I note on the "old time beer" site that Pabst calls itself a "virtual brewing company." Clearly that can mean many things, in this case it means someone bought the name and Miller brews something and puts the Pabst name on it. It was not clear if that means the original recipe is being used or not.
Other brewers utilize contract brewing and bottling lines, but send their brewer and ingredients and just use the equipment. I think Saranac uses the F.X.Matt bottling line, although I don't have a bottle handy.
Well, that site isn't the official Pabst site, only a distributor of Old Style, so I don't know that Pabst, the company, uses that expression for itself.
Not exactly, S&P Corporation (owned by Paul Kalmanovitz) bought Pabst in
1985, just as he'd previously bought General, Falstaff and Pearl, and eventually folded all of the brands (including the Stroh and Heileman brands Pabst would acquire) into Pabst. Slowly, the new Pabst closed it's breweries (IIRC the old Pearl plant in Texas and the former Schaefer (Stroh) in Allentown were the last to go.
In the case of just about EVERY pre-Prohibition brand, I doubt that anyone is brewing from the "original" recipe, despite claims on the label.
Saranac is a brand created and owned by Matt- do a Google for "Matt Brewing Co." and the first hit is
formatting link
(Saranac is pretty much it's main brand these days- Utica Club is local NYS and Matt's is sort of forgotten- I don't even see it on their website anymore). Perhaps you're thinking of New Amsterdam (which F.X. Matt contract-brewed and eventually bought, didn't they?).
Pabst at one time was brewed in Milwaukee WI exclusivly. Old Style was always brewed in Lacross WI. AFAIK Pabst is still brewed in Milwaukee, but now have several other homes like Peoria, IL and some city in Florida.
Yeah, you got me there . (Altho', there was probably a period after the closing of the Pabst Milwaukee brewery and the closing of the final Pabst breweries in PA. and Texas when no Pabst came out of Milwaukee, so "still" isn't as accurate as "again" would be but I won't stand on that technicality ...I was wrong on that account.)
AFAIK there has been no megabrewery in Peoria for more than 20 years. I'm fairly certain there's no Pabst brewery there now. There's a small brewpub/brew-on-premises joint on the river, but I think that's it for brewing in Peoria today.
Does Pabst call itself a virtual brewing company or is someone else calling Pabst a virtual brewing company. It seems like a misue of the term virtual as I understand it.
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.