Lucky Lager

Lore & Background

Lucky Lager was launched in San Francisco by a series of newspaper, billboard, and street car advertisements. The ads announced Lucky would be a beer of high quality, following the tradition of German beers, made with high-quality ingredients in a high-quality brewery with thorough aging. It grew steadily, becoming the number two-selling beer in California by 1937. Starting in 1935, Lucky encouraged people to take a taste test and that they would choose Lucky. The General Brewing Company invested $1,000,000 to open its first brewery in San Francisco, designed by architect Frederick H. Meyer in partnership with brewery engineer George L. Lehle. The brewery had a capacity of 100,000 barrels per year with capabilities of doubling production. By brewing just Lucky Lager, the company achieved a record of selling its entire daily production since the beginning of operations. The main reason for its success was the high beer quality, which came from aging the beer adequately, unlike many post-Prohibition competitors. Production was set up so that no hands touched the beer or its container until the final bottling step. General Brewing posted a bond of $1,000 as a guarantee that the age-date of the beer was authentic.

After WWII, General Brewing expanded into Azusa, California, in 1949, Vancouver, Washington, in 1950, and Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1960. From 1950 to 1960, Lucky Lager grew to be the sales leader in the entire Western region. By 1962, it was producing and selling over two million barrels per year. As national brands moved into California in the early 1960s, sales began to falter. An effort to increase sales with younger drinkers led to the ill-fated introduction of King Snedley's Beer, which according to some accounts was just Lucky Lager repackaged with a different brand and marketed toward counterculture consumers. The new brand flopped and was withdrawn, though it reappeared briefly in 1975. The Salt Lake City brewery was closed in 1967. In 1971, millionaire beer baron Paul Kalmanovitz bought Lucky Lager Brewing and merged it with Maier Brewing Company. The Azusa brewery was closed immediately, and the San Francisco brewery closed in 1978. The Vancouver, Washington, brewery shut down in July 1985, after which the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, Washington, began producing Lucky Lager in the US. That brewery closed in July 2003. Lucky Lager continued to be sold in its original Northern California range at Lucky Stores supermarkets until those stores were bought out by Albertson's around 2000.

Reader's Guide

Lucky Lager's significance lies in its trajectory from a post-Prohibition success story to a regional powerhouse, and later a brand that survived through multiple ownership changes and brewery closures. It was one of the first beers to include the date it was brewed on the can, a central tenet of its advertising through the mid-1960s. Its original label, designed by Charles Stafford Duncan, featured a distinctive red cross with a circle in the center containing the printed date, and won the highest award for the most distinctive beer package from the Pacific Advertising Club Association in 1939, as well as the Altman Prize of the National Academy of Design. The label underwent several redesigns: the cross was made less prominent in the 1950s, smaller again in 1962, and replaced entirely with a large cursive 'L' in the late 1960s. Lucky Lager was also famous for its 11 oz stubby bottles featuring rebus puzzles under the cap in the 1970s and 1980s, a promotion used by other brands controlled by Paul Kalmanovitz. In Canada, Lucky continued to be brewed by Labatt in Edmonton, Alberta, after the Victoria brewery was demolished in 1982. In 2019, Pabst announced the brand would be revived and brewed by 21st Amendment Brewery in San Leandro. The beer's legacy includes its role as an early adopter of age-dating and its distinctive, award-winning packaging.

Did You Know?

• Lucky Lager was the first beer to include the date it was brewed on the can.
• The original label design won the Altman Prize of the National Academy of Design.
• In the 1970s and 1980s, Lucky Lager bottle caps featured rebus puzzles.
• According to some accounts, King Snedley's Beer was just Lucky Lager repackaged for counterculture consumers.