Pearl Brewing Company - Three XXx of Texas

Three XXx of Texas

The triple X logo has long been associated with Pearl. In fact, it was used at the brewery even before Pearl beer became synonymous with the company. When the San Antonio Brewing Association bought the City Brewery and opened it for business in the 1880s, they used the triple Xs in the brewery’s logo. Three large Xs were enclosed in a circle, with the words “City Brewery” on both sides or around the outside of the circle. This was the brewery’s first logo under the San Antonio Brewing Association and thus appeared on all of their advertising and the majority of their bottled and kegged beers.

With the start of Prohibition, the triple Xs disappeared as the company was forced to transform itself and try to survive. The brewery produced a wide variety of bottled drinks during the beer-less time, including Near beer and Root Beer. Other companies picked up on the use of Xs on their near or root beers, the most famous of which being Triple XXX Root Beer, but Pearl (at that time Alamo Industries/Foods) never used the Xs on any of their products. The Xs were gone from the brewery during Prohibition, but not forgotten.

When the ban on beer ended in 1933, the brewery quickly began the production of beer once again. The bottles of Pearl and Texas Pride rolled off the supply chains and onto retail shelves and saloon bars once again. Along with their return, the triple Xs returned as well. The Xs were absent from advertising and the company logo for 15 years after Prohibition, but they held a prominent status on every single bottle. In the late 1940s the brewery launched an advertising campaign stating the brewery's beers were the “Three xXx of Texas.” The triple Xs took a renewed and increased role at the brewery, but their growth in prominence did not end there.

In 1952 when the San Antonio Brewing Association changed its name to the Pearl Brewing Company, the triple Xs joined the Pearl name as a dominant image on the product and the company as a whole. The triple Xs were back on the company logo and were used on almost all of Pearl's advertisements. The Xs held this significant role up to the very end of production at the brewery in 2001, when the brewery closed its doors and the company logo was abandoned. As production of Pearl beer and Pearl Light spun up at Miller Brewing Company’s Fort Worth facility, the product logos were redesigned. The updated label does not utilize the triple Xs, and thus a significant part of company identity has been virtually eliminated from the Pearl beers. However, Pearl's Country Club Malt liquor still displays the XXXs in its logo.

Many people wonder where the Xs came from, and how were they ever used on beer. In truth, the three Xs are actually a quality rating system. The system was initially used in Europe during the 16th Century. As European royalty traveled their lands and visited neighboring counties, a royal courier was sent ahead of the official party. The courier’s job was to sample beer at inns along the way. If the beer was only average, the courier would mark the inn’s sign or door with a single X. If the inn’s beer was deemed good, the sign or door would receive two Xs. A mark on an inn of three Xs meant that the beer inside was excellent, and a must-stop for the royal court as they passed through.

The triple Xs were adopted by the San Antonio Brewing Association to portray two things: the high quality of their beers, and the pride that workers put into every ounce of their products. As far as we can tell today, the triple X designation was never bestowed on the brewery by any member or associate of European royalty. The royal rating system is almost forgotten these days, yet it lived on for over a century in different forms at the brewery. The triple Xs may be gone from company and Pearl beer logos, but it has not completely vanished. In the 1960s Pearl absorbed the Goetz Brewing Company and made Country Club Malt Liquor one of Pearl’s key products. When Country Club received its only product makeover a few years after the buyout, Country Club gained the addition of the triple Xs in its logo. The Xs were situated in the top-center of the logo’s crown. Country Club is still produced today, and it still carries the “xXx” mark of Pearl even after all these years.

In 2006 the triple Xs made a huge comeback. When the old horse stables were converted from the Jersey Lilly into the Pearl Stable by Silver Ventures the “xXx” was a massive part of the building’s motif. The triple Xs were incorporated into areas such as the chandeliers, the millwork above all the doors, massive bronze plagues above the stage and around the mezzanine, in the custom carpet, and ever the rafter bracing. There are so many Xs that it defies logic. At almost every event the audience is dared to count all the sets of triple Xs. To date no one has put forth a serious effort, and it’s doubted that even Silver Ventures knows exactly how many Xs are in the Pearl Stable.