The story behind one of South Africa’s oldest and most iconic beers

Lion Lager is one of the oldest and most popular beer brands in South Africa, one of SA Breweries’ (SAB’s) most successful products.

The lager began, however, as SAB’s most fierce competitor in the first days of South African brewing. 

Lion Lager was first produced at the Mariendahl Brewery, now the Newlands Brewery, by Swedish immigrant Anders Ohlsson, according to the Heritage Portal. 

Ohlsson was born near Christiania in Norway in 1841. He studied in Sweden and sailed to South Africa at the age of 23. 

He quickly became a significant businessman, importing Swedish goods and later working as a trader in Damaraland, now Namibia. 

South Africa’s oldest commercial brewing facility, Mariendahl, was built in 1859 by Jacob Letterstedt. Letterstedt died in 1862, however, and left the brewery to his daughter, Lydia. 

Having made a success of himself, Ohlsson purchased all the breweries in Newlands, which were floated as a limited company; the Ohlsson Cape Breweries Ltd. 

According to research from the University of Cape Town, all of Ohlsson’s biographers state that he knew little to nothing about brewing itself when he took on this venture. 

The breweries began producing ales, stouts and porters around 1881, or at the latest, in early 1882.

Ohlsson built the first lager brewery in 1901 and introduced a modern pasteurisation process that allowed the company to sell its lager at a cheap enough price for people of the average income to buy it, called Tickey beer.

When Castle Breweries was formed in 1895, there was fierce competition in the beer industry. Between 1899 and 1902, Castle Lager went toe to toe with the already-established Ohlsson Lagers 

Ohlsson retired as managing director of the company in 1906 and was succeeded by his son, Axel Ohlsson. 

According to SAB, after Anders Ohlsson died in 1912, his friends and family brewed a new lager in his honour.

His nickname had been the Lion, and so the beer was named Lion Lager. It became a top-selling beer, competing with Castle Lager.

Fierce competition continued until 1956, when a merger took place between Ohlsson’s Breweries, Castle Breweries and United Breweries to form the enormous South African Breweries group that exists today. 

The rise, fall and rise again of Lion Lager

Following the merger, Lion Lager grew to become one of SAB’s most popular products in the 1950s.

Lion was SAB’s biggest seller in the 1970s and early 1980s. However, in the 1990s, its popularity slowly began to wane as sales of Castle Lager grew. 

According to The Sunday Times, it is estimated that Lion’s share of the market fell to below 3.5% of sales, and the beer was initially taken off the market in 2000. 

SAB attempted to bring Lion Lager back to the market in October 2000, and relaunched the beer as a lighter, lower-alcohol product with new packaging and advertising, attempting to appeal to a younger, female audience. 

The relaunch was ultimately unsuccessful, and Lion was again removed from the shelves in March 2003. 

SAB said that Lion Lager continued to be a part of South African heritage and history. In 2006, Lion Lager was one of the top three brands that South Africans missed most, according to a Sunday Times Top Brands survey. 

The beer returned to shelves for a brief few weeks in 2007, when SAB brewed one million litres as a commemorative drink for the 2007 festive season. 

SAB retained the rights to brew the beer, and it reappeared in small batches periodically. This was until the company decided to bring the beer back permanently around 2018. 

A social media campaign was launched to appeal to “mainly black, male, blue-collar workers aged 25-45 years old,” according to Brand Management Company DNA Brand Architects.

The advertising campaign, along with a R10 promotion for Lion Lager quarts, was successful in bringing Lion back to the market as a key player.

While the relaunch campaign was running between October and November alone, SAB sold over 165,000 units of Lion Lager. 

The beer can still be found at liquor shops across the country, cementing itself as one of the country’s most loved beers.

Old Lion Lager adverts