“The BEER That Made Milwaukee Famous”
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Schlitz beer is back on the shelves, but only for a few minutes. They’re being snapped up by anxious customers just as fast as the stores can stock them.
Pabst Brewing Co. is the current holder of the Schlitz trademark and 25 years after the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co. shut down, Pabst is running off some batches of the original formula. They have found out that “The beer that made Milwaukee famous” is just as popular as ever and are increasing production. Since January they have been filling store shelves in Chicago, Minneapolis, and of course, Milwaukee.
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After carefully recreating the original recipe from the company archives and personally interviewing many of the former brewmasters of the company, Pabst brought the famous brand back with an unexpected success with demand outpacing production. It has been contracted out to the MillerCoors brewery in Eden, North Carolina. Yesterday they announced that it will be available starting next week in kegs. The draft product will be released first to 150 taverns in the three cities.
Channel 6 in Milwaukee did this nice video report of the comeback:
Joseph Schlitz first started in the brewing business in 1856. After running the Krug brewery for two years, he married the owner’s widow and changed the name to Schlitz Brewing. Throughout the 1950′s and 1960′s Schlitz was the #1 selling beer in America.
But then a rapid series of management blunders crippled the company and sales tumbled through the 70′s until they finally shut down in 1981. Schlitz had a devoted following of customers who swore by its unique flavor. But in the mid-1960′s Budweiser, who had been #3 in national sales, began a 2-pronged advertising campaign. First they went after the non-beer drinking customer. Knowing that many people weren’t drinking beer because they didn’t like the taste, Budweiser convinced them to drink their beer ice-cold. Any beer served at a temperature below 45º has no taste to it, so A-B got away with it. Secondly, they tied in their advertising with a “sex sells” policy showing the youngsters that if you drink Bud, then the bikini babes will pile into your car uninvited.
Schlitz started losing business and instead of concentrating on winning it back, they thought that the secret was to change their recipe to be more like Bud’s. (Remember New Coke?) That, along with an ill-chosen plan to save money by accelerating the fermentation process, drove even their loyal drinkers away. The Schlitz flavor was gone…..and soon the business was gone.
It’s great to see it coming back.
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