Schlitz was America's #1 beer — then it changed the recipe and nobody wanted it

Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company was founded in Milwaukee in 1849. By 1902 it was the largest brewer in America, and after Prohibition ended in 1933 it became the world's top-selling brewery. Through the 1950s Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch traded the #1 spot. As late as 1976 Schlitz was still the second-largest brewery in the United States.

In the early 1970s, under president Robert Uihlein Jr., Schlitz changed its brewing process to cut costs. It replaced malted barley with corn syrup, added artificial silica gel to prevent haze, switched to high-temperature fermentation, and experimented with continuous fermentation. The new beer lost its flavor, spoiled faster, and drinkers noticed immediately.

In 1976 Schlitz switched to a new clarifying agent called Chill-garde to avoid FDA ingredient labeling requirements. The agent reacted badly with a foam stabilizer, forcing Schlitz to recall 10 million bottles at a cost of $1.4 million. Consumer trust collapsed. A 1977 ad campaign — 'Drink Schlitz or I'll kill you' — was pulled after 10 weeks. Schlitz fell from #2 to #4 as Miller and Pabst overtook it.

In 1981 a four-month strike shut down the Milwaukee brewery permanently. In 1982 Stroh Brewery Company bought Schlitz. Stroh struggled under the debt and sold the brand to Pabst in 1999. The original pre-1970s formula was lost. In May 2026 Pabst announced it would discontinue Schlitz entirely after 175 years. The beer that made Milwaukee famous was killed by a cost-cutting recipe change.