New Orleanians will soon find a familiar word adorning the packaging of a newly renamed local beer brand.
Dixie Beer, a regionally-iconic beer brand founded in New Orleans more than 110 years ago, will soon have a new name.
The iconic Louisiana brewery which has been around since 1907, will now be known as Faubourg Brewing Company after the nationwide uproar over racial discrimination sparked the company earlier this summer to ditch the name associated with the Confederacy.
Dixie Brewery owner Gayle Benson, who also owns the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, explained that the brewery is working to find a new name in order to make “our home more united, strong and resilient for future generations.”
Dixie Beer’s fortunes have waxed and waned over the years. It not only survived Prohibition but came back strong, and in the 1950s Dixie Beer was an industry leader, not only in New Orleans where it commanded almost 30 percent of the city’s local beer market but throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
The changes are in response to a wave of demonstrations against racism and police brutality that were triggered by George Floyd’s in-custody death in Minneapolis.
Benson said she recognizes the “critical conversations” that are going on around the nation about the “immeasurable pain and oppression of our black and brown communities.”
The company’s website included more details about why they removed “Dixie” from the company name.
“We decided to retire the name ‘Dixie’ this past June, as the nation undertook critical conversations about social justice issues,” according to the company website. “Additionally, the community is at the heart of why we do what we do, and we thrive on the idea of our beer bringing people together. Our name must speak to the diversity of the city we call home as we encourage unity and inclusivity in New Orleans and across the country.”
The businesswoman and her late husband, Tom Benson, bought the company in 2017 and brought it back to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina forced it to move some of its operations elsewhere.
The company returned all brewing production to the city late last year.
Source: AWM
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