Pabst Brewing Company is up for sale, the New York Post reports.
The company is looking for a buyer willing to shell out around $300 million for its Willy Wonka Beer Factory that produces Pabst Blue Ribbon, Old Milwaukee, Schlitz and Colt 45 — in other words, roughly a quarter of the world’s supply of awesome.
The Post story says Anheuser-Busch InBev and North American Brewers are potential suitors. But only if I don’t buy it first. With that in mind, readers, what’s the best of the cheap, ghetto-fabulous beers?
Hall of foam brewer goes on the market [New York Post]
(Photo: sanwilkinson)
(Thanks, NORMLgirl!)
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Pabst has always been the greatest of the cheap. Always has been and, hopefully, always will.
@FogNoggin: And then the damn hipsters had to make trendy and cost more!
Been drinking PBR since the mid 90′s, way before the hipsters!
@lawnmowerdeth: Hey man I was drinking PBR and listening to bands you have never heard of before you were born.
@FogNoggin: Well, here’s hoping the West End Brewing Company of Utica, New York, buys it.
/Utica Club FTW!
PBR is god awful. And I loathe the hipsters that love it. You want good quality cheap beer, come up to New England and order a Narragansett.
It’s always Gansett time.
@GRCAMPBELL: Are you kidding me!?! Pabst is a staple in my fridge. Along with Gansett, Schlitz, and the occasional Yuengling, when I get out to NY.
@Pibbs: Ahh, New York. Reminds me of my younger days and Piels Beer. The Bert and Harry Piel commercials were funny.
@GRCAMPBELL:
I agree. PBR is horrible. I remember just a few years ago, old dudes were all that drank it. Not it is the “in” beer to drink and all the hipsters (in your words) are drinking it as some kind of homage to coolness.
The owners are of PBR are pretty smart to try and sell it while it is so popular.
@cheeser83: Actually the IRS is forcing the sale of Pabst. Pabst’s current ownership is by a charitable trust. The IRS does not allow charitable trusts to have more than 20% of their holdings in a for-profit company.
For the past 10 years, and until the sale is final, every time you drink a Pabst, you’re sending a kid to college, helping an at-need family pay their medical bills, and other do-goodery. As if you need a good reason to drink beer.
Awesome if you’re a hipster…
I can’t stand PBR.
Cheapest good beer is OV – Old Vienna made by Molson. It’s like 6 dollars for a 12 pack in bottles.
I love PBR, they have this stuff on tap at a BBQ joint near my home in Plymouth, MA (T-Bones), my brother and I get it all the time when we go.
I don’t want the company, I want the huge beer bottle that used to grace the NJ skyline. I think it would look awesome in my backyard.
@GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn: I remember that bottle. Wasn’t it near the GSP?
@larrymac – please put me on your do not call list: Isn’t everything near the GSP?
@GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn: I don’t remember off the top of my head, but I know WeirdNJ have tracked down its whereabouts. I think it was eventually scrapped because the people that bought it could not afford to have it safely put back up anywhere.
@GitEmSteveDave_OverSleptThisMorn: It was a Hoffman ginger ale bottle before Pabst bought the facility. It was Exit 144 on the GSP.
Does this mean that if someone buys it, it will no longer be produced at the Miller plant?
National Bohemian. It also has the best logo.
Schlitz makes the whole deal worth while.
Bud Light Lime is the cheapest, most delicious beer one can buy.
I figured PBR was just for college kids who want to get drunk. I didn’t know people with options bought it
@Bladefist: Apparently it’s recently become very popular as the beer of hipsters. I think it tastes like crap.
@katstermonster: Hipsters drink it ironically.
@Battlehork: Blech. I prefer irony that doesn’t cause me to drink shitty beer.
@Bladefist: When I was dorming, Bud Light was the “premium” beer, and Natural Lite was the standard drinking beer. You’d save Bud for yourself, and give Natural Lite to guests.
@TVarmy: lol, ya I remember those times. However, I was a beer snob so I had the good beer for myself and since I had to spend more on myself, my guests got even shittier beer
@TVarmy: Before our school’s keg ban, Bud and Bud Light were the typical party beers, with kegs of Michelob (given to us with the purchase of 5 kegs of Bud) saved for the ladies.
Once the keg ban went into effect, every fraternity slipped down the beer chain….from the American macrobrews to Busch, Meister Brau, Black Label and Old Milwaukee.
Faga Beefe?
Hay, hay, hay. Stop busting on PBR. I know it’s cheap, but it has history and decent flavor for a beer in that price range. It’s a good beer to knock down after cutting the lawn on a hot summer day. I wouldn’t serve it at a formal dinner or anything like that; however, it’s a good beer to have while barbecuing, fishing, or watching a ball game.
@danno5-0: Formal Dining, no.
The back of my limo between when I got married and my reception, yes.
PABST bitches.
Buddy, throw in Schaefer, and you have yourself a deal! Oh yeah, “Schaefer … is the … one beer to have when you’re having more than one.”
Hurricane High-Grav FTW!!
PBR, Old Milwaukee, Schlitz and Colt 45?! I hope to god someone buys this. Otherwise college parties would be stuck with only the Beast and Natty, and I just can’t stomach that.
We should all pitch and own this piece of alcoholic wonder, making it the first beer company that actually cares about its customers.
I’m partial to PBR because it was always the beer of choice at my college. Also, it doesn’t have that overly sweet taste a lot of the other crappy beers have.
Stroh’s has always been my staple of both cheep and decent. A six pack of bottles near me (Ohio) is around $4 and a 12 pack cans is usually around $6-7. PBR is decent, for the price that it is.
I’ll bet they’re all passing the hat in Williamsburg. And you can bet that hat is stylishly kitschy and ironic.
Pabst can thank Paul Kalmanovitz for nearly killing the company. His method of buying companies, cutting advertising and budgets- then milking every last bit of money out of them, ran Pabst into the ground. FYI they have won awards for their beer plenty. It isn’t that bad…
You know it’s good. It won the Blue Ribbon!
PBR is ideal when served cold and free. Otherwise, not so much.
Keystone Light is the PBR of the south. Only instead of hipsters drinking it, its the “fratdaddys”.
1) Straub
2) Stegmaier Gold Medal
3) Genny Cream Ale
That’s all you need to know. Unfortunately, the first 2 are hard to find outside of the Mid-Atlantic region.
In the late 70′s to early 80′s, Old Milwaukee was the “popular price” beer of choice where I grew up in north Florida. Then one day Carling Black Label appeared on our store shelves, priced even less than OM. Can’t say it was any better, or worse, but the general rule was just ice ‘em down so you can’t really tell how bad they are. A dorm buddy in college got a hold of a case of Billy Beer once (remember that one). Awful stuff, but we put it on ice …..
Interestingly, when I was in Ireland a couple of years back, I saw pub signs for Carling Black Label. It seems to have a more “premium” image over there.
Let me tell you what a conflicted cheap-beer snob I am. I actually like PBR, but ONLY in bottles! It’s tough to find (except in my hometown of Scranton, PA), but man, a cold bottle of PBR is like a little bit of heaven. Also, tough to find (except, again, in Scranton) are RETURNABLE POUNDER BOTTLES OF SCHAEFER! I get a case of these every Christmas. Yes, the beer that’s so bad that there old ad slogan was essentially “If you’re going to get drunk, why not us?” Good times, my friends, good times!
Back when I was in college, I — along with many other fellow students — became unwilling aficionados of cheap beers. The generally-accepted “best” of the bunch that we could get, was Narragansett. Next was PBR. Going a little further up the scale in both quality and price, was Busch. Back then, Busch was lower-priced than most of the mainstream beers, including its companion brand Budweiser.
Actually, I preferred Gansett to Busch, but for some reason, Busch was largely an acceptable brand for everyone. The end result was that Busch was purchased more than most others, at least for parties: It was a less offensive label than most of the “cheap beers,” and only cost a little more.
I usually don’t go any lower than Newcastle, I’ll drink PBR if it’s free, but that hasn’t been the case for quite some time. I thought it’d be great if it could become employee owned, or consumer owned :O .
I’ll pay $299 Million for Colt 45. Someone else can have the rest.
PBR must be a Northern thing… Here in Texas, PBR is called Lone Star. And it too has been taken over by the hipsters.. Although I’d rather drink Lone Star over most mass produced beers..
PBR reminds of Dennis Hopper in Blue Velvet, which makes it instantly awesome
I do enjoy PBR, Genesee Cream Ale and Miller High Life but my favorite cheap beer is regional Lionhead lager out of Wilkes Barre, PA … That is seriously yummy and like $12 case in PA .. Might be just about my favorite American Light Lager
Up until the very late 70′s , Schlitz was the second or third selling beer in the U.S. The former owners destroyed the product by changing the recipe and fermentation process and it just disappeared from the minds of consumers.
Pabst never really went away ,but I can tell that it’s a different product than when I began quaffing. Harder ,with a watery , not really there ,there flavor. Cheap.
My favorite cheap beer is dead and gone – Falstaff. If you squirted some lime juice in it ,you could just about kill the oily aftertaste. ( Of course ,if you were drinking Falstaff , about the only other thing that you had in the fridge was one of those plastic limes half full of juice.)
Please don’t let Anheuser-Busch InBev buy it and screw it up like they did Rolling Rock!!
In college (Scranton, PA) it was either PBR pounders, Natural Ice, or Lionshead. Occasionally some Yuengling to class it up a bit. Natural Ice was the best bang for your buck alcohol-wise, it’s not like you’re buying it for taste at that level. Lionshead was dirt cheap ($8.75 for a case of bottles on special), tasted ok, and was local to boot (brewed down the road in Wilkes-Barre).
Living in MD now, I’ve developed a taste for National Bohemian.
Steel Reserve for the win. 24oz for $0.99, and 8.1% alcohol by volume.
don’t be a bitch
drink some brown party liquors
@doctor_cos: Growing up in Upstate that was the stuff of every Fourth of July picnic and Thanksgiving football game, or pretty much any other time my family got together. Now that I’m old enough to actually buy it, (not to mention old enough to appreciate nostalgia) I live too far away to get it.
@doctor_cos: Remember the ads for Genny Cream Ale in the 70s and 80s? It showed a few guys in a boat reeling in the biggest fish in whatever lake in upstate NY the commercial was filmed in. Then the narration kicked in: “Hi, this is Curt Gowdy. Enjoy the refreshing taste of a Genny Cream Ale. The great outdoors in a glass!” Curt Gowdy, Mr. Sports Broadcasting, shilling for Genny?!? Ahhh, memories!
@katstermonster: you’re just mad that PBR replaced Guiness as the hipster beer of choice. they’re both for wannabes