Colt 45 has been around since 1963, survived four different corporate owners, and is still one of the two or three malt liquor brands most Americans could name without thinking about it. That longevity is mostly down to marketing, not the beer itself, but the beer itself is worth understanding on its own terms too.
The Actual History
Colt 45 was created in 1963 by National Brewing Company of Baltimore. The name comes from Baltimore Colts running back Jerry Hill, who wore jersey number 45, not the firearm most people assume it references. National sold the brand to Carling O’Keefe of Canada in 1975, which in turn sold it to G. Heileman Brewing Company of Wisconsin in 1979.
Heileman is where the brand’s modern marketing identity really took shape. In 1980 the company signed Billy Dee Williams, fresh off Star Wars and Lady Sings the Blues, as its spokesman. His “works every time” tagline and the two rules he recited in the ads (never run out of Colt 45, never forget rule number one) became genuinely famous, enough that Williams returned as the brand’s face again decades later, in a 2016 campaign, well after most people assumed the association had ended.
What It Actually Is
Colt 45 is legally malt liquor rather than beer, a labeling distinction that in the US mostly just signals a slightly higher ABV rather than a different brewing process. It currently sits at 5.6% ABV in its standard US bottling, up from an original 4.8% when it launched. That is a meaningful jump for a lager-style drink, roughly a full percentage point above most mainstream American lagers like Budweiser or Miller Lite. Outside the US, Colt 45 gets brewed even stronger: Canadian versions have been produced at 7%, 8%, and 9% ABV, and the Philippines version, brewed under license by Asia Brewery, comes in at 7.2%. If you want the exact legal definition of what separates “malt liquor” from “beer” in the US, our What Is Malt Liquor? page breaks down the TTB rules.
Colt 45 at a Glance
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Style | American malt liquor |
| ABV (US) | 5.6% |
| ABV at launch (1963) | 4.8% |
| Common package size | 40oz (1.18L) bottle, also 12oz cans |
| Original brewery | National Brewing Company, Baltimore |
| Current owner | Pabst Brewing Company |
| Named after | Baltimore Colts player Jerry Hill, #45 |
The 40oz Format Colt 45 Helped Popularize
Colt 45 was among the first brands to introduce the 40oz single-serve bottle, a format that became so associated with malt liquor that “a 40” is still shorthand for one regardless of brand. The economics were straightforward: one large bottle undercuts the price of the equivalent volume in smaller bottles or cans, which made it a go-to value option, particularly through the 1980s and 1990s when malt liquor marketing leaned heavily into affordability. Our tall can and large-format beers guide covers how that format compares to the tallboy cans that eventually took over a lot of the same market.
Taste and How It Actually Drinks
Colt 45 is brewed to be inexpensive and high in alcohol rather than complex, and it drinks that way: pale gold, thin body, a corn-sweet grain character typical of adjunct-heavy American lagers, with more noticeable alcohol warmth than a standard 5% lager because of the extra ABV. It is not brewed for sipping or for flavor exploration, and reviewers consistently describe it in blunt, functional terms rather than as a beer with tasting notes worth chasing. That is the point of the category; if you want a genuine flavor comparison within the same style, our Olde English 800 review covers a direct malt liquor competitor.
Colt 45 in Music and Pop Culture
Colt 45 became a genuine cultural reference point well beyond its own advertising, showing up by name in songs across hip-hop, funk, and rock for decades, often as shorthand for a cheap, strong, working-class drink rather than as product placement the brand paid for. That kind of unpaid cultural presence is part of why malt liquor brands built such strong regional loyalty in the 1980s and 1990s: St. Ides, a direct competitor, ran its own celebrity-driven campaigns around the same era (Ice Cube among others), and the two brands ended up competing as much on cultural cachet as on shelf price. Billy Dee Williams’ ongoing association with Colt 45 specifically outlasted most of that era’s other malt liquor ad campaigns, which is a big part of why the brand is still recognizable today while several of its 1980s competitors have faded.
The Wider Malt Liquor Category’s Decline
Malt liquor as a category has shrunk significantly since its 1980s-1990s peak, squeezed from two directions: craft beer took the “interesting flavor” drinkers, and hard seltzers and flavored malt beverages took a chunk of the “cheap, strong, easy to drink” audience malt liquor used to have mostly to itself.
Colt 45 has stayed on shelves through that shift mostly by holding its price position rather than by reinventing the product, still sold in the same 40oz bottles and 12oz cans it has used for decades, at prices that remain well below most craft and even most mainstream lager options per ounce. That price-first positioning, more than any flavor claim, is the actual reason it has outlasted most of its original 1980s malt liquor competitors.
Calories and Nutrition
A 12oz serving of the 5.6% US version of Colt 45 runs close to 157 calories with about 11 grams of carbohydrate, according to nutrition data from CalorieKing and Eat This Much, a bit above a standard 5% American lager (typically 145-155 calories for the same serving size), which tracks with its higher ABV and adjunct-heavy grain bill. There is no light or reduced-calorie version of Colt 45 currently on the market, unlike some competing malt liquor brands that have added a lower-ABV line. The stronger 8.1% Canadian version runs noticeably higher again, around 223 calories and 14.5 grams of carbohydrate per 12oz serving.
Colt 45 vs. Other Major Malt Liquors
Colt 45 sits in the middle of the pack on strength among the big American malt liquor brands, not the strongest and not the weakest:
| Brand | ABV (US) |
|---|---|
| Mickey’s | 5.6% |
| Colt 45 | 5.6% |
| Olde English 800 | 7.5% |
| Steel Reserve 211 | 8.1% |
That puts Colt 45 and Mickey’s at roughly the same strength, both well below Olde English and Steel Reserve, which lean into the “high gravity” side of the category much harder. It is one reason Colt 45 has kept a slightly less extreme, more mainstream-adjacent reputation than some of its harder-edged competitors, even though it is still legally malt liquor and still stronger than a standard American lager.
Want to Compare It Against Other Malt Liquors?
If you’re deciding what to actually buy rather than just reading about Colt 45, here’s how it stacks up against two of its closest shelf competitors, plus the gear most people serving a 40oz actually end up wanting.
FAQs
What is the ABV of Colt 45?
Colt 45 is 5.6% ABV in its standard US bottling, up from 4.8% at its 1963 launch. Versions brewed outside the US, including in Canada and the Philippines, are brewed stronger, up to 9% ABV.
Is Colt 45 named after the gun?
No. It’s named after Baltimore Colts running back Jerry Hill, who wore jersey number 45. The brand launched in 1963 in Baltimore.
Who owns Colt 45 now?
Colt 45 is currently part of Pabst Brewing Company’s portfolio, after passing through National Brewing, Carling O’Keefe, and G. Heileman Brewing over the decades.
Why is Billy Dee Williams associated with Colt 45?
Williams became Colt 45’s spokesman starting in 1980 under G. Heileman Brewing, fronting a famous ad campaign with the tagline “works every time.” He returned for a new campaign in 2016.
