After the fall of New France, the numerous British soldiers in the Canadian British colonies in the eighteenth century was a benefit to breweries since the troops were each entitled to six pints of beer per day. Most preferred ales and other heavy beers, not lager. Another important base of customers was the British Loyalists that immigrated from the newly independent United States to Canada. During those centuries and into the nineteenth, a number of commercial brewers thrived, including some that became the staple of the Canadian industry: John Molson founded a brewery in Montreal in 1786, Alexander Keith in Halifax in 1820, Thomas Carling in London in 1840, John Kinder Labatt in 1847, also in London, Susannah Oland in Halifax in 1867, and Eugene O'Keefe in Toronto in 1891. The Upper Canada government issued a patent on July 6, 1842, to George Riley of Kingston, Upper Canada for "an improved method of brewing ale, beer, porter, and other malt liquors." Molson's is the oldest surviving Canadian brewing enterprise.