I've been searching via Google's ngram viewer for some alcohol-related terms, and find that cocktails date to the 1930s/1940s and many popular drink brands emerged in the 1950s-1970s or even later.
When did large brand-name liquor companies emerge as we know them, what drove this, and how was liquor produced, marketed, and consumed prior to prohibition. Mostly concerning the U.S., though other nations might also be of interest.
Branded liquors and alcohol appeared well before US prohibition in the UK.
Some of the brands of alcohol which quenched the thirst of the British Empire are with us still.
Gin was one of the favorite drinks, especially Gin and Tonic. The tonic was made with quinine and thought to help prevent or alleviate malaria in tropical regions. Tonic did not taste so good on its own, but mixed with Gin, the Gin and Tonic became the preferred drink of British Imperialists in warmer climates.
The Gin Brands of the British Empire that are still with us today are:
Beefeater: 1820
Boodles: 1845
Booths: 1740
Gordon’s: 1769
Plymouth: 1793
Tanqueray: 1830
Beer: The best known beer brand in the British Empire was Bass, founded in 1777. The Bass red triangle became Britain’s first registered trademark. Bass were one of the first to make “India Pale Ale” a very hoppy beer which (thanks to the hops) kept well enough to be shipped to India.
Scotch was not widely drunk in the British Empire until the last half of the 19th century. Popular brands included:
Johnnie Walker - John Walker made and sold Whisky from 1820, but it was not until after blended Scotch became legal in 1860 that Whisky really started to expand as a drink, and Walkers whisky would not have been generally found around the Empire until the 1870s at the earliest. It was called "Walker's Kilmarnock Whisky" until 1908, when it was re-branded "Johnnie Walker".
Other Scotch whisky brands which are still with us and were popular in the Empire in the late 1800s were often founded much earlier, but Scotch was not exported heavily until the 1870s or 1880s, after blended whisky became legal. Some of these brands were:
Justerini & Brooks
Chivas
Ballantine
Rum, which was the drink that floated the Royal Navy when it dominated the oceans of the world, was bought by the cask by the Navy from the West Indies, and not generally branded.
Pussers Rum. made in Tortola in the British Virgin Islands claims to be made based on research into the specifications laid down by the Admiralty for Rum which they purchased for the Rum ration. How uniform Royal navy Rum was in the 19th century, is dubious.
Prohibition caused branding to take- off. After liquor was outlawed there wasn't any oversight or recourse for selling toxic alcohol. So to ensure that they weren't going to go blind or die they relied on the brand name and the reputation they built.