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Schlitz throwback brew pours into Madison

Mike Miller  —  10/09/2008 4:58 pm

Long-maligned Schlitz beer unveiled its newest version of beer Thursday to a tough crowd in downtown Madison, and the verdict by most drinkers was that it was much better than the swill Schlitz formerly called beer.

The new brew, Kyle Wortham of the company's marketing department explained, is actually the closest the company could come to the recipe used for its renowned brew of the 1960s.

Current Schlitz brewmaster Bob Neuman rounded up as many of the old crew, including brewers and workers, from the 1960s to try to recreate "the beer that made Milwaukee famous" from those days and thinks he has it right. Though operations began in Brew City, Schlitz left Milwaukee in 1982 and is now brewed by Pabst Brewing Co. of Chicago. At a taste testing, the old-timers said it was the same taste, Wortham said.

Most of those who tasted the new brew at its Madison unveiling Thursday at the Old Fashioned on Pinckney Street on the Capitol Square were too young to remember what beer tasted like in the 1960s, while others of us who were part of the 60s did not remember.

As for most of those present, the new or retro Schlitz was deemed to be a good beer and better than Schlitz has been for awhile.

Wortham said one of the comments he gets a lot is, "It tastes like beer I used to steal out of my old man's refrigerator."

Among those tasting the new product Thursday was Douglas Griffin, of the State Historical Society, who said he often has lunch at the Old Fashioned and took Thursday afternoon off to sample the new Schlitz. Griffin, who says he likes to think of himself as a beer connoisseur, said he liked the new Schlitz. "It falls squarely into the category of other American light-tasting beers," he said.

Wortham said the beer is meant to please the palettes of "guys who want a little more flavor from their beer," and Griffin and others agreed with that.

Mayor Dave Cieslewicz was on hand to give the new beer an official welcome to the city, and recalled how Schlitz was extremely popular in the 1960s when he was growing up in Milwaukee, but became "almost a joke," as its quality declined.

"Unfortunately it went the way of a lot of products," he said. Asked if he had tried the new beer, the mayor said he had a full afternoon in front of him, and so he couldn't drink any. But he probably will in the future, according to his remarks. "I am the Gusto mayor," he said.

Aside from that, he seemed as interested in a 1955 Chevrolet Limousine parked in front of the Old Fashioned as he did the new beer. The car is owned by Gary Esse of Madison, who bought it 11 years ago in a southern town called Moonville and restored it to its original splendor.

The mayor said he was enamored of the car because it was the same model car his 11 cousins used to travel from South Carolina to South Bend, Ind., for an annual family reunion when he was a kid. Except that was one yellow, the mayor said.

One of the other cars parked in front of the Old Fashioned was a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker, white in color, with massive tail fins and a removable Schlitz sign on its side. Owner Ron Rotter said the car was owned by the grandmother of a friend of his, and he bought it from her.

"It's a Madison car," he noted, and includes the original Duquaine and Blumer logo on the back, showing it was purchased at the former Chrysler dealership which was then in the 800 block of East Washington Avenue where the Don Miller dealership is now located.

Also on hand was a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino, the half-car half-pickup truck, with its back end loaded with cases of the new Schlitz brew.

That vehicle is owned by the Schlitz company, Wortham said, and was selected to represent the brew because like the Schlitz of its year, its production ceased.

One final review of the beer from a man who declined to be identified because his name is at the top of the story: "It tastes one helluva lot better than that stuff my buddy Ron Lecy always drinks," he said, referring to the Stoughton man commonly called "The last Schlitz drinker" by his many friends.

They should have had Lecy taste the new stuff.

Mike Miller  —  10/09/2008 4:58 pm