GoKawiilAn icon of Milwaukee’s beer baron era has been discontinued by Pabst Brewing Co., but Wisconsin Brewing is planning one last toast to Schlitz this summer.
The “beer that made Milwaukee famous” is dead.
Schlitz, a brand that began in Milwaukee in 1858, has been discontinued by its corporate parent, Pabst Brewing Co. The move is part of a wave of culling of its nostalgia-driven brands.
The news comes, oddly enough, from Wisconsin Brewing Co., which announced on Thursday afternoon that it would be brewing “the last Schlitz” at its brewery in Verona next weekend.
Pabst confirmed the move on Friday. “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,” Zac Nadile, Pabst head of brand strategy, said in a statement to Milwaukee Magazine. “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.”
Wisconsin Brewing brewmaster Kirby Nelson spearheaded the Schlitz sendoff after hearing about its quiet discontinuation from Jerry Glunz, general manager of Louis Glunz Beer in Chicago. The Glunz family has been a Schlitz distributor since the late 19th century, Nelson says, and Glunz was in tears as he delivered the news.
“Things change, but Schlitz deserves better than just to be swept under the rug,” Nelson says. “It really needs to go out with dignity and respect.”
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Wisconsin Brewing has produced Pabst products in the past, so Nelson reached out and Pabst agreed to allow Nelson to brew, indeed, the final Schlitz. That will happen on Saturday, May 23 at the Verona brewery, and Nelson (one of the state’s great beer communicators) will give a short talk in the taproom at 1 p.m. The beer will roll out in limited qualities June 27 with a big event at the brewery. (Preorders will be available May 23 on Wisconsin Brewing’s website.)
Nelson, who’s been brewing beer for more than 40 years, isn’t just throwing together any old recipe of Schlitz, or replicating the last official brew under the Pabst banner. A breweriana collector friend sent him a trove of records from Schlitz’s Milwaukee brewhouse. Using brewing logs from the mid-20th century, Nelson built a composite recipe, primarily from 1948, when Schlitz was the best-selling beer in the world. “That’s what I’m trying to do: emulate a golden era of Schlitz,” Nelson says. “Let’s see if we can get a beer that represents that.”
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