The Brief, Shining Life of Kirkland Signature Lager

Beer fans of all stripes felt great disturbance in the Force last week. The word out of Bend, Oregon that Deschutes Brewery would be discontinuing its wildly loved Costco’s Kirkland Signature Helles Lager landed with sadness, shock, and disappointment.

A German-style Helles that was awarded gold at the Great American Beer Festival in 2023, Kirkland Lager was one of those rare unicorns in the beer space in recent years that appealed to all drinkers: craft connoisseurs, bargain hunters, macro fanatics, and drinkers who just wanted something cold and good. As the deep red, off-white, and gold 12-packs began appearing in warehouse member carts, and then backyard coolers and garage fridges, it was clear that it was a beer for all people (providing they had a Costco membership).

“We’re so grateful for Costco’s trust in Deschutes to bring our award-winning beer to their members at such a great value,” the brewery said in a social media post last week, a few days after industry newsletter Beer Business Daily broke the news. “We’ve reached the end of our volume commitment and therefore the program is winding down.”

That the beer was ever released on such a wide scale was remarkable on several levels.

Twice bitten, thrice shy

Costco had been in the private label beer space before. There was a variety pack produced by Gordon Biersch that had an American pale, Czech-style lager, India pale ale, and a session IPA.

“When it comes to beer in general the base is loyal and very local. To do a private label is difficult because people like local breweries,” said Russ York, a buyer for Costco Wholesale in a 2025 interview with this magazine. “It was a good program but it still struggled.”

Then there was the Kirkland light lager that came in 48-packs for cheap. It had a certain following and customer base and was a great fit for beer pong tournaments, but York admitted that it was known “for also not being very good. The quality was not there, but we had a lot of people who liked that beer because it was a great value.”

Even without a signature brand, there was no shortage of options in the beer aisle. Costco has well-curated SKUs in its warehouses across the country that have liquor licenses. Standard American light lagers such as Miller and Coors are generally available, as well as the occasional import, Guinness, variety packs from Samuel Adams, bricks of VooDoo Ranger, and seasonals. This is to say nothing about the hard seltzers and flavored malt beverages.

After the previous attempts at a Kirkland beer the company was in no rush to try it again. Then Deschutes came knocking.

A reverse Uno card

Deschutes Brewery has been a Pacific Northwest staple for nearly 40 years. Its early beers like Black Butte porter and Mirror Pond pale ale were seminal for the early generation of craft drinkers, and the brewery turned out hundreds of brewers that would go on to work in or run their own breweries, bringing a high level of quality along with them.

With near national distribution and recent pushes into the non-alcoholic space with their own brands and partnerships with Patagonia, the brewery has been anything but sleepy, where other breweries its age might be showing wear around the edges.

In 2022 Peter Skrbek, the CEO of Deschutes Brewery, attended a meeting at Costco headquarters. Often in these situations a brand goes in and pitches the Kirkland Signature team with an item or idea and hopes it lands a deal.

“Literally, I went to their headquarters in Issaquah, Washington and asked what they would like to see that they’ve never seen before,” said Skrbek in a previously unpublished interview with this magazine conducted last year. “And my impression was that not a lot of people had asked that question before. There was a little bit of pause and Russ York said he would love to see something special for the holiday season, something giftable, and unique.”

The answer was a bourbon barrel-aged stout. The brewery first started barrel aging beers in 2006, Skrbek said, and had both expansive knowledge on how to make them well, and a deep bench of recipes to choose from.

In 2024 the Kirkland vintage ale debuted in a throwback 22-ounce bomber bottle, nicely packaged inside a box for the eye-popping low low price of $9.99. What was even more remarkable was that the Deschutes logo was also featured on the front of the box with the Kirkland Signature logo.

“We have a reputation going way back on quality in barrel-aged beer, so there was a little bit of provenance of where it came from to just reinforce the product,” said Skrbek. “It was something that we both thought would be a good idea.”

The beer was a success and both sides then asked each other what else they could do. Was there another beer that could get Costco members excited?

“Around this time, we had just won a GABF gold for a beer that was called Prince Crispy, and we didn’t have a commercial plan for it. We thought that maybe it would be interesting to take this beer that was brewed in our pub and scale it up for national distribution.”

All hail the prince

Prince Crispy was supposed to be one and done. As Skrbek tells it, then head-brewer at Deschutes’ Bend Pub, Robin Johnson, who is now assistant brewmaster, wanted to brew a traditional, technically perfect German-style Helles using nothing but the world’s best ingredients.

The efforts paid off and the beer took gold at the 2023 GABF.

“There was no commercial plan for this beer,” said Skrbek “It was built for competition. I think we certainly were going to serve it at our pubs and tasting rooms. But the idea of scaling a beer of this variety was a lot, too much.”

Costco was intrigued by the idea, especially since York said the company wasn’t interested in doing another IPA. The beer had pedigree, tasted great, and anyone paying attention to the craft beer space (as well as the international conglomerates) could see lager is having a moment.

The beer would be rebranded as Kirkland Signature Lager, and the warm, European lager aesthetic cans would carry both the Deschutes logo and GABF medal artwork. In Oregon, the brewery got to work sourcing the ingredients to brew the first few hundred barrels and getting Ball Corporation to start printing 12-ounce cans on a tight deadline.

“I’d be lying to say that going into this launch that I wasn’t nervous,” said York.

A quick cult favorite

The beer arrived with little fanfare in late 2024. Within weeks it was popping up in internet posts with heart emojis and on podcasts. Those who took the plunge were eager to share their findings with others (including this reporter, who received multiple text messages from friends near and far asking for an opinion).

National news stories soon followed and the beer–under the Kirkland Signature name–would win a silver medal in the 2025 World Beer Cup and a bronze in the 2026 edition, each time to big applause from the professional brewing audience.

“This beer is designed to do two things: appeal to the everyday consumers and the craft beer drinkers,” said York after the beer’s release. “Sales are where we want them to be because I think we’re getting both. It has quality and price.”

While it will soon be disappearing from the warehouses, Skrbek said early on that the beer was helping bring more people into the craft category.

“Initially, they may not even consider or know that it’s a craft,” he said. “That’s actually the point, how do we elevate the expectation of the fan by delivering them something that makes them say ‘wow’. I’ve heard from Modelo drinkers and others that they are converted. That’s been the most rewarding aspect of this whole thing for everybody at the brewery, I think all of us being close to craft forget how many people still really have never had a craft beer.”

Skrbek did not respond to several requests for an interview after the discontinuation was announced, but the brewery, in a social media post, said it has “been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support for the beer from Costco members since the announcement. Clearly this beer has built a fanbase across the U.S. and internationally.”