Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous, is going out where it all began: in Wisconsin.
Schlitz’s parent company, Pabst Brewing Co., is discontinuing production of the beer after 175 years. Founded in Milwaukee in 1849, it was once America’s largest brewer.
Wisconsin Brewing Co. started brewing one last batch of Schlitz on Saturday, May 23. Dozens of Wisconsin residents gathered at the company’s Verona brewery to swap stories and celebrate the brand.
Madison resident Robert Lux, 71, arrived in his old Schlitz factory uniform. In college, Lux worked in the bottling house of Schlitz’s massive Milwaukee brewery. His father worked there for more than 30 years.
It was the camaraderie Schlitz workers built with each other and with Miller and Pabst employees that Lux remembers most fondly.
“There was a real bond between all the brewery workers in the city of Milwaukee,” he said. “You can feel the tradition there.”
Wisconsin Brewing Co. brewmaster Kirby Nelson heads the final brew, which started at 10 a.m. and wraps at 7 p.m. He says he’s honored to celebrate the end of the brand in Wisconsin.
The beer is brewed with specifications dating back to 1948, before Schlitz made a controversial change to its recipe that ultimately hastened its decline. Around this time, Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch were locked in competition for the country’s top brewer.
“That’s what we want to represent – Schlitz’s glory days, its golden era,” Nelson said.
Pre-orders for the 80-barrel brew opened at midnight Saturday on Wisconsin Brewing Co.’s website. By 9 a.m., they sold out. The waiting list has grown to more than 300 people, Nelson said.
For those who missed out, Wisconsin Brewing Co. will also bring some of its Schlitz to Old World Wisconsin’s 50th anniversary celebration in Eagle on July 4. It will be available on tap.
“I think it’s nice that the people at Wisconsin Brewing recognize the tradition that is Schlitz,” Lux said.
The company was founded as a Milwaukee tavern brewery in 1849 and later taken over by Joseph Schlitz, who renamed it “Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co.” It passed to the Uihlein family following Schlitz’s death in 1875.
By the end of Prohibition, Schiltz was America’s largest brewer and one of Milwaukee’s biggest employers.
Until the 1970s, Schlitz funded Milwaukee’s Fourth of July lakefront fireworks, Circus Parade and Old Milwaukee Days, which would later evolve into Summerfest.
But around that time, the brewer had fallen behind its Milwaukee competitors, Miller and Pabst. Schlitz attempted to cut costs by changing ingredients, but the move only alienated longtime customers.
The company closed its massive Milwaukee brewery in 1981 and left the city it helped make famous. Schlitz was sold in 1982 to Stroh Brewing Co., which shut down all remaining Milwaukee operations.
Pabst bought Schlitz in 1999 and relaunched the brand in 2008, but it never regrew the massive presence it once had in Milwaukee.
Since Schlitz’s discontinuation was announced last week, Milwaukee area liquor stores already sold all of their remaining stock. Lux was able to swipe a six-pack from a Madison Hy-Vee but couldn’t get Wisconsin Brewing Co.’s brew.
He hopes the outpouring of support from the brand encourages Pabst to make another batch down the line. Despite working at the Schlitz brewery for eight years, he didn’t drink all that much of it while he was there.
“I worked the second shift, and so the last break of the night we’d have a beer,” Lux said. “It was a great place, and it was really sad when it closed.”
“Maybe we’ll get lucky and they’ll make another batch soon,” he added.
Francesca Pica can be reached at fpica@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Schlitz beer returns to Wisconsin for final brew after 175 years
Reporting by Francesca Pica, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
