Whatever Happened to Malt Liquor?
Snoop Dogg for Blast by Colt 45 malt liquor
In the 1990s, malt liquor was a billion-dollar industry, mostly in the Black and Latino inner-city communities. Rappers including Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube starred in malt liquor advertisements and referenced malt liquor in their lyrics, before they moved on to more sophisticated offerings like cognac and champagne. But what was malt liquor? Where did it come from and what happened to it?
History of Malt Liquor
The first written reference to malt liquor was in England way back in 1690, and back then, the term was used to describe any beer that was stronger than average. The meaning stayed the same, more or less, as the phrase and the kind of beer it described both came to the USA, right through to the time of Prohibition. Prohibition was malt liquor’s first heyday, as it was fairly easy to make it at home, it was cheap, and it was potent.
Champale malt liquor
Potency has always been one of the attractions of malt liquor. Post-Prohibition, when most US beers were around 4-5% ABV (Alcohol by Volume), malt liquors weighed in at around 6-9% ABV, and occasionally more. That extra strength is achieved by adding additional sugars to the brew by way of inexpensive ingredients like corn, rice, or simply sugar. The extra sugars turn to more alcohol and also give the beer a sweeter taste, making for a dangerously easy-to-drink beverage.
Champale dates back to 1939, but he production of malt liquor started to gain traction in the 1950s and 1960s with the arrival of brands like Schlitz “Bull” Malt Liquor (1950s), the popular Colt 45 (1963), and Olde English 800 (1964). This is also when malt liquor began to be sold in 40 oz bottles (‘forties’), meaning that you not only got stronger and cheaper beer, you also got more of it. Forty ounces equates to 1.182 liters, which is certainly more booze for your buck
Colt 45 with Billy Dee Williams
Malt liquors were inevitably popular with college students, when they weren’t downing cheap tequila shots – or sometimes when they were. Brewers started to market their malt liquors to the less affluent inner-city areas, and by the 1980s it was paying off. Those 40-oz bottles and the major brands became part of street culture. “Drink a 40 and turn crazy,” rapped the hip-hop group N.W.A. in 1988’s Gangsta Gangsta and “I got the 40 ounce in my lap,’ boomed Cypress Hill in 1993’s Insane in the Brain. Actor Billy Dee Williams famously sold Colt 45 with the slogan: “Works every time.” Other rappers including Snoop Dogg, Ice Cube, and E-40 all starred in adverts for St Ides Malt Liquor, which as a result became the #1 malt liquor brand.
And that’s when things started to turn around for malt liquor, for several interconnected reasons. Firstly, St. Ides ads were accused of glamorizing binge drinking, which led to lawsuits and pulled ad campaigns. The brand began to lose its cool with the hip-hop community. Around the same time cities including Chicago and Philadelphia banned single-sale 40 oz bottles to curb public drinking.
This all coincided with the start of the huge boom in craft brewing, when consumers began to have a greater choice than ever before in what brews they could choose to drink. As well as experimenting with tastes, the new wave of brewers was interested in making beers that were as high and higher in strength than malt liquors… and tasted of more than just sugar. Craft beer became cool. Drinkers became more discerning.
King Cobra malt liquor ad
Craft distilling followed hot on the heels of craft brewing. Hard seltzers and cocktails replaced malt liquors as the budget drink of choice, with flavors and drinks to appeal to every palate. The ever-growing market for alcohol products kept prices low, too, and people became more interested in quality rather than quantity. The brand owners also followed the market trends and, as one example, MillerCoors discontinued Magnum Malt Liquor in 2010. Consumers, producers and politicians were all now showing greater concern over the dangers of drinking to excess, which included binge drinking and the drinking of high-alcohol products.
In short, malt liquor had had its day, and while you can still find malt liquors if you look around, it’s very much a niche market. There are certainly an infinitely greater number of more interesting products to spend your beer money on.