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Home » News » News » Schlitz Shelved After 177 Years As Demand For America’s Working Man’s Beer Drops
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Schlitz Shelved After 177 Years As Demand For America’s Working Man’s Beer Drops

Ted CohenBy Ted CohenMay 29, 2026Updated:May 29, 20266 Comments2 Mins Read1K Views
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If you’ve got an unopened can of Schlitz on the kitchen shelf, hire a Brink’s guard – it’s now a collector’s item.

“The beer that made Milwaukee famous,” as a longtime TV commercial went, is going bottoms up.

Wisconsin Brewing Co. and Milwaukee Brat House are planning farewell events for the beer later this month.

What now turns out to have been the largest Schlitz going-away party was the most-recent national GOP convention in Milwaukee, which Schlitz hosted.

Wisconsin Brewing released its final batch on May 23.

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company, based in Milwaukee and founded in 1849, was once the largest producer of beer in the U.S.

Schlitz was later bought by Stroh Brewing and then by Pabst Brewing.

The company was founded by August Krug in 1849, but ownership passed to Joseph Schlitz in 1858 when he married Krug’s widow.

Schlitz first became the largest beer producer in the U.S. in 1902 and enjoyed that status at several points during the first half of the 20th century, exchanging the title with Anheuser-Busch multiple times during the 1950s.

An often-circulated story of Schlitz donating thousands of barrels of beer to Chicago residents after the Great Chicago Fire of 1871 was finally proven to be a myth.

But it also became a great marketing tool for the company, fiction or not.🍺

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Ted Cohen

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Louisewoods
Louisewoods
20 days ago

Drank a lot of beer in my day .
Never liked Schmitz .
Tried a can some fifteen years later , to give it another chance , spit it out .
Nasty Beer . Too many better choices today .

2
Bill in Bangor
Bill in Bangor
20 days ago

Ever since we started touring in Mexico almost 30 years ago any US beer pales in comparison. Dos Equis and other major Mexican brands are increasingly available in Bangor.

1
Louisewoods
Louisewoods
20 days ago

Montejo and Leon , both from Merida .
The best of Mexico .
Mexicans don’t drink Modelo . It’s piss .

2
Kafir2022
Kafir2022
20 days ago

Drank a lot of Schlitz Malt Liquor which had a higher alcohol content when I was in my twenties. I think I still have a hangover 50 years later.

3
Jeff
Jeff
19 days ago

What, no more Sclitz? This is the worst new since they stopped making Blatz. I loved the Blatz splatz, bummer!!!…

0
Louisewoods
Louisewoods
19 days ago

Kafir …..LOL
I DRANK ten 16 oz cans of SML one night ……1969
Almost killed me …LOL
Lost a lot of cells in the sixties …..LOL
Colt 45 anyone ?
How about some Crazy Horse ?
Those were the days my friends we thought they’d never end .

1
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