California's Iconic Brown Derby Restaurant Inspired This Now-Discontinued Cheap Beer

Say "Brown Derby" to different people and you'll find they associate it with different things. Beyond the obvious hat, there's the now-closed, legendary Brown Derby restaurant chain, one of Old Hollywood stars' favorite eateries. There's the cocktail made in tribute to that restaurant by a neighboring venue called the Brown Derby — one of the best, not-so-sweet bourbon cocktails, it's still a classic today. And then, there's the beer. Like the restaurant, Brown Derby pilsner is no longer with us, but it still holds a place in many beer lovers' hearts. It's one of those discontinued old-school beers everyone used to drink, and its history is actually entangled with that glamorous restaurant chainlet of the same name.

In 1933, West Coast Grocery Company wanted a private label beer to sell at two its different chains now that Prohibition had been repealed and shoppers were looking for beer on store shelves again. The company wanted to call it "Brown Derby," to benefit off the name recognition of the also West Coast-based Brown Derby — knowing the name exuded quality and prestige to consumers. It tapped Humboldt Brewing Company in Eureka, California to create Brown Derby, a pilsner, for Safeway and MacMarr locations. At first, it was bottled, and there were puzzles printed underneath its bottle caps that made it especially popular. As beer packaging methods advanced, Brown Derby was canned — but only two years into its production, Brown Derby restaurant came knocking with questions about its branding.

The West Coast Grocery Company wanted to capture some of the iconic Brown Derby's cachet. It even had Humboldt package the pilsner in cans with an image of a brown derby hat and cane — the restaurant was famously shaped like a brown derby — against a green background. The Brown Derby restaurant chain didn't take the beer as a flattering tribute, however, since it was a product profiting off their name and branding without permission, it sued West Coast Grocery Company in 1935 for copyright infringement. Perhaps generously, Brown Derby allowed the grocery company to keep the name and logo, just with the condition it changed the cans to silver. As a result, those original green cans are worth a fortune — one sold at auction in 2024 for an astounding $93,600.

In its silver packaging, Brown Derby pilsner continued on to great success, becoming one of the country's most popular beers. West Coast Grocery Company even had to recruit other breweries to keep up with demand. The beer eventually became a Safeway exclusive, and unfortunately in 1988, fellow supermarket chain Vons bought all Safeway locations and phased Brown Derby out. Dedicated beer fans clearly miss the beer, and according to a Reddit thread about it, the puzzles the brand continued to print on packaging. If you're feeling nostalgic but don't have a spare $100,000, more recent cans are available on e-commerce platforms for a fraction of the price.