Jax Beer Made a Brief Return, May Be Making a More Permanent Come Back

Last week in my Pint-Sized column in Folio Weekly Magazine, I told you about Jacksonville’s first brewery — Jacksonville, later Jax, Brewing Company. What I did not write in that column was how the brewery sold the recipe of its beloved pilsner to the Jackson Brewing Company — who incidentally was also called Jax Brewing — of New Orleans. Later, Jackson sold the name and recipe to Pearl Brewing of Austin, Texas who later became Pabst Brewing. Pabst, after brewing the pilsner for a few years, discontinued the brew and Jax Beer was seemingly lost to the veils of time. This week, reports on Facebook began to circulate that Jax Beer was available at European Street Cafe in Riverside. I checked with my contacts at Pabst and the claims were confirmed. Michael Peck, Associate Brand Manager of Pabst’s Local Legends division shared, “We brewed a very small test batch of Jax, just to see what people thought of the beer.” The goal, Peck continued was to see, “If they remembered Jax,” and to see, “What they liked about it.” If what Peck says holds true, ‘The Beer of Friendship,’ as the advertisements proclaimed, may be on the cusp of a come back. “We’re very much in development,” Peck said. “Once we have a solid launch timeline, I’ll definitely reach out.” So, now it is your turn. Did you have an opportunity to try the limited release of Jax? Did you remember it? How did you remember it? What did you think?