Jax is back: The nostalgic New Orleans beer brand returns courtesy of Port Orleans Brewing

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Jax is back.

The century-old New Orleans beer brand, brewed at Jax Brewery in the French Quarter until 1974, has returned to taps and shelves courtesy of Port Orleans Brewing Co., which began distributing its version of the beer in Louisiana last year.

It's a decidedly small-scale renaissance, but it's one that puts a smile on the faces of New Orleanians of a certain age who may remember Jax's witty animated TV commercials from the 1960s or the beer's shoutout in Tennessee Williams' "A Streetcar Named Desire."

For several decades, the beer was only a memory. But in May, a new version debuted in cans and on tap at the Port Orleans taproom on Tchoupitoulas Street. The rollout has continued into early 2025, and now the brew is available in vintage brown bottles and kegs at hundreds of bars, restaurants and stores in the metro area.

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In 2022, Port Orleans registered the Louisiana trademark for Jax beer. Pabst Brewing Company, the privately owned beer conglomerate, still owns a federal Jax trademark, so, in the summer of 2024, Port Orleans outlined its Jax relaunch plans with Pabst and "hopes to collaborate in the future," according to Port Orleans lawyer Andrew Lilly.

The company's investment in bottling and packaging equipment is in the low six figures, a modest sum for a limited relaunch, especially when compared to Tom and Gayle Benson's $30 million-plus investment in the revival of the Dixie Brewing Company. A new facility opened in 2020 in New Orleans East but, after a rebrand from Dixie to Faubourg, the brewery ceased operations four years later.

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The Jax revival was an aspiration for many at Port Orleans, including Director of Operations Ryan Mears, who said he’s been a fan of the dormant brand since he came to New Orleans to attend graduate school at Tulane University.

“When my wife and I moved to the area 11 years ago, we came across the old Jax building when we were walking through the French Quarter,” he said. “We were expecting a brewery, but it was a mall instead. We were like, ‘Someone's got to bring this back.’”

Jumping for Jax
Port Orleans had only ever sold beer in cans and on tap since it was founded in 2017 by retired New Orleans Saints player Zach Strief and four partners. But Mears wanted Jax customers to have the “bottle experience,” so last summer the brewery went shopping for used bottling equipment, vintage bottles, cardboard six-pack holders and hundreds of thousands of logo-embossed caps.

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The Jax nostalgia factor was a big selling point.

The new Jax bottle features the silhouette of the St. Louis Cathedral.

“We don't have to dump a bunch of marketing money into it or hire a bunch of sales guys,” Mears said. “It's an organic growth.”

Port Orleans President Don Noel said the beer is selling well at retail despite not having a reserved spot in most stores’ cold cases. Those are carefully planned and allocated, and the windows of opportunity to earn shelf space come around only twice a year.

Despite that, Noel said a lot of mom-and-pop store owners are finding space for it anywhere they can.

“The retailers like us,” he said. “They advocate for us.”

Mears estimates the brewery is making 500 or so cases of Jax each week. About a third of that is consumed in its tap room. The rest goes out to retailers, bars and restaurants via Southern Eagle on the south shore and another distributor, Champagne Beverage Co., north of the lake.

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