Pabst Brewing Company

Pabst Brewing Company
Location	Woodridge, Illinois
Year opened	1844
Active beers
Name Type Ballantine Ale Blonde Ale Black Label Pale Lager Blatz Pale Lager Champale Malt Liquor Colt 45 Malt Liquor Country Club Malt Liquor Jacob Best Pale Lager Lone Star Pale Lager Lone Star Light Light Pale Lager McSorley's Ale Blond Ale McSorley's Irish Style Lager Pale Lager McSorley's Black and Tan Porter National Bohemian Pale Lager Old Milwaukee Pale Lager Old Style Pale Lager Olympia Lager Pabst Blue Ribbon Pale Lager Pabst Ice Ice Pearl Pale Lager Pearl Light Light Pale Lager Piel's Pale Lager Primo Island Lager Pale Lager Rainier Lager Pale Lager Schaefer Pale Lager Schlitz Pale Lager Schmidt's Pale Lager Special Export Pale Lager St. Ides Malt Liquor Stag Pale Lager Stroh's Pale Lager

Pabst Brewing Company is an American company founded in 1844 by Jacob Best. Best known for Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, it is historically associated with Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it was founded, although its corporate headquarters are now in Woodridge, Illinois. The Pabst brands make up 2.8% of the American beer market.

In 1999, the Pabst Brewing Company began transferring its production to Miller Brewing Company on a contractual basis. In 2001, it closed its last brewery in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The announced InBev purchase of Anheuser-Busch in July 2008 prompted Pabst to claim to be the largest American-owned brewer. In fact, it is a "virtual brewer," a marketing company whose 85 brands are brewed by either Miller Brewing Company or Lion.

Pabst is owned by a not-for-profit trust based in California, S&P Company.^[1]

History

The original brewery was founded in 1844 as The Empire Brewery, later Best and Company, by the immigrant German brewer Jacob Best. The brewery was run by Jacob, Sr. and his sons Phillip, Charles, Jacob, Jr., and Lorenz; Phillip took control of the company in 1860.^[2] They started the brewery on Chestnut Street Hill in Milwaukee with a capacity of 18 barrels (2.9 m³). Later, in 1863, Frederick Pabst, a steamship captain and son-in-law of Phillip Best, bought a share in Best and Company, by which time the brewery was already selling a lager that they began bottling in 1875 under the name Best Select.

The former Pabst Brewery in Milwaukee, Wisconsin

12-packs of Pabst.

Pabst was renowned in Milwaukee for its brewery tours. Visitors to Pabst's tour were rewarded with sometimes bottomless glasses of beer at its end-of-tour Sternewirt Pub. Complete with a statue of Captain Frederick Pabst and waitresses pouring from pitchers of Pabst Blue Ribbon, Pabst Bock, and Andeker, the pub was popular with both tourists and locals, especially students from nearby Marquette University and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. ^[3][4]

In 2004, students at Oregon State University approached marketers at Pabst Brewing Company requesting that Pabst sponsor an unofficial fraternity based on Pabst Blue Ribbon's famous letters. Pabst agreed.^[5]

S&P Company was ordered by the IRS to sell the Pabst Brewing Company by 2005 or lose its not-for-profit, tax-free status. After a while, PBC claimed that they were unable to find a buyer at market value and requested an extension until 2005 that the IRS granted.

In 2005 the board ousted CEO Brian Kovalchuk and replaced him with Kevin Kotecki. Kotecki swiftly moved the Pabst Brewing Company and its roughly 100 headquarters personnel to a Chicago suburb, Woodridge.

Pabst retains a data center in San Antonio, Texas, the previous location of its headquarters.

Pabst's long obsolete brewery complex in Milwaukee has been targeted to be developed into restaurants, entertainment venues, stores, housing and offices. The $317 million project is the subject of much debate in Milwaukee.^[6]

On May 28, 2008 a former Pabst Brewery in Newark, New Jersey caught fire and was seriously damaged.^[7] The building was previously being demolished when the fire occurred.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

A 1911 advertisement showing a blue ribbon tied around the bottle.

Papst Blue Ribbon beer glass, 100 000 000th Barrel, Mettenheim, Rhineland-Palatinate 1958

Pabst Blue Ribbon, also known as "PBR", is the most well-known of the Pabst Brewing Company products. Originally called Best Select, and then Pabst Select, the current name came from the blue ribbons that were tied around the bottle neck, a practice that ran from 1882 until 1916.

The distinguishing quote on the bottom of the can reads as follows: "This is the original Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer. Nature's choicest products provide its prized flavor. Only the finest of hops and grains are used. Selected as America's Best in 1893," a reference to the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, where the beer won a contest.^[8]

However, some contemporaneous accounts indicate that many vendors were frustrated by the fair's refusal to award such prizes. One account says that the only prizes awarded by the executive committee were bronze medals in recognition of "some independent and essential excellence in the article displayed," rather "than merely to indicate the relative merits of competing exhibits."^[9]

Charlie Papazian, president of the Brewers Association and one of the most prominent names in the world of beer and brewing, published the following tasting notes for Pabst Blue Ribbon in 2008: "A contrasting counterpoint of sharp texture and flowing sweetness is evident at the first sip of this historic brew. A slowly increasing hoppiness adds to the interplay of ingredients, while the texture smooths out by mid-bottle. The clear, pale-gold body is light and fizzy. Medium-bodied Blue Ribbon finishes with a dusting of malts and hops. A satisfying American classic and a Gold Medal winner at the 2006 Great American Beer Festival." ^[10]

Despite its website featuring art competitions and photos of young people dressed in alternative fashions, Pabst has not fully embraced the countercultural label or appeal to it arguably because the very same "authenticity" that made it popular would be challenged by over-marketing. Instead, the company has opted for subtlety, finding clever ways to target its growing niche through the surreptitious sponsorship of indie music concerts, local businesses, dive bars, and radio programming such as NPR's All Things Considered. These techniques have proven effective and have been rewarded with remarkable growth in sales - the production of PBR has more than doubled since its revival in the early 2000s. Pabst's success is seen by some analysts as a model for advertising to a new generation of media-savvy, anti-consumerist youth culture.^[11][12]

Old Style

Old Style was first brewed in 1902 by the G. Heileman Brewing Company in La Crosse Wisconsin under the name Old Style Lager; it was popular in Wisconsin, the Chicago metro area, Minnesota, eastern Iowa, Lincoln, Nebraska, and southwestern Michigan. The original Heileman's Old Style brewery in La Crosse is now owned by the City Brewing Company. It brews La Crosse Lager, which is based upon the original Old Style recipe and is krausened for 30 days. This beer may also be the basis for the brewery's nationally-distributed DB Hobbs brand.^[13] Old Style also is a long-time sponsor of the Chicago Cubs.

Awards

Awards at the Great American Beer Festival:

Awards at the World Beer Cup:

Golden Icon Awards by Travolta Family Entertainment:

Notes

External links

• Pabst Brewing Company
• Olympia Beer: The Death of a Brand
• Old Style Beer: History
• Illustrated History of the Olympia Brewing Company