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Posted on 05/12/2026 1:28:40 PM PDT by OldCountryBoy
Abe Vucekovich, the owner of the Chicago cocktail bar Friends of Friends, got a call a couple months ago. It concerned Schlitz beer.
This was a matter of some import to Vucekovich, because Friends of Friends is situated in what used to be a Schlitz tied house. There is a large Schlitz globe insignia on the side of the building. Because of this, Vucekovich decided to serve Schlitz beer on tap. To advertise this fact, he bought an old neon sign from a neighboring bar called Danny’s. It says “Schlitz on Tap” in bright red neon.
But the call Vucekovich fielded told him that Schlitz, which was purchased by Pabst in 1999, would no longer be made in cans and kegs. The brass had decided to just put it out in bottles. So much for “Schlitz on Tap.”
But that wasn’t all. Recently, the new CEO decided to stop making Schlitz altogether. Sales had been declining for some time, and there was never a huge demand outside of Milwaukee and Chicago...
… Faced with a world without Schlitz, we drove to our local liquor store, Ray’s, to stock up for the summer. We bought a case of bottles, and one can of Pabst, so we could make a Schlabst. And then we drove to Wolski’s and ordered two Schlitz drafts.
This may be your last chance to go for the gusto.
(Excerpt) Read more at themilwaukeemix.substack.com ...
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Piels.
They must make it differently at the NJ brewery as opposed to when they made it in Latrobe PA.
Back then, their slogan was “When you’re out of Schlitz, you’re out of beer.”
Pixels real draft in cans $1.35 A six in the late 70’s.
We used to get it in Columbia, MO at Mizzou back ‘69-’73. We preferred the local swill, Bud and Busch, and Coors when somebody had made a run from Golden, CO to Missouri. Now and then we had Miller High Life, MGD, Hamms and PBR. They were all “meh”.
Then, after graduating in June 1973, I moved to San Francisco, discovered microbrew Anchor Brewing and their Anchor Steam Beer, and I thought “WOW! So this is what beer is supposed to taste like!” It was microbrews for me from then on.
That brewery had a fascinating history. It was founded in 1896 so drinking it was like being part of the San Francisco’s Gilded Age. The company had fallen on hard times with the ascent of the big industrial brewers. It was barely hanging on by 1960. Fritz Maytag, a descendant of the Maytag Corporation, bought Anchor in 1965 when it was on the verge of bankruptcy and helped usher in the craft beer industry in the United States. He modernized production, moved to a new facility on Potrero Hill, and turned Anchor Steam into an iconic American craft beer. During the 1980s, demand grew nationally, and Anchor became a genuine inspiration for the entire craft brewing movement.
Alas, Anchor went through some changes of ownership that killed it. In 2010, Maytag sold the company to former Skyy vodka executives Keith Greggor and Tony Foglio, from Novato, California, who planned to expand Anchor’s business while keeping its commitment to artisan brewing. In 2017, it was sold Sapporo Breweries for $85 million. Sales declined every year except in 2021. Attempts to rebrand failed. Employees left the close-knit workforce. Workers, represented by their union, attempted to buy the brewery and reopen it as a worker-owned cooperative. That failed
Ten months after the closure announcement, Hamdi Ulukaya — the billionaire founder of Chobani yogurt — acquired Anchor and all of its assets, including the brewery, real estate, and intellectual property such as the steam beer recipes, with plans to reopen it.
Then it shut down in 2023.
In the summer of 2025, the new owner revealed that the company would not reopen the original brewery and would not reestablish a taproom in San Francisco, instead planning to brew Anchor somewhere outside the city using a contract brewer.
It was a sad end to what was genuinely a landmark institution — the brewery that essentially invented American craft beer.
Ballentine, cause I got three rings.
Old Style was brewed by G. Heileman Brewing Company, LaCrosse Wisconsin until it was sold in 1996 to Strohs. Whatever it is now, it ain’t the same. And came from God’s Country, not Chitcago.
All beers are pretty much owned by venture capital companies.
I was referring to all the establishments I used to see in South Chicago and nearby points that displayed the Old Style sign outside and had it on tap. It seemed to be universally available there.
Schlitz was brewed with “just a kiss of the hops”, and they were proud of it. This goes against our modern day fad of very hoppy IPAs, so I guess Schlitz was doomed…
Tuborg Gold too?
Another reason was people just threw them on the ground. Or flipped them for distance.
When pull tabs were on all cans, we had to sweep the entire grocery store parking lot as a teen every Sunday morning.
“Hamms the beer refreshing...”
Tuborg Special Export was excellent. It was $1.79 a six and can go toe-to-toe with the $3.99 beers.
Love that skit!
Strohs! that Detroit river water beer. D-town, with that old English D.
My first time being drunk and threw up! The Bull! Ha ha! 9th grade. lol
I don't like little gustos, Herb
I used to drink Anchor Steam Beer. I remember reading back in the 1970s that Anchor Steam was the closest to what beer tasted like in an Old West saloon in the 1870s.
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