Buried at the end of the article is the real story. "Schlitz" hasn't existed since the early 70's. They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand. In 2008 it was "revived" and a new beer took the name. Now someone else is brewing a completely different reconstructed formula for "the last batch" and throwing the name on it, again. And im sure itll happen again and again after that.
After sales slumped in the 70s they created a disastrous advertising campaign which is a case study in customer alienation: effectively 'drink Schlitz or I'll kill you' :-
Wilkins Coffee (which gave employment to a young Jim Henson before Sesame Street or The Muppet Show) was quite successful with its implication that people who don't drink Wilkins get shot and suffer other misfortunes. Maybe having puppets do it was just more charming.
I wonder if that type of article would exist if they had made good brewery decisions before launching the commercials. I mean they aren't great commercials, but I don't know I'd compare them to the unabomber or call it the brand killer. The brand was already killed, the commercials just weren't great.
If the brand had taken off and recovered the advertisers would claim "daring and powerful commercials that saved the brand" - the one thing they can't admit is that advertising isn't terribly effective.
Those seem pretty ordinary by beer commercial standards.
Advertising didn't kill Schlitz. They made some processing changes to their formula that caused a micro infection. Not sure, could have been Pediococcus. But they did it all at once, and ruined so many batches, that customers left and never came back.
No, it was around but it was probably just Stroh's in the can at that point. I drank a ton of it at a dollar a can in the early 00's (RIP J&J's Pizza, Denton, TX). This would have been after the PBR buy out and it was probably whatever the Stroh's formula was.
I drank a bunch of these PBR owned zombie brands over the last 20 years, Black Label, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, etc [1] and I've always wondered when I'm drinking one if it's the same flavor as one from previous years or even if the flavor is consistent across regions (assuming PBR was just slapping labels on contracted brewing).
Wow. Never thought I'd see J&J's come up on HN, but as soon as I saw the title, I was intrigued for exactly this reason. I was there too in the early 00's. Small world.
Indeed. I lived there for 4-5 years and left right before they started tearing down Fry Street. At that time I could see Bill Callahan at Rubber Gloves for 5 dollars, then head to the square and get my fill. Leave my car and walk home. Wake up and do it again, but instead see The Black Angels in someones house. Saw many great shows at Dan's Silverleaf and saw a number of terrible art exhibitions from the students. I had moved to the east coast by the time they burned down the Flying Tomato and it seemed like a fitting end given what I saw of the place the last time I had visited in early 2007.
I'm very fond of that place at that time. I used to commute straight into the metroplex and back out to Denton. I'd get home and park my car and have most everything a dude in his early 20s needed in walking distance.
Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street?
Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't remember which one, they also sing Schlemiel, Schlamazel - unsure of spelling, which are both Yiddish words, although only Schlemiel is somewhat familiar to the public.
I’m not certain, though I have been to the Laverne and Shirley temple in Sprecher Brewery, but:
Hassenpfeffer sounds like a play on Harnischfegger, a maker of heavy construction equipment in Milwaukee.
Trivia: One of Henry Harnischfeger’s customers was Pabst Brewing Co.
Harnischfeger ran itself into the ground in the 90s. I worked in their headquarters for more than a decade. That building is prime real estate and became an FBI office.
huh, ok I was under the impression it was yiddish, obviously a lot of yiddish comes from the German, which is why it made me think hasenpfeffer is yiddish and of course the rest of the song, so I just figured; well I guess that's what happens when you're 11 years old and don't think to double check.
Hasenpfeffer is also a French and German dish - it might be considered Jewish in the US because it's especially popular in Jewish culture there?
It's unlike gefilte fish which is AFAIK considered Jewish everywhere.
As a native Yiddish speaker (it was my first language!) I can assure you that "Hasenpfeffer" is not a Yiddish dish, it is rabbit and most definitely _treif_. Yiddish speakers would not eat it.
yeah, TIL, although I suppose there must have been a reasonable number of Yiddish speakers, Isaac Asimov springs immediately to mind, who would have had no problem eating it.
I just thought it was a dish that was popular in yiddish speaking communities based specifically on the song, and stuff like the Freleng cartoons, which obviously no idea if Freleng spoke Yiddish although it seems reasonably likely that he had some familiarity.
I brought a case with me to Germany for a house party. It was a hit. I even got my mini mart to start carrying it, made me chuckle to see other dipshits buying it.
Buried at the end of the article is the real story. "Schlitz" hasn't existed since the early 70's. They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand. In 2008 it was "revived" and a new beer took the name. Now someone else is brewing a completely different reconstructed formula for "the last batch" and throwing the name on it, again. And im sure itll happen again and again after that.
After sales slumped in the 70s they created a disastrous advertising campaign which is a case study in customer alienation: effectively 'drink Schlitz or I'll kill you' :-
https://youtu.be/hC8mqPLHDVU
https://youtu.be/f_baloTGt5M
Wilkins Coffee (which gave employment to a young Jim Henson before Sesame Street or The Muppet Show) was quite successful with its implication that people who don't drink Wilkins get shot and suffer other misfortunes. Maybe having puppets do it was just more charming.
https://youtu.be/HVewx3-9x24
That's not my read of the message of those ads at all.
See
Oh, Schlitz: How a Historic Ad Campaign Helped Kill America’s Biggest Beer Brand
https://vinepair.com/articles/schlitz-history-ad-campaign
I wonder if that type of article would exist if they had made good brewery decisions before launching the commercials. I mean they aren't great commercials, but I don't know I'd compare them to the unabomber or call it the brand killer. The brand was already killed, the commercials just weren't great.
If the brand had taken off and recovered the advertisers would claim "daring and powerful commercials that saved the brand" - the one thing they can't admit is that advertising isn't terribly effective.
Those seem pretty ordinary by beer commercial standards.
Advertising didn't kill Schlitz. They made some processing changes to their formula that caused a micro infection. Not sure, could have been Pediococcus. But they did it all at once, and ruined so many batches, that customers left and never came back.
Did I hallucinate drinking it in high school around 92-94?
No, it was around but it was probably just Stroh's in the can at that point. I drank a ton of it at a dollar a can in the early 00's (RIP J&J's Pizza, Denton, TX). This would have been after the PBR buy out and it was probably whatever the Stroh's formula was.
I drank a bunch of these PBR owned zombie brands over the last 20 years, Black Label, Schlitz, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, etc [1] and I've always wondered when I'm drinking one if it's the same flavor as one from previous years or even if the flavor is consistent across regions (assuming PBR was just slapping labels on contracted brewing).
[1] https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/
Wow. Never thought I'd see J&J's come up on HN, but as soon as I saw the title, I was intrigued for exactly this reason. I was there too in the early 00's. Small world.
> Small world.
Indeed. I lived there for 4-5 years and left right before they started tearing down Fry Street. At that time I could see Bill Callahan at Rubber Gloves for 5 dollars, then head to the square and get my fill. Leave my car and walk home. Wake up and do it again, but instead see The Black Angels in someones house. Saw many great shows at Dan's Silverleaf and saw a number of terrible art exhibitions from the students. I had moved to the east coast by the time they burned down the Flying Tomato and it seemed like a fitting end given what I saw of the place the last time I had visited in early 2007.
I'm very fond of that place at that time. I used to commute straight into the metroplex and back out to Denton. I'd get home and park my car and have most everything a dude in his early 20s needed in walking distance.
We drank plenty of Schlitz malt liquor 40s in the late 90s. They were pretty gross..
I remember a cartoon of college kids opening beer cans.
“Beers that say their own name:”
Schlitz!
Pabst!
Busch!
Blatz!
> They cut costs and ruined the formula and brand.
"they" did not cut costs! "they" was actually one single guy, who inherited an empire, and put his mark on it.. which killed it.. Robert Uihlein Jr
This is listed among some collections of "biggest mistakes in the history of US Business" IIR
''The beer that made Milt Famy walk us''
https://www.realnothings.com/famous%20jokes/miltfamyjoke.htm
"When you're out of Bud, tough Schlitz"
Not to be forgotten, Steely Dan's unreleased jingle for Schlitz: https://milwaukeerecord.com/music/listen-to-steely-dans-long...
Growing up in Milwaukee in the 1950s/60s,
"Schlitz — The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" was so ubiquitous that it created a permanent engram in my brain.
The slogan was in giant animated brightly lighted letters on the tallest building in downtown Milwaukee.
Is Schlitz the beer company that Laverne and Shirley work for before moving to LA?
They worked at the Shotz brewery, an obvious Schlitz standin.
Hasenpfeffer is a yiddish dish, here is a video familiar to some older generations of someone who wants to eat some Hasenpfeffer
https://youtube.com/watch?v=OdXm-cb2cjQ
Why is it Hasenpfeffer Incorporated in the jump rope rhyme they are singing as they skip down the street?
Probably because at least one of the characters is supposed to be Jewish, can't remember which one, they also sing Schlemiel, Schlamazel - unsure of spelling, which are both Yiddish words, although only Schlemiel is somewhat familiar to the public.
I’m not certain, though I have been to the Laverne and Shirley temple in Sprecher Brewery, but:
Hassenpfeffer sounds like a play on Harnischfegger, a maker of heavy construction equipment in Milwaukee.
Trivia: One of Henry Harnischfeger’s customers was Pabst Brewing Co.
Harnischfeger ran itself into the ground in the 90s. I worked in their headquarters for more than a decade. That building is prime real estate and became an FBI office.
Hasenpfeffer is a German dish; per Leviticus rabbits aren't kosher.
Also see Fritz Freleng's work in 1962's "Shishkabugs": https://youtu.be/SK-cmtYrVuo?si=s4sI84cbb25J9K7F
huh, ok I was under the impression it was yiddish, obviously a lot of yiddish comes from the German, which is why it made me think hasenpfeffer is yiddish and of course the rest of the song, so I just figured; well I guess that's what happens when you're 11 years old and don't think to double check.
Hasenpfeffer is also a French and German dish - it might be considered Jewish in the US because it's especially popular in Jewish culture there? It's unlike gefilte fish which is AFAIK considered Jewish everywhere.
Jews don't eat hare. Hasenpfeffer is not a "Yiddish" word.
I guess it could be if you left out the bacon… and the rabbit.
As a native Yiddish speaker (it was my first language!) I can assure you that "Hasenpfeffer" is not a Yiddish dish, it is rabbit and most definitely _treif_. Yiddish speakers would not eat it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasenpfeffer
Shleimiel and Shlmazal are yiddish, via Hebrew.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%9...
and
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D7%A9%D7%9C%D7%99%D7%9E%D7%9...
yeah, TIL, although I suppose there must have been a reasonable number of Yiddish speakers, Isaac Asimov springs immediately to mind, who would have had no problem eating it.
I just thought it was a dish that was popular in yiddish speaking communities based specifically on the song, and stuff like the Freleng cartoons, which obviously no idea if Freleng spoke Yiddish although it seems reasonably likely that he had some familiarity.
no, Hasenpfeffer is not exclusively a yiddish dish AFAIK
That was Hasenpfeffer Incorporated, as per the intro song.
nope, sorry had to correct that - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48254643
I thought it was an obvious joke given the reference to the song! “Shlemeil, schlimazel, Hasenpfeffer incorporated”
ah ok, I thought you were being serious.
At my house, my dad always drank Schmidt’s Gay. Before the divorce, that is.
He never liked "Schlitz". (Germans might understand why. And yes, that joke risks sounding misogynistic.)
Who can forget the CEO Francis J. Sellinger and his 'Taste My Schlitz' commercials https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NPxny7no4c
Well, by that time German immigration to the midwest was long enough ago that nobody could still understand it, I guess.
I brought a case with me to Germany for a house party. It was a hit. I even got my mini mart to start carrying it, made me chuckle to see other dipshits buying it.