These Discontinued Regional Lagers Deserve a Comeback
Regional lagers are a cornerstone of American drinking culture. There’s Hamm’s, Utica Club, Natty Boh, Rainier, Pearl Beer — the list goes on and on.
Much like craft beer, nearly every pocket of the country has a macro-style lager that locals enjoy with pride, embracing a slice of American pie that outsiders simply don’t have access to. The differences between them are subtle, but their light-bodied, easy-drinking, inoffensive profiles deliver a warm reminder of home. Even if these beers don’t sell like hot cakes, they maintain enough of a loyal following that their parent companies keep brewing them.
Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Many legacy lager brands have bit the dust, existing only as in the memories of boomers. The nail in many of those coffins feels unwarranted, so here are six lagers we think deserve a second shot at life.
To the powers that be and the regional lager necromancers: Heed the call! It’s about time we bring these lagers back from the dead.
Brown Derby
Birthplace: Eureka, Calif.
Timeline: 1933 – Circa 1988
On the heels of Prohibition, West Coast Grocery Company commissioned Eureka, Calif.’s Humboldt Brewing Company to make a private-label beer for two of its grocery store clients: Safeway and MacMarr. The beer was Brown Derby, a pilsner whose label fittingly featured a classic derby hat and a cane. In 1935, a California restaurant chain of the same name sued West Coast Grocery Company for copyright infringement, forcing the company to change the color of its brown and green can to silver, but still allowing it to keep the name and logo design. As such, original Brown Derby cans are revered by vintage beer memorabilia collectors, with one selling at auction for a whopping $93,600 in late 2024.
Demand for Brown Derby boomed during the remainder of the 1930s, leading West Coast Grocery Company to enlist a number of other breweries to start producing the pilsner. And by the late 1950s, Brown Derby was a Safeway exclusive, stocked at locations nationwide. Unfortunately, 1988 saw another grocery store chain, Vons, acquire nearly 200 Safeway stores in Southern California (the two companies would merge about 10 years later), and the Brown Derby brand was subsequently phased out completely.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Reviews of the pilsner are near-impossible to find, so we can’t speak on its flavor profile. However, private-label beers are all the rage these days. Trader Joe’s has a whole line of ‘em. Aldi has a handful. And Costco has an exceptional private label beer for a bargain price. For anyone who grew up drinking Brown Derby, a revival would almost certainly sell well on nostalgia alone.
Falstaff Lager
Birthplace: St. Louis
Timeline: 1903 – 2005
The Falstaff Brewing Corporation began its journey as the Lemp Brewery, named after its German founder Johann Adam Lemp. In 1903, the brewery was renamed the Falstaff Brewing Corporation, paying homage to Sir John Falstaff, a fictional drunkard who appears in several plays by William Shakespeare.
The brewery closed in 1921 and sold the Falstaff brand to nearby St. Louis brewery Griesedieck Beverage Company, which then adopted the name Falstaff Corporation. After Prohibition, the company embarked on a run of acquisitions, buying up brewing facilities in multiple states from Indiana to California. By the 1960s, Falstaff was the third-largest brewing company in the country, despite some cringe-worthy ad campaigns.
But in the ‘70s, things took a turn for Falstaff. Breweries were consolidating left and right, and Falstaff’s plants fell like dominos over the following three decades. The brand fell into the hands of Pabst, which ultimately discontinued Falstaff in 2005 when sales were bottoming out.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Falstaff was beloved. And while there are many other regional lagers still around in Missouri’s neighboring states, it no longer has one of its own. A revival would likely do well based on nostalgia alone.
Hamm’s Special Light
Birthplace: St. Paul, Minn.
Timeline: Early 1980s – 2021
Hamm’s lager was born in the 1860s with a recipe crafted by legendary brewer Jacob Schmidt (the same man behind Schmidt lager). It enjoyed considerable success over the decades, building itself on regional pride, deft marketing, and, most importantly, great flavor. Although the brand fumbled its attempt to become nationally distributed in the latter half of the 20th century, “The Beer Refreshing” is still alive and kicking under the ownership of Molson Coors. The same can’t be said for its line extension, Hamm’s Special Light.
The beer hit the market in the early ‘80s when almost every major brewery in the country was fighting for a piece of the then-booming light beer market. It had a good run, but Hamm’s current parent company, Molson Coors, axed Hamm’s Special Light in 2021 in an effort to streamline and premiumize its U.S. portfolio.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
There’s a Hamm’s fan club, and fans of the brand — a.k.a. Hammpions — have been quite vocal about their discontent with the demise of Hamm’s Special Light. And while Hamm’s original isn’t a high-octane beer by any stretch at 4.7 percent ABV, there’s certainly a place for a more modest 3.8 percent ABV version of it. Molson Coors could always bring it back on a small scale — Hammpions simply deserve more options.
Hop’n Gator
Birthplace: Pittsburgh
Timeline: 1969 – 1975
Hop’n Gator was only around for six years. If you blinked during the early ‘70s, you probably missed it.
As its name suggests, Hop’n Gator was essentially an alcoholic version of Gatorade, and the beverage was developed by the same guy who invented the sports drink: Dr. Robert Cade. He sold the Hop’n Gator recipe to Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh Brewing Company (formerly Iron City Brewing Company) in 1969, and the brewery started pumping it out to the masses. Its exact formula remains an enigma, but it was initially advertised as a “lemon-lime lager.”
Unfortunately, several lawsuits hindered Hop’n Gator’s rise, and slowing sales led to its demise in 1975. Pittsburgh Brewing Company did brew a 10,000-barrel batch of it for nostalgia’s sake in 2004, but since then, the world has been Hop’n Gator-less.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Lawsuits aside, it’s likely that the world just wasn’t ready for Hop’n Gator. Sure, its marketing was a bit shaky, and perhaps pitching it as a “lemon-lime lager” wasn’t the best angle from the get-go, but it was truly ahead of its time.
Nowadays — and even back then — the beverage doesn’t really fit with Gatorade’s image as an electrolyte-fueled sports drink. However, if brands like Sunny D and Simply can break into the alcohol industry these days, there’s no reason why Gatorade can’t do the same. It wouldn’t be the deus ex machina of the beer segment, but Hop’n Gator would probably pull some numbers with a modern rebrand.
Meister Bräu
Birthplace: Chicago
Timeline: Early 1890s – 2005
Prussian-born Civil War veteran Peter Hand established his Chicago-based namesake brewery, the Peter Hand Brewing Company, in 1891. By the time he passed away eight years later, the brewery’s best-selling product was a lager called Meister Bräu. Although the brewery closed down for the duration of Prohibition, it grew exponentially over the following decades, and was purchased by an investor group in 1965 that renamed the company “Meister Bräu Inc.” The next year, the brewery acquired the recipe for Gablinger’s Diet Beer — the first-ever “light” beer — from New York’s Rheingold Brewery. Although the beer was a flop in Rheingold’s hands, Meister Bräu made some minor recipe tweaks, and successfully launched the brew as Meister Bräu Light.
During the latter half of the ‘60s, the brewery expanded its distribution footprint nationwide, and by the end of the decade, it was selling a million barrels of beer a year. However, things took a sharp turn in the ‘70s. The company allegedly accrued heavy debt during expansion, and sold off the majority of its brands to Miller. Meister Bräu Light was repackaged as Miller Lite and Meister Bräu was kept alive as a cheaper alternative to competitor Budweiser. Miller ultimately discontinued Meister Bräu due to slow sales in 2005.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
As mentioned above, Miller Lite is essentially Meister Bräu Light in disguise. While Miller has several beers in its lineup, it did away with plain old Miller Beer in 1998 after only two years on the market. So Miller doesn’t necessarily need to bring back Meister Bräu as “Meister Bräu,” but it most definitely should bring it back as “Miller Beer.” The company (now Molson Coors) still owns the rights to the Meister Bräu name, and even if it brought it back as Miller Beer — a name today’s drinkers are already familiar with — Molson Coors doesn’t have much to lose.
Red White & Blue
Birthplace: Milwaukee
Timeline: 1899 – Early 2000s
The Pabst Brewing Company unleashed Red White & Blue (RWB) right before 4th of July weekend in 1899, touting it as an “honest beer for an honest price.” And sure enough, it was one of the most affordable beers to ever grace store shelves in U.S. history. In the ‘70s, a 6-pack of RWB only cost 89 cents, which was less than half the average price of a sixer in 1970.
The 3.2 percent ABV lager became ubiquitous across the Midwest after Prohibition, with its popularity spiking periodically whenever the U.S. government got involved in an international conflict. RWB also sold well whenever there was a recession. In a sense, it was the beer equivalent to Subway’s “$5 Footlong” for the entirety of the 20th century — dirt cheap and dependable.
The beer maintained steady popularity up until the turn of the century, but when Pabst Blue Ribbon’s popularity surged in the early aughts, RWB fell by the wayside. Perhaps the cultural cachet of PBR dwarfed any momentum RWB had at the time. Regardless, Pabst axed the brand sometime in the early 2000s.
Why It Deserves a Comeback
Even with inflation factored in, RWB would still be an absolute steal these days. There’s no shortage of affordable lager brands out there, but RWB was on another level. Also, given the number of cringe-worthy, hyperconservative brews on the market right now, it would be nice to have a more reserved patriotic alternative that doesn’t lean right or left. If RWB ever comes back, Hulk Hogan better watch out.
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