Lucky Lager

. General Brewing became Lucky Lager Brewing in 1948 and began building and buying new breweries.

History

Lucky Lager was first commercially introduced in 1934. Short version of the Lucky Lager story: the brand was founded by General Brewing in California. This was folded into a consortium led by three BC breweries. General Brewing later split off from the consortium and was eventually brought into the Pabst fold. The BC breweries later became Labatt's and thus there are two lines of ownership of the Lucky Lager brand. The Labatt brand is today more prevalent in Canada, especially the west coast and Ontario.

Breweries

Lucky Lager Brewing opened a second brewery in Azusa, California in 1949, and bought smaller breweries in Vancouver, Washington in 1950 and in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1960. Thus, Lucky Lager was made at four breweries during the brand's heyday and was a popular regional Western United States brand. The Salt Lake City brewery was closed in 1967. [Van Wieren, Dale P. American Breweries II (West Point, PA.: East Coast Breweriana Association, 1995) 17, 37, 372, 385. ]

Lucky Lager Brewing changed their name back to General Brewing between 1963 and 1969, and then changed the name to Lucky Breweries, Inc. in 1969.

During the late 1960s Lucky Lager's market share faltered among younger drinkers. This led to the ill-fated introduction of King Snedley's Beer. According to some accounts King Snedley's was just Lucky Lager repackaged with a different brand and marketed toward counterculture hipsters. The new brand flopped and was withdrawn from the market.

In 1971, millionaire beer baron Paul Kalmanovitz bought Lucky Lager Brewing and - again - changed the name back to General Brewing Company. The Azusa, CA brewery was closed immediately. The San Francisco brewery was closed in 1978. This left Vancouver, BC as the only location where Lucky Lager was brewed. [Decamp, Bob. "It's Lucky When You Live in the West" Beer Cans and Brewery Collectibles (Feb/March 1997) 6-8. ] In the late 1970s, General Brewing took advantage of the "generic brand" marketing craze in the US by producing beer with plain white labels emblazoned with the word BEER. Again, rumors surfaced that BEER was simply repackaged Lucky Lager. When the generic craze died, and the microbrewery movement took off, General had a hard time maintaining profitability as a brewer of inexpensive beers. The fact that Lucky Lager tasted no worse than expensively-advertised "premium" brands such as Budweiser or Miller did not impress a market of drinkers where image was frequently more important than taste. The brewery's fortunes began to decline.

After the Vancouver brewery shut down in July 1985 , the Olympia Brewing Company brewery in Tumwater, WA began to produce this lager. On July, 1 2003 this brewery was also closed. Since then, Lucky Lager has been brewed in Irwindale, CA (along with other brands such as Olympia and Rainier brands).

Bottles

Lucky Lager was once famous for its 11oz "stubby" bottles featuring a rebus under the cap. Since the closure of the Tumwater brewery, this famous bottle has been discontinued.

The label for Lucky Lager has also seen many changes. In the 1950s the big red X was made less prominent, but it still remained on the labels and on advertising. In 1957 the X was reduced in size somewhat; the same logo, different size. In 1962 the label was again redesigned and the X was made smaller still, although it was still the design's focus. This can with the smaller "X" is sometimes called the 'bug' can by collectors because there is a small "dated" seal that can appear on different spots on the label, like a bug moving around. The "bug" design was then replaced by a label that got rid of the "X" entirely and replaced it with a large "L".

The "L" was written in the cursive form with the rest of the letters following. The origin and reason for this new design (X to L) is somewhat unknown, but is said to have been created by the son of a Lucky Lager distributor in the Northwest.

Availability

In recent years, the popularity of the beer has declined, but in selected areas in North America, the beer is still available. Lucky is commonly found all across Southern British Columbia. It enjoys an extremely dedicated following on Vancouver Island, and, though generally considered a "non-premium" beer, is consumed with an almost religious dedication in many southern BC resource towns such as Ucluelet,Campbell River, Cumberland, Port Hardy, and Port Alberni. (As a side note, Labatt Brewing Company declared Cumberland, BC to be the "Luckiest Town in Canada" in early 2002 due to its incredible rate of consumption). Labatt markets Lucky Lager as a budget brand in Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario. Lucky Lager can also be found in certain areas of the United States, most commonly Michigan.

In films

In the film Kalifornia, Lucky Lager was the favorite drink of Brad Pitt's character, Early Grace.

Jack Nicholson's character drank the old oil can style of Lucky Lager throughout the 1970 movie, Five Easy Pieces.

Cans of Lucky feature prominently in many scenes in the film The Van, in one scene being sold out of a cooler for 35 cents at a van show.

Lucky Lager was also featured in the bar room brawl scene in the 1968 movie The Devil's Brigade staring William Holden.

Lucky Lager was in the closing of "The Bad News Bears(1976)" . Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) gives the team Lucky Lager stubby grenades to celebrate!

Lucky Lager was also featured in the 1982 Black Flag video "TV Party".

References

econdary sources

Decamp, Bob. "It's Lucky When You Live in the West" Beer Cans and Brewery Collectibles (Feb/March 1997) 6-8.

Hernon, Peter and Terry Ganey. Under the Influence: The Unauthorized Story of the Anheuser-Busch Dynasty. (New York: Avon Books, 1992)

"General Brewing Corporation Will Enter West Field" (Reno) Nevada State Journal. (April 11, 1934) 10.

"General Brewing Management Plan, The" Modern Brewery (December 1934) 43-46.

Novins, J. K. "General Brewing Corp. Begins Operations" Modern Brewery (March 1934) 52-54, 80-81.

Novins, J. K. "Lucky Lager Centers Promotion on the Label" Modern Brewery (May 1939) 24-27, 66.

Van Wieren, Dale P. American Breweries II (West Point, PA.: East Coast Breweriana Association, 1995) 17, 37, 372, 385.

External links

* [http://www.taverntrove.com/Breweries/1819.asp Tavern Trove] reference for the closing date of the SLC brewery
* [http://www.labatt.com/english/lbc_brands/reg/rb_lucky.html Labatt Regional Brands - Lucky Lager]