worthington's, is a British brewer founded by William Worthington in Burton upon Trent in 1761. It is the second oldest continuously-brewed British beer brand, after Whitbread. The principal product is Worthington Creamflow, a nitrokeg bitter.
When William Worthington died in 1800, his brewery was one of the largest outside London. Horace Tabberer Brown, a chemist employed by Worthington, pioneered brewing science in the separation and cultivation of pure yeast strains from 1866, and the brewery was the first in the world to systematically use a laboratory in the brewing process from 1872. Worthington & Co merged with its major Burton rival Bass in 1927. Until the 1960s the Worthington brand, in bottled form, ranked alongside Bass and Guinness as one of only three beers with nationwide distribution. However, bottled beer sales declined as keg beer grew in popularity throughout the 1960s, and the Worthington brewery closed in 1965. The beers continued to be brewed elsewhere.
The Worthington brand was purchased from Bass by the American brewing company Coors in 2002, which following a merger became Molson Coors in 2005. Creamflow is the third highest selling ale in the United Kingdom, and the highest selling ale in Wales. Worthington's White Shield IPA was brewed from 1829 until 2023. In 2010, Molson Coors opened the William Worthington microbrewery, which brews historical and seasonal beers.
The Worthington brand has had an association with rugby union sponsorship since the latter half of the twentieth century. The brand also sponsored the Football League Cup from 1998 until 2003.