Pabst Blue Ribbon

1970's beer at its best. Actually, to be accurate, the best years for Pabst were the years prior to 1951. You see, Pabst from the year 1900 till 1951 was one of the invincible breweries that advertised everywhere and had the most modern equipment and for the most part, was the most popular beer in America. 1951 arrived with Pabst in command of the market share in the United States. They had just introduced a new Quart Crowntainer Conetop can. Their marketing was the total success story that anyone in business would love to have their name attached to. 1951 was also the year that the brewery had to renegotiate its contract with the brewery workers union. The negotiations were brutal with the brewery and its labor not agreeing and breaking off talks. The union went on strike for months while the Management had to watch as Budweiser, Hamms, Miller and Schlitz advertised aggressively, pointing out that their beer was good and in stock. Pabst was never the same...Pabst was overtaken in market share by Anheuser-Busch and that lead was never relinquished.

Good thing that every brewery did not go on strike that year... I am tasting the very good quality Pabst Blue Ribbon in the classy looking long neck bottles. I have read that SABMiller was doing this beer by contract brewing. Pabst, the brewery that does not any longer own an actual brewery, had sold off the breweries it owned in order to survive. Funny thing that in recent years the stats on brand name growth have shown Pabst to have one heck of a large gain in popularity. I am cool with that as this was one of the beers that I drank in the 70's in Nebraska. I later sampled it in the early 90's and bought a case of it and ended up using the 2 year old cans for target practice. Another Story.

Remember, I compare apples with apples. I am going to tell you that I not only like this beer...I am going to tell you that for taste, this beer blows Budweiser and Coors out of the water. The taste is crisp and dry with a light touch of bitter for a following of satisfying American Premium Style beer. It is good lawnmower beer and good football game beer. It tastes good and drinks smooth. The head is like soda pop as it dissipates quickly and the only scents are to me...alcohol in nature. I like what SABMiller is doing with its contract brews. I try these beers regularly and I like the improvements. Just if they could brew Falstaff, I would not have to dream and remember that flavor from college.

4.5 out of 5 This beer is really too good to only have 4.5 lets make 4.5 the new five