Regional lagers are a cornerstone of American ingesting tradition. There’s Hamm’s, Utica Membership, Natty Boh, Rainier, Pearl Beer — the record goes on and on.
Very like craft beer, practically each pocket of the nation has a macro-style lager that locals take pleasure in with satisfaction, embracing a slice of American pie that outsiders merely don’t have entry to. The variations between them are refined, however their light-bodied, easy-drinking, inoffensive profiles ship a heat reminder of residence. Even when these beers don’t promote like sizzling muffins, they keep sufficient of a loyal following that their father or mother firms maintain brewing them.
Sadly, that’s not at all times the case. Many legacy lager manufacturers have bit the mud, current solely as within the recollections of boomers. The nail in a lot of these coffins feels unwarranted, so listed here are six lagers we predict deserve a second shot at life.
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To the powers that be and the regional lager necromancers: Heed the decision! It’s about time we deliver these lagers again from the lifeless.
Brown Derby
Birthplace: Eureka, Calif.
Timeline: 1933 – Circa 1988
On the heels of Prohibition, West Coast Grocery Firm commissioned Eureka, Calif.’s Humboldt Brewing Firm to make a private-label beer for 2 of its grocery retailer shoppers: Safeway and MacMarr. The beer was Brown Derby, a pilsner whose label fittingly featured a basic derby hat and a cane. In 1935, a California restaurant chain of the identical identify sued West Coast Grocery Firm for copyright infringement, forcing the corporate to vary the colour of its brown and inexperienced can to silver, however nonetheless permitting it to maintain the identify and brand design. As such, unique Brown Derby cans are revered by classic beer memorabilia collectors, with one promoting at public sale for a whopping $93,600 in late 2024.
Demand for Brown Derby boomed throughout the the rest of the Nineteen Thirties, main West Coast Grocery Firm to enlist numerous different breweries to start out producing the pilsner. And by the late Fifties, Brown Derby was a Safeway unique, stocked at places nationwide. Sadly, 1988 noticed one other grocery retailer chain, Vons, purchase practically 200 Safeway shops in Southern California (the 2 firms would merge about 10 years later), and the Brown Derby model was subsequently phased out fully.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Critiques of the pilsner are near-impossible to search out, so we will’t communicate on its taste profile. Nevertheless, private-label beers are all the fashion as of late. Dealer Joe’s has a entire line of ‘em. Aldi has a handful. And Costco has an distinctive personal label beer for a cut price value. For anybody who grew up ingesting Brown Derby, a revival would nearly actually promote effectively on nostalgia alone.
Falstaff Lager
Birthplace: St. Louis
Timeline: 1903 – 2005
The Falstaff Brewing Company started its journey because the Lemp Brewery, named after its German founder Johann Adam Lemp. In 1903, the brewery was renamed the Falstaff Brewing Company, paying homage to Sir John Falstaff, a fictional drunkard who seems in a number of performs by William Shakespeare.
The brewery closed in 1921 and offered the Falstaff model to close by St. Louis brewery Griesedieck Beverage Firm, which then adopted the identify Falstaff Company. After Prohibition, the corporate launched into a run of acquisitions, shopping for up brewing services in a number of states from Indiana to California. By the Nineteen Sixties, Falstaff was the third-largest brewing firm within the nation, regardless of some cringe-worthy advert campaigns.
However within the ‘70s, issues took a flip for Falstaff. Breweries had been consolidating left and proper, and Falstaff’s crops fell like dominos over the next three a long time. The model fell into the arms of Pabst, which in the end discontinued Falstaff in 2005 when gross sales had been bottoming out.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Falstaff was beloved. And whereas there are a lot of different regional lagers nonetheless round in Missouri’s neighboring states, it not has one in all its personal. A revival would seemingly do effectively primarily based on nostalgia alone.
Hamm’s Particular Mild
Birthplace: St. Paul, Minn.
Timeline: Early Nineteen Eighties – 2021
Hamm’s lager was born within the 1860s with a recipe crafted by legendary brewer Jacob Schmidt (the identical man behind Schmidt lager). It loved appreciable success over the a long time, constructing itself on regional satisfaction, deft advertising, and, most significantly, nice taste. Though the model fumbled its try and change into nationally distributed within the latter half of the twentieth century, “The Beer Refreshing” remains to be alive and kicking beneath the possession of Molson Coors. The identical can’t be stated for its line extension, Hamm’s Particular Mild.
The beer hit the market within the early ‘80s when nearly each main brewery within the nation was preventing for a chunk of the then-booming mild beer market. It had an excellent run, however Hamm’s present father or mother firm, Molson Coors, axed Hamm’s Particular Mild in 2021 in an effort to streamline and premiumize its U.S. portfolio.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
There’s a Hamm’s fan membership, and followers of the model — a.ok.a. Hammpions — have been fairly vocal about their discontent with the demise of Hamm’s Particular Mild. And whereas Hamm’s unique isn’t a high-octane beer by any stretch at 4.7 % ABV, there’s actually a spot for a extra modest 3.8 % ABV model of it. Molson Coors might at all times deliver it again on a small scale — Hammpions merely deserve extra choices.
Hop’n Gator
Birthplace: Pittsburgh
Timeline: 1969 – 1975
Hop’n Gator was solely round for six years. Should you blinked throughout the early ‘70s, you in all probability missed it.
As its identify suggests, Hop’n Gator was primarily an alcoholic model of Gatorade, and the beverage was developed by the identical man who invented the sports activities drink: Dr. Robert Cade. He offered the Hop’n Gator recipe to Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh Brewing Firm (previously Iron Metropolis Brewing Firm) in 1969, and the brewery began pumping it out to the plenty. Its precise system stays an enigma, but it surely was initially marketed as a “lemon-lime lager.”
Sadly, a number of lawsuits hindered Hop’n Gator’s rise, and slowing gross sales led to its demise in 1975. Pittsburgh Brewing Firm did brew a ten,000-barrel batch of it for nostalgia’s sake in 2004, however since then, the world has been Hop’n Gator-less.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Lawsuits apart, it’s seemingly that the world simply wasn’t prepared for Hop’n Gator. Positive, its advertising was a bit shaky, and maybe pitching it as a “lemon-lime lager” wasn’t the most effective angle from the get-go, but it surely was actually forward of its time.
These days — and even again then — the beverage doesn’t actually match with Gatorade’s picture as an electrolyte-fueled sports activities drink. Nevertheless, if manufacturers like Sunny D and Merely can break into the alcohol trade as of late, there’s no cause why Gatorade can’t do the identical. It wouldn’t be the deus ex machina of the beer phase, however Hop’n Gator would in all probability pull some numbers with a contemporary rebrand.
Meister Bräu
Birthplace: Chicago
Timeline: Early Nineties – 2005
Prussian-born Civil Battle veteran Peter Hand established his Chicago-based namesake brewery, the Peter Hand Brewing Firm, in 1891. By the point he handed away eight years later, the brewery’s best-selling product was a beer referred to as Meister Bräu. Though the brewery closed down at some stage in Prohibition, it grew exponentially over the next a long time, and was bought by an investor group in 1965 that renamed the corporate “Meister Bräu Inc.” The following 12 months, the brewery acquired the recipe for Gablinger’s Food regimen Beer — the first-ever “mild” beer — from New York’s Rheingold Brewery. Though the beer was a flop in Rheingold’s arms, Meister Bräu made some minor recipe tweaks, and efficiently launched the brew as Meister Bräu Mild.
Through the latter half of the ‘60s, the brewery expanded its distribution footprint nationwide, and by the tip of the last decade, it was promoting one million barrels of beer a 12 months. Nevertheless, issues took a pointy flip within the ‘70s. The corporate allegedly accrued heavy debt throughout growth, and offered off nearly all of its manufacturers to Miller. Meister Bräu Mild was repackaged as Miller Lite and Meister Bräu was saved alive as a less expensive different to competitor Budweiser. Miller in the end discontinued Meister Bräu attributable to gradual gross sales in 2005.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
As talked about above, Miller Lite is actually Meister Bräu Mild in disguise. Whereas Miller has a number of beers in its lineup, it did away with plain previous Miller Beer in 1998 after solely two years available on the market. So Miller doesn’t essentially have to deliver again Meister Bräu as “Meister Bräu,” but it surely most undoubtedly ought to deliver it again as “Miller Beer.” The corporate (now Molson Coors) nonetheless owns the rights to the Meister Bräu identify, and even when it introduced it again as Miller Beer — a reputation right this moment’s drinkers are already aware of — Molson Coors doesn’t have a lot to lose.
Pink White & Blue
Birthplace: Milwaukee
Timeline: 1899 – Early 2000s
The Pabst Brewing Firm unleashed Pink White & Blue (RWB) proper earlier than 4th of July weekend in 1899, touting it as an “sincere beer for an sincere value.” And positive sufficient, it was one of the crucial reasonably priced beers to ever grace retailer cabinets in U.S. historical past. Within the ‘70s, a 6-pack of RWB solely price 89 cents, which was lower than half the typical value of a sixer in 1970.
The three.2 % ABV lager turned ubiquitous throughout the Midwest after Prohibition, with its recognition spiking periodically at any time when the U.S. authorities received concerned in a world battle. RWB additionally offered effectively at any time when there was a recession. In a way, it was the beer equal to Subway’s “$5 Footlong” for the whole lot of the twentieth century — dust low-cost and reliable.
The beer maintained regular recognition up till the flip of the century, however when Pabst Blue Ribbon’s recognition surged within the early aughts, RWB fell by the wayside. Maybe the cultural cachet of PBR dwarfed any momentum RWB had on the time. Regardless, Pabst axed the model someday within the early 2000s.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Even with inflation factored in, RWB would nonetheless be an absolute steal as of late. There’s no scarcity of reasonably priced lager manufacturers on the market, however RWB was on one other stage. Additionally, given the variety of cringe-worthy, hyperconservative brews available on the market proper now, it could be good to have a extra reserved patriotic different that doesn’t lean proper or left. If RWB ever comes again, Hulk Hogan higher be careful.
