Lone Star Brewing Company

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Lone Star is the brand name of a beer once produced in San Antonio, Texas and marketed as "The National Beer of Texas."

[edit] History

The original Lone Star Bottling Works opened in San Antonio in the 1890s and by 1903 was selling 65,000 barrels of beer annually. With the end of Prohibition in 1933, a new Lone Star brewery was built under new owners. The plant first produced beer under the Sabinas brand name and then the name Champion beer. In 1940, the name Lone Star was first used to market a beer from the brewery. The brewery also produced Lone Star Light.

The company went public on September 2, 1949. In 1999, the company was purchased by the Pabst Brewing Company. Also in 1999, the company began to sponsor Texas singers and musicians, such as "Two Tons of Steel," with the beer's "It's a Texas Thing" advertising campaign.

On October 2, 1996, the Lone Star brewery was shut down and beer production moved to Longview, Texas, after Lone Star was purchased by the Stroh Brewery Company. When Pabst bought Stroh, production of Lone Star was moved back to San Antonio to the Pearl Brewery, also owned by Pabst. In 2000, the Pearl Brewery was closed because it was outdated and would have been too expensive to continue to operate or to bring up to date. Production of Lone Star is currently contracted out to non-Pabst owned breweries.