Pabst Brewing Company

12 packs of three Pabst brands

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 currently in San Antonio, Texas.

In 1999, the Pabst Brewing Company began transferring its production to Miller Brewing on a contract basis. In 2001, it closed its last brewery, in Allentown, Pennsylvania.

History

The original brewery was founded as Best Brewery in 1844 by an immigrant German brewer Jacob Best. He started on Chestnut Street Hill in Milwaukee with a capacity of 18 barrels. Later in 1863 Frederick Pabst, a steamship captain, bought a share in Best and Company, by which time the brewery was already selling a lager which in 1875 they would bottle under the name Best Select. Best Select was a popular beer which the by now named Phillip Best Brewing Company entered in competitions, gaining several awards - sometimes winning against its rival Budweiser. In 1882 the company starting selling the beer with a blue ribbon tied around the neck to signify it was an award winning beer. In 1888 the name of the brewery was changed to Pabst Brewing Company, and by 1898 the name of the beer was changed to Blue Ribbon. Such was the success of the beer that Pabst was ordering millions of yards of blue ribbon. One factory in 1902 worked around the clock for nearly a year to complete a contract for 10 million yards of ribbon.

In 1906, the Pabst Brewing Company first began to use caps on bottles instead of corks. In 1935, Pabst was the second brewer, following Krueger Beer, to put beer in cans. Called "Export", they came with a picture of a can opener on the side, with instructions on how to open the can.

Growth continued up to Prohibition when all alcohol production stopped. When the beer returned (without the blue ribbon) in 1933 it quickly became a national brand brewed in several locations across the country, and by 1935 was one of the first beers to become available in cans. During the second World War all cans of PBR were painted a military green and were exclusively made for the troops. During the 1950’s, Pabst sponsored the boxing on CBS.

In 1958, with an annual production of 3.9 million barrels, PBR had now sold a total of 100 million barrels since first being brewed, an event commemorated by adding the red stripe to the logo. Annual sales figures climbed each year - helped by Pabst cutting the price of the beer to bring it even closer to the hearts of the working man - until it reached a record high of 18 million barrels in 1977. Impressive though this is, Bud had achieved the same output nearly ten years earlier, and would never again see PBR as a competitor.

Pabst now entered a period of poor management and decline. After several messy years spent fighting take-overs, Pabst was sold for $63 million to Paul Kalmanovitz in 1985. Advertising stopped. Quality dropped. Drinkers turned elsewhere. At the time of Kalmanovitz’ death in 1988 it seemed like the brewery would have to close, but when Lutz Issleib took over he was determined to keep PBR alive. And he did, though production was fairly static. Economics eventually forced closure of the brewery in 2001, though the transfer of production to the Miller brewery is a continuation of sorts because the Miller company was founded in the Plank-Road Brewery which had been established by some members of the Best family just after the original Best brewery was founded.

Pabst Blue Ribbon

File:PabstBlueRibbonmm.jpg

The Pabst Blue Ribbon logo.

Pabst Blue Ribbon (colloquially PBR) is the most famous product of the Pabst Brewing Company. Originally called Pabst Select, the current name came from a blue ribbon tied around the bottle neck, a practice that ran from 1882 until 1916.

During World War II, Pabst Blue Ribbon beer cans were painted olive drab at the factory for military use. Pabst Blue Ribbon beer was not sold to civilians in cans during the war because of tin rationing.

References in Pop Culture

Appears in The Hipster Handbook, a parody guidebook for hipsters.
PBR is mentioned in Blue Velvet, a film directed by David Lynch.
Although Billy Carter, brother of former President Jimmy Carter, served as spokesman for Billy Beer, his brand of choice actually was Pabst Blue Ribbon.
Pabst is also the beer of choice for Brad Pitt's character in the movie Seven.
In the movie Old School, Will Ferrell's character wears a Pabst Blue Ribbon t-shirt while working on his car.
In the Johnny Russell song Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer.
In the episode of The Simpsons, "'Round Springfield," Barney Gumble tries to trade his Alcoholics Anonymous chip for a beer, Moe Szyslak will only give him a Pabst for it.

Beer brands

The Pabst company now specialises in nostalgic beer brands, and has bought the rights to twenty five established beer brands which "have stood the test of time". Almost all the brands are contract brewed by SABMiller. Some examples are: