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Packaging Director Gabby Phillips operates bottling equipment at Port Orleans Brewing Co. on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save 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.
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 . Gabby Phillips and Jacob Rabenau oversee bottling of Jax beer on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. 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. Ryan Mears turns Jax labels to the camera at Port Orleans Brewing Co.
on Tuesday, March 11, 2025. “I really wanted the brown bottle with the pry top for the nostalgia factor,” Mears said. “The same beer from a can, glass or bottle is a different experience.
” An in-house designer created a new Jax label inspired by the original with some modifications. Most noticeably, the original silhouette of Andrew Jackson on a horse has been replaced with an image of the St. Louis Cathedral.
“We thought it was more iconic and more representative of New Orleans,” Mears said. Though Port Orleans didn’t have access to the original Jax recipe, brewers researched formulas for similar American pilsners that were popular in the first half of the 20th century. In 2023, the brewery had stopped distributing its beers to focus on its on-site hospitality business.
But the return of Jax the following year provided an extra incentive for Port Orleans to resume distribution of several brands through Southern Eagle, one of the city's two major beer suppliers. 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.
The plan is to keep the cost of a six pack under $10. A bonus: now that the bottling line is up and running, Port Orleans is using it to bottle several of its other products. Challenging time for brewers The return of Jax has provided a boost for Port Orleans at a time when independent brewers are facing more competition and consumers are gravitating to beer alternatives like THC drinks, hard seltzers and canned cocktails.
The Brewers Association, a national trade group, said craft beer production was down 2% year-over-year in 2024, after booming during the century's first two decades. For the first time since 2005, more indie breweries closed than opened. Brewers are facing more headwinds in the future, with potential tariffs and other factors that could lead to rising costs.
“Beer has changed a lot in the last 20 years,” said Noel. “At one point, small breweries could print money, but then the market became very saturated.” While reviving the Jax brand, Port Orleans has been busy with other projects, including an expansion to the West Bank that’s generated controversy.
The brewery was selected to be the operator of a brewpub that is being built with more than $8 million in Jefferson Parish funds on parish-owned land along the Mississippi River levee in downtown Gretna. Jefferson Parish council member Jennifer Van Vrancken and Inspector General Kim Chatelain criticized the deal, saying it circumvented public bid and open meeting laws. Construction is underway, however, and the brewpub is on track to open in the second quarter of 2026.
Meanwhile, Port Orleans has been keeping its 15,000-barrel capacity facility on Tchoupitoulas busy by producing canned beverages for New Orleans-based THC seltzer company Louie Louie. Despite all the activity, the Jax revival holds a special place for Mears and Noel. “We've invested a lot in this,” Mears said.
“We believe in it. It's a passion project for us.”.
