Pabst Brewing Co. has stopped the production of Schlitz beer and is letting a Wisconsin brewery gin up one last batch.
Zac Nadile, head of brand strategy at Pabst, told Milwaukee Magazine that “unfortunately, we have seen continued increases in our costs to store and ship certain products and have had to make the tough choice to place Schlitz Premium on hiatus.”
Pabst is allowing another brewer, the Wisconsin Brewing Company, to brew Schlitz one last time. The last, 80-barrel batch of Schlitz will be brewed on Saturday, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
The beer will be available for preorders the day it is brewed, though it will not be ready to pick up and drink until June 27.
Wisconsin Brewing Company brewmaster Kirby Nelson told WKOW-TV that Pabst stopped brewing Schlitz months ago, and that “Schlitz volume had dropped to the point where Pabst has a Busch plant in Texas do their brewing for them.”
“The minimum quantities that Budweiser required, the brand fell way below that, so they had to retire it,” Mr. Nelson said.
Pabst has owned the Schlitz brand, which originated in Milwaukee in 1849, since 1999.
Mr. Nelson told the digital magazine On Milwaukee that the 80-barrel batch will be brewed to the specifications for production that Schlitz had in 1948, when it was still made by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. and was one of America’s top beer brands.
“Since Schlitz is ’The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous,’ I decided to brew a beer that would be representative of the time Schlitz was on top of the brewing world. This brew will represent The Golden Age of Schlitz,” Mr. Nelson told On Milwaukee.
However, Pabst still could choose one day to bring back Schlitz, as it still owns the brand rights. It has done that once before, cutting Schlitz off upon acquiring the brewery in the late 1990s before putting it back on tap as a “classic” formula in 2008.
“Any brand or packaging configuration that is put on hiatus is still a cherished part of our history and hopefully our future. We continually look for opportunities to bring back beloved brands, and customer feedback is important in shaping those discussions,” Mr. Nadile told Milwaukee Magazine.
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