What Happened To 40oz Beers?

A friend to college students and rappers alike, 40-ounce beers, or 40s as they're known to most, have largely disappeared in the last decade. Once a cheap way to get drunk, 40s are hard to find in most liquor stores these days — especially in glass bottles, according to Reddit. So what fueled the 40-ounce beer's gradual vanishing act?

Oddly enough, the beginning of the 40s' decline likely began with its popularity. Forty-ounce beers really reached peak consumption in the 80s and 90s, mostly due to their size. For liquor stores, larger bottles meant more shelf space availability, and for consumers of 40-ounce beers, more bang for your buck. But because 40s were so cheap and portable, they became synonymous with public drinking and inner-city crime. In an effort to curb the impact of 40s on crime, cities like Portland, Oregon, began prohibiting their sale in the mid-90s (via U.S. Department of Justice). Other cities and states added their own bans in the decades that followed, because public intoxication became a larger issue. As 40s and the malt liquor they held faced more controversy and bans, sales began a steep decline at the turn of the millennium.

But the real nail in the coffin for 40s came with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Alcoholic beverages were not immune to supply chain issues. Increased costs and factory shutdowns led to a glass shortage. Manufacturers opted for smaller bottles or continued the trend of beer companies favoring aluminum cans. Despite its decline, the 40-ounce beer is far from forgotten.

By the 1980s, 40s had become hugely popular, thanks in part to beer companies' aggressive marketing to African Americans. Forties became deeply intertwined with rap music and street culture, so much so that rappers began shouting out their favorite brands in songs. Brands like Colt 45, Olde English, and St. Ides were immortalized and dominated the 40-ounce malt liquor landscape.

But 40s were an obvious choice for parties, too, especially among the college-age crowd. Sometime in the early 2000s, college students, possibly at an Ivy League school according to Punch, invented the absurdly named Y2K drinking game, Edward 40 Hands. Most college students these days will likely have to settle for Edward 32 Hands, as some U.S. states, including Virginia, have banned beers larger than 32 ounces altogether (via Virginia Law).

According to Reddit, you might still find 40s in plastic bottles at your local 7-Eleven, as Molson Coors (which owns the brands Olde English 800 and Steel Reserve) began producing them in plastic back in 2014 (via CSP Daily News). Many social media users lament how difficult it's become to find malt liquor at all. Meanwhile, Redditors in Michigan claim 40-ounce beers are actually easier to find than 32-ounce beers, as people in New York, Seattle, and Chicago report having to visit multiple stores to find any. Although you'll need to find out whether 40-ounce beers are legal in your area, brands like Olde English, Steel Reserve, Colt 45, and Mickey's still make 40s in glass containers. So while 40s may not be extinct just yet, their glory days appear to be very much over.