What About Pabst

You may have heard that the famous Pabst Blue Ribbon is once again for sale. It was announced in November that the brewery was up for sale and expected to fetch around $300 million.

So, while I have been scrounging for spare change I decided to do a little digging and see what exactly I am trying to purchase.

The beer has recently gained a hipster-chic reputation and consumed by beer drinkers trying to stick it to the mainstream breweries. Well, that...and its cheap. Fans might like to think of the 165-year-old company as a boutique relic of the family-owned, all-American breweries of the past, it actually doesn't own its own brewery.

Wait, what???

All of its brewing is done at contract facilities (including some owned by MillerCoors), with Pabst brewmaster Bob Newman overseeing the recipes. Pabst Brewing Company's portfolio also includes beers like Colt 45 and Schlitz. And Pabst is not family-owned but instead held by a charitable trust.

In 1985, Pabst was bought by Paul Kalmanovitz, who also snatched up other semi-defunct brands such as Lone Star and Olympia. When Kalmanovitz died in 1987, he left Pabst to a charitable trust in his name. But as charities aren't supposed to own for-profit companies, the IRS has given the foundation until 2010 to sell off the business.

So the next time you're at a punk rock show laying down singles for cold cans of PBR, keep an eye out for me...cause I don't care who makes the stuff...I still wanna buy this brewery!

The beer is amazing, the advertising....

1950's


2010