Schlitz beer returns to its original formula
Monday, August 4th, 2008(Edit: Just found a Schlitz timeline offering more details about the beer’s history.)
Believe it or not, for much of the last century, the most popular beer in the U.S. was not Bud or Bud Light or Miller… it was Schlitz, something of a forgotten brand today. Schlitz in its original formula was known as the beer “that made Milkwaukee famous” and was a beer that our grandparents savored. However, according to this Yahoo news article, a series of recipe changes and corporate mistakes led to Schlitz’ fall from dominance in the latter half of the 20th century. The beer was rendered, in many peoples’ eyes, “undrinkable.” Indeed. I remember a time a few years ago when a bar down the street from the Mid-South Alcoholic Supply World HQ sold Schlitz cans. A can was a buck-fifty, a dollar cheaper than any other beer in the house, and they’d give you a paper bag to put it in while you drank. Schlitz had become a joke.
Well, the old Schlitz is staging a comeback. Its parent brewer, Pabst Brewing Co., consulted old recipes and conducted interviews with old brewmasters to return Schlitz to its original formula. It is starting to appear in markets in the Milwaukee area, and is so popular that stores can’t keep it on the shelves. Hopefully within a few years Schlitz will have spread across the nation, so we can enjoy the beer the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
