The worst news I've received this week.

Which is why you are not allowed within 500 yards of schools?

 

My softball beer was Black Label. $8.99 for a case.

Lagers in craft beer are big now.

Founders Solid Gold is crushing it in sales right now.

 

Olympia still exists, contract brewed someplace, I think maybe at Full Sail in Hood River, Ore. Saw some in the store the other day.

PBR is decent, low-cost beer, and certainly superior to Keystone or Coors Light. It's still very popular out here in the PNW and is an excellent alternative from the overpriced craft beer most bars have on tap. I'd hate to see it go away.

 

So . . . MillerCoors makes (at least) five different brands for Pabst. In addition to its own beers. I've never given this much thought; I'm supposed to believe 10 or 12 different brands come out of one brewery?

 

duff duff light duff dry - Google Search

 

Screw the damn border, trump needs to send troops to save PBR.

 

It's not hard to fathom. Each brand just has different labels and packaging. It all starts with the same process. You don't need different brewery set ups to make a dozen different beers (just as you don't need 10 ovens to bake 10 different cakes).

 

So what you're telling me is that Brand X is the exact same beer as Brand Y, which is the exact same beer as Brand Z, and it's possible the only difference between the three is the name on the can? Never knew that.

 

No. Different beers brewed with different formulas, in different batches, but at the same place. Recently toured a brewery in Belgium which brewed seven or eight different beers, in widely distinct styles.

 

Breweries making custom label beers is pretty common. Sort of like food packaging places that do multiple lines of similar products for different companies.

 

Sort of. There are two different things that can be in play at a brewery other than making beer for themselves.

Contract brewing is what one thing is called (which is sort of what MillerCoors now does for PBR since they own the brand name).

An example:
When Russian River Brewing had an upgrade made to their brewhouse, they contracted a few of their higher volume beers to Firestone Walker. It only was for a few weeks (maybe months, I forget) but at that level of professional brewing, you can make beer pretty similar if you run a few test batches. I mean, heck ... Budweiser is made all over America, not just in St. Louis. And the Budweiser plants also make some Goose Island products.

Then, there is private label, like what CW2 posted.

Here in Ohio, Rivertown Brewing near Cincinnati makes a line of beers called "Iron Line" which is Kroger's "generic brand" of sorts. It's made by Rivertown, but only sold in Kroger. My friends here in Toledo do private labels and basically brew the same beer they call "Easy" and it's labeled "Packo's Golden Ale." It's the exact same beer, just given a different name.

 

No it's not. It is something completely different from craft beers. It's like saying what you get from a cake mix is an alternative to what you get from the small bakery on the corner.