The Classic Midwest Beer That's Getting Harder And Harder To Find

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Today's crowded beer space is brimming with high-quality craft brews that are produced and distributed on a local or regional scale. This may feel like a fairly new development in an age when national and international brands have dominated liquor store shelves. However, long before nationwide distribution became the norm, many beers were consumed close to where they were made. In the Midwest, Stag was one such brand. Originally brewed in Belleville, Illinois — just across the Mississippi River from Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis — Stag grew into one of the region's most widely recognized labels. However, the evolving industry landscape would make this vintage beer harder to find.

Stag was introduced at Belleville's Western Brewery in 1906 as a special product for the Christmas season. Its official name was later decided through a public contest. The beer then became a year-round offering. At some point, the company also adopted the slogan "Golden Quality Since 1851," a nod to the brewery's founding date rather than Stag's own debut.

Stag would stand out as one of the first breweries in the area to resume production after Prohibition halted operations. By the mid-20th century, a surge in popularity helped the brand expand well beyond the Belleville-St. Louis region. It reached as many as 22 states at its peak. Within the St. Louis metropolitan area, Stag was one of the leading beers, and in some markets it even outsold national brands. Its straightforward, mildly hoppy, American-style, golden-lager profile, along with affordable pricing and consistent availability, helped lock Stag in as an everyday beer for generations of Midwesterners.

By the late 20th century, the American beer industry was undergoing rapid consolidation, with large brewing companies absorbing many once-independent regional labels. (It's a major reason that many of your favorite beers are owned by the same entity.) According to the Digital Research Library of Illinois, in 1979, G. Heileman Brewery acquired Stag's Belleville plant, which had already been sold multiple times by the mid-1900s. The new parent company later merged with Bond Corporation Holdings Ltd. That period of ownership was punctuated by the Stag facility's closure in 1988, bringing more than a century of beer-making at the site to an end.

After the Belleville brewery shut down, Stag endured as a brand under corporate stewardship. The label ultimately became part of the Pabst Brewing Company's portfolio, where it remains today. Now it is produced via contract brewing. As of 2019, this occurred through MillerCoors, which then became Molson Coors after yet another company consolidation. Stag exists as a legacy label rather than a standalone brewery product.

While its prominence has declined since its mid-century peak, Stag Golden Lager remains available in select Midwestern markets, both at retailers and on tap in various taverns. It continues to carry local significance and pride decades after the Western Brewery closed.