Alberta Distillers Limited was started in 1946 by Canadian oilman Frank McMahon and Canadian newspaper publisher Max Bell, built on 23 acres of land on what was then the outskirts of Calgary, Alberta. George Conrad Reifel, a Canadian brewer and distiller who had worked in Japan to establish the Anglo Japanese Brewing Company, joined the company to assist with the complex process of distilling rye. By 1957, the distillery expanded to have three heat-controlled warehouses and contained upwards of 100,000 barrels of aging whiskies on over 28 acres of land. In 1967, National Distillers & Chemical Corporation purchased Alberta Distillers to expand their own liquor portfolio. Alberta Distillers was sold off after Standard & Poor gave a negative outlook for whiskey. By 1975, the plant site grew to 42 acres in Calgary. The final warehouse construction gave the distillery storage for over 600,000 barrels. The site is one of the few in Canada that can age barrels in both rack and pallet style warehouses. With two rail spurs onsite, the distillery can ship and receive by rail, ISO tankers, and tanker trailers. In 1986, Alberta Distillers was purchased by American Brands, which itself was renamed as Fortune Brands in 1997 and split apart in 2011 into Fortune Brands Home & Security and Beam Inc. Beam Inc. was then purchased by the Suntory multinational holding company of Japan.