present for modern beer line modelers

[tom mann]

If you're modeling the last few years of the beer line, up until the end of Schlitz operations, you'll need this:

[Mark5]

woohoo!

http://www.schlitzgusto.com

[Dave Schneider]

Tom,

Thanks for the logo. I was home for lunch and couldn't resist....this beer only has a couple of hours to live!

Best wishes, Dave

[Mark5]

It's funny, this was the #1 beer (in terms of sales) in the 70s I think. All these years I've never tried it - gotta try one sometime.

Mark

[wm3798]

It was always Artie Donovan's favorite!

Sounds like it's gone the way of our old local, National Boh...  Only the name survives as it's brewed cheaply by some out of town corporate behemoth.  Sad.

Lee

[Dave Schneider]

Lee,

Actually, the new Schlitz is quite good. As mentioned, Schlitz was one of the top selling brands in the early 1970s and the company was run by people who knew beer. The company president, Robert Uhlilen died in the mid-1970s and was replaced by a bean counter. He changed the brewing process to speed things up and changed to cheaper packaging to save money. The beer ended up cloudy and the bottles looked dusty. People didn't like it Then management got investigated by the Feds for shadey business practices. They had some labor strife as well and finally they were purchased by Stroh's in 1981 and promptly closed down. This company employed something like 10-15,000 people in the city was closed because of bad management (sounds familiar).

Anyhow, the good news in all of this is that the brand and "recipe" survived. In 2008, it was bought by Pabst and they brought back the 1960s brewing process. Of course Pabst doesn't make beer anymore either, so they contracted with Miller in Milwaukee (now Miller-Coors) to produce it. The result is a nice lager with a really good favor. Its not my favorite (that would be Alaska Amber) but it is quite good.

Best wishes, Dave

[wm3798]

Well, as much as I'm loathe to give my money to Miller-Coors Brewing and Storm Door Company, if I see some Schlitz in my local, I'll give it a whirl...  I know the crap they label with Mr. Boh isn't even a shadow of its former self.  The old National Brewery in Highlandtown/Canton was a pretty cool complex.  It's been turned into an office condo building, all the brewing guts gone to the landfill... 

It was also the largest in a cluster of local breweries, nowhere near on the scale of the Milwaukee beer line, but it would also make an interesting subject for an N scale layout...  (There!  Back on topic!)

Lee