Grand Prize Beer was once one of Texas' biggest beer brands. Brewed by Houston's Gulf Brewing Company beginning in the 1930s, right after Prohibition was lifted, it became the beer of choice for generations of working Texans, backyard barbecues, neighborhood ice houses and Friday afternoons that quietly became Friday evenings, complete with fireflies and kids playing in the yard. Grand Prize was actually the most popular beer in Texas by 1936, and stayed super-popular into the 1950s and 1960s. Howard Hughes eventually controlled the company, and the brewery was located right there on the grounds of Hughes Tool Company on Houston's east side.

These little caps once sat atop a cold bottle of that popular Grand Prize Pale Dry Beer. Perhaps they were opened by a refinery worker after mowing his Deer Park lawn on a hot August day. Or at a popular Houston bar like La Carafe, Leon’s Lounge or Warren’s Inn. Or in a garage where someone was working on their ‘65 Mustang listening to an Astros game on AM radio. 

We'll never know.

That's part of the charm.

Bottle caps are wonderfully democratic collectibles. They belonged to everyone. Oil executives. Welders. College students. Ship Channel workers. Shopkeepers. Every cap tells the same story: somebody enjoyed a cold beer, tossed the cap aside and never imagined someone would treasure it decades later.

Yet here we are.

The blue-and-white graphics remain surprisingly crisp, with the familiar Grand Prize logo still standing proudly against honest Houston wear and the patina accumulated over many decades. Unlike mint-condition collectibles that never left the shelf, these caps actually lived the life it was supposed to; and it’s not done with its journey just yet. 

Which somehow makes it even better.

Details

• Original Grand Prize Pale Dry Beer bottle cap

• Steel crown cap construction

• Vintage blue-and-white graphics

• Honest age and wear

• Great display piece

• Cold, foamy beer not included 

As an aside, Grand Prize is back: the brewmasters at Saint Arnold’s Brewing Company brought Grand Prize back to life and it is seriously one of my favorite beers. Highly recommended.