Schlitz: The Beer That Ruined Itself

By the early nineteen fifties, Schlitz was once again the largest-selling beer in the United States, the position it had first claimed in nineteen oh two. It held the number one spot for most of the decade. The slogan the beer that made Milwaukee famous was national. The brand was as close to invincible as a beer company can be.

Then the leadership changed, and the decisions that followed dismantled forty years of market position in about ten years.

In the nineteen sixties and seventies, under pressure to cut costs and increase production, Schlitz began modifying its recipe. The changes were incremental and each one made sense on a spreadsheet. They shortened the brewing cycle. They substituted cheaper grain adjuncts. They changed the preservatives. The result was a beer that tasted different from what drinkers remembered.

The final significant change came in the mid-nineteen seventies. A new preservative called Chillgard was used to prevent the beer from going cloudy when chilled. When Chillgard mixed with certain other ingredients in the brewing process under specific conditions, it produced visible flakes in the bottle. Schlitz quietly initiated a massive recall, pulling ten million bottles off the market. The recall was not entirely quiet.

Between nineteen seventy-six and nineteen eighty-one, Schlitz's market share collapsed from the number one position to somewhere close to the bottom of the major brands. The Milwaukee brewery, which had employed thousands, closed in nineteen eighty-one. The brand was sold to Stroh Brewing Company of Detroit and then through several more corporate hands.

The Schlitz brewery complex in Milwaukee still stands, converted to offices, restaurants, and apartments. The beer is still brewed elsewhere, under license, and sold in some markets. What it tasted like in nineteen fifty is a matter of historical record only.