We thought Schlitz went the way of the word “gusto” and the mustache trend, but we were wrong. Schlitz is alive and, well, fighting the good fight.
Here’s what the last forty years have looked like:
1970 The company’s existing breweries can no longer keep up with demand. A 34-acre brewery with an annual production capacity of 4.4 million barrels is opened in Winston-Salem, NC. It is the largest brewery ever built.
1973 The company sells 21.3 million barrels of beer.
1982 The Schlitz Brewing Company is acquired by Stroh’s.
1999 The Pabst Brewing Company acquires the rights to the Schlitz brand.
2001 Schlitz is now available only in cans.
2007 The ‘Classic 60’s Formula’, the one that made Schlitz the most popular beer in the country in the 1950s and 1960s, is back.
2008 The ‘Classic 60’s Formula’ of Schlitz, in traditional brown glass bottles, returns to its birthplace, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Stay tuned.