The Schlitz decision was a case study in one of the business courses I took.
If I remember Schlitz put in an additive to cut brewing time and costs. It also cut the taste and their customer base. It’s amazing now to think that at one time Schlitz was the TOP selling beer in the country. BTW, what happened to Ballantine? It used to be a big selling beer but is now barely noticed.
The company flourished through the 1970s, being ranked as the No. 2 brewery in America as late as 1976. But problems with its production, specifically its attempt to cut costs in the brewing process by using a high-temperature fermentation, which produced a product that the public deemed inferior, combined with a crippling 1981 strike by workers at the Milwaukee plant, led to serious financial difficulties. On June 10, 1982, the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Co. was acquired by Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit, Michigan. The regular beer is still produced, though in relatively small quantities, by the Pabst Brewing Company, along with four malt liquors (Schlitz Malt Liquor, Schlitz Red Bull, Schlitz Bull Ice and Schlitz Very Smooth Lager).