Schlitz, Schaefer anybody?

Theres a small store down the street from where I live that sells out of season and distressed beer for rock bottom prices. And it is just the most wonderful place one could imagine. Its allowed me to try so many different and great beers for really cheap money.

They will also have beers that you would never see in the grocery store beer section. Two of these would be Schlitz and Schaefer. Are you guys familiar with either of these brands? I had heard of Schlitz, and seen their "Bull Ice" malt liquor around, but never seen the beer, but Schaefer I had just never heard of before in my life. These are both products of Milwaukee which at one point I understand was like the beer capital of the US.

These beers are obviously as far from home brew as you can get. Although I'm too young to speak from experience, I feel like they came from a time when home brewing was not popular. Where you would have a Schlitz and a lucky strike while you changed the oil on the family's Bel Air.

Interesting to see this stuff and be able to drink beer from a totally different era.

My father in law used to drink Schaefer all the time.
So I've drank a few over the years
and don't forget..........

"Schaefer is the one beer to have when your having more then one"

Here's the list of beers owned by Papst Blue Ribbon:

Schaefer Beer
Carling’s Black Label Beer
Blatz Beer
Champale Malt Beverage
Colt 45 Malt Liquor
Coqui 900 Premium Malt Lquor
Kingsbury Beer
National Bohemian Beer
Old Style Beer
Schmidt Beer
Special Export Beer
Stag Beer
Old Milwaukee BeerSchlitz Beer
Lone Star Beer
McSorley's Ale
Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor
Jacob's Best Beer
Olympia Genuine Draft Style Beer
Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer
Ballantine Beer
Country Club Malt Liquor
Falstaff Beer
Pearl Beer
Piels Light Beer
Primo Island Lager Beer
Rainier Beer
Southampton Ales and Lagers
Ice Man Malt Liquor
St. Ides High Gravity Malt Liquor
Schlitz Malt Liquor
Silver Thunder Malt Liquor
Stroh's Beer


I grew up drinking Schaefer and Schmidt's in Philly...

I just posted this last night as a matter of fact.

Revvy said:

I just had an ice cold, 1970's era recipe Schiltz, and I gotta tell you, people who drink BUD are fools....there are/were so many better macro lagers out there before the "buyout wars," where Bud, Miller and Coors won. Schlitz, Strohs, PBR even are all much tastier beers of that style.

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I've been picking up the Schlitz and the Stroh's re-releases latety, to me they are pretty good beers. Like I said i my post, the schlitz is a re-release of the 1970's recipe.

The Schlitz I had was alright but the Schaefer was downright tasty, its sad to think that these guys producing good lager beer with a sense of true patriotism got squashed by the tasteless giants.

I really enjoy the New/Old Schlitz. It's easy to get around these parts, and it's cheap. Way better than a lot of the stuff it's competing with. Pabst seems to have the right idea on this one.

I'm holding out for Falstaff to come out, and since they hold the title to it, Balantine's.

Falstaff Brewing Company.

When I Was Younger Scheafer Was On Tap Everywhere,they Were Really Big,they Went Head To Head With Budwiser And Lost,bud Spent Alot More On Marketting,cars,football Ect,scheafer Went By The Wayside....that Being Said,it Is A Very Good Lager With A Nice Hopps Taste,here I Get It In Quarts,the Others Are Good Too,when You Buy Them Make Sure The Caps Are Tight(tighten Not Loosen Them} Have Got A Few W/no Carb

gtpro said:

The Schlitz I had was alright but the Schaefer was downright tasty, its sad to think that these guys producing good lager beer with a sense of true patriotism got squashed by the tasteless giants.

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and then their trade marks were purchased by another giant who contracted out brewing and sold beer, ironically, to people nostalgic for independent regional lager breweries.

30 pack Schmidts FTW, the hangovers killed you though.

I still miss Genny. That was my college beer. Genesee Cream Ale may have been the only ale in production in the USA in the early '70s.

remilard said:

and then their trade marks were purchased by another giant who contracted out brewing and sold beer, ironically, to people nostalgic for independent regional lager breweries.

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lol... The new old Schlitz is pretty good though. The girl in the moon still gets my engine roaring though when it is time for cheap beer. She is soooo hot.

I remember buying Schaefer while in college at the University of Georgia for $6.00 a case. The beer store paid $2 for a case of returned bottles. We had walls of cases of this stuff everywhere. This was the mid to late 80's.
At the time. I really didn't really appreciate whether or not it was a good beer. It was beer and it was cheap!

Richabt said:

I remember buying Schaefer while in college at the University of Georgia for $6.00 a case. The beer store paid $2 for a case of returned bottles. We had walls of cases of this stuff everywhere. This was the mid to late 80's.
At the time. I really didn't really appreciate whether or not it was a good beer. It was beer and it was cheap!

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Same here! I used to be able to get it warm for under $5.00 a case at Fetla's Trading Post in Valparaiso, IN. They also sold clothing of all types, groceries, firearms and ammunition, as well as survival and hunting gear of all kinds.

It was beer, it was cheap. That's all that mattered to me back then!

"Hop Hop Sittin Pretty...Altogether in Schaffer City..."

david_42 said:

I still miss Genny. That was my college beer. Genesee Cream Ale

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Don't miss it, drink it!
My liquor store sells it.
My grocery store sells it.
One of the bars I sometimes frequent has it in bottles, and, on occassion, on tap.
It's a decent drink. I will order it from time to time due to nostalgia.
Also, if I could get Naraganset out here, they just had a great jingle when I was growing up: "Naraganset. That's my beer!"

Oh, and Genny wasn't the only ale in the 70s. I'm pretty sure Yuengling was brewing Lord Chesterfield Ale then.

david_42 said:

I still miss Genny. That was my college beer. Genesee Cream Ale may have been the only ale in production in the USA in the early '70s.

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Genny cream ale was my high school beer
:rockin:

I worked for a distributor in Springfield Mass when I was 22 or so and the Gennie line was the most abundant (including Golden Aniversary Holy Yuckfest)

Revvy said:

I've been picking up the Schlitz and the Stroh's re-releases latety, to me they are pretty good beers. Like I said i my post, the schlitz is a re-release of the 1970's recipe.

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They re-released Strohs? If so I will have to try it again, its been years since I have had one

homebrewer_99 said:

Here's the list of beers owned by Papst Blue Ribbon:[/SIZE][/FONT]

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Which are all now owned by MillerCoors. I was at the Miller factory (hard to call that place a brewery) last friday and they had a display of all the brands they had, and it was a ****load. My grandfather was a die hard schaefer lite drinker, I would actually like to buy a case if I could find it somewhere.

strohs said:

They re-released Strohs? If so I will have to try it again, its been years since I have had one

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It just came out again this summer.

There's a dealer locator on their site. http://www.strohbeer.com/locator/default.aspx/

skadalajara said:

It's a decent drink. I will order it from time to time due to nostalgia.
Also, if I could get Naraganset out here, they just had a great jingle when I was growing up: "Naraganset. That's my beer!"

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I have some Naraganset on my porch. Completely undrinkable.

OTH, I enjoyed more than my fair share of 25 cent Shlitz drafts in college.

I still live on shlitz. It is my upscale cheap beer, the norm is higlife or pbr. Also I haven't had gennie in a while but it is still readily available here in milwaukee so I will pick up a case tomorrow or sometime this week. Enjoy the shlitz it is magnificent if you get a fresh one.

Revvy said:

It just came out again this summer.

There's a dealer locator on their site. http://www.strohbeer.com/locator/default.aspx/

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Very cool. There a few places around my house that carry it, I just havent picked any up figuring it was the same old Stroh :rockin:

Drinking Schlitz right this second. Only one store anywhere around me has it, and it costs about the same as BMC.

We don't yet get the re-released pre-1970s recipe Schlitz down here yet, though. Sure wish we did....

For those interested in trying their hand at brewing these recipes:

https://www.morebeer.com/articles/The_Bushwick_Pilsners_A_Look_At_Hoppier_Days
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/Pre-Prohibition_American_Lagers
MoreBeer hosts these articles now. They were originally printed in Brewing Techniques magazine, which is out of business.

These beers are brewed with 6 row and adjuncts. Either corn or rice - or a combination of corn and rice.

From what I've been able to determine, the "Christian Schmidt Yeast" they speak of, also sometimes called New Ulm yeast (?) is Wyeast 2035. It does not have a White Labs equivalent. 2035 is now a limited edition yeast that is not available year round, similar to what White Labs does with their "vault" strains. I have not been able to find any 2035 for a couple years. I am currently trying these recipes using Fermentis 34/70.

As a side note, Pabst did a reformulation and a rebranding on Schaefer beer and had a big rollout last year. "Updated for modern tastes". So I would not expect the current Schaefer to be the same as the old Schaefer. That is a shame.

https://www.brewbound.com/news/pabst-brewing-resurrects-schaefer-beer-new-yorks-original-lager/

Back in early '75 I worked for a short time as a temp at the Schaefer brewery in Fogelsville PA (just outside of Allentown). There was a guy who's job was to keep the lunch room cooler full of beer and to monitor the allowed take home beer for each employee.

I liked the Schlitz that was before the new version, I haven't tried the new, "old" version yet.
It is hard to find in my area and expensive.
I can't justify paying more for Schlitz than High Life seeing as Miller makes most of the Pabst products now.
BTW Someone said MillerCoors owned Pabst, that's not correct.
They contract brew many if not most of the Pabst beers now but they don't own them.
Miller did buy a few brands from Pabst, Hamm's for one.
I can find it now and then since Miller took over.
They even have a web page now.

Pabst has reissued some of the discontinued brands.
However they don't seem very committed to it.
By the time I found out they had brought back Old Tankard Ale they had discontinued it again.
Their big thing now is beer branded hard liquor.
Pabst whiskey, Olympia vodka, I think there have been others.
Seems like a novelty to me but maybe they will mess around and make somthing good, who knows?

Apparently they run a micro brewery in their restaurant in the old Pabst brewery in Milwaukee.
A few years ago they actually made a batch of Andecker.
I would have loved to have tried some of that.

I wish I lived near a store described in the first post.
Being able to try different beers for cheap is awesome.
There was a gas station near me that would sell mixed expired 6 packs for $3.
That was great.
I got to try that beer Miller came out with that was supposed to be their recipe before High Life.
Was able to try all sorts of things I would not have paid full price for.
Unfortunately the gas station closed.