I’m drinking a tallboy of Old Milwaukee right now and I have to say it is pretty damn good. And so is the Schlitz. Michelob lager? Wow.
What’s happened? These guys have gone to old recipes? The cans look like they’re from the 60’s. I’m getting more hop character and definitely a maltier and fuller body out the cheap lager names that I remember from high-school.
Tastes like homebrew…
Take it easy on my Schiltz! That is one of my go to beers when go visit the folks in Iowa. I leave a pretty wide wake of rural taverns with one irritated regular each because some outta state yahoo drank the four they keep for him. I haven’t stumbled in an Old Mil’ out here, but you can bet your last dollar I’m buying it when I do.
It’s possible the big brewers have finally figured out that the average joe wants more flavor, and they want to put their old mainstays in positions closer to the successful craft beer market that is booming like mad, so if they put more flavor in the old mainstays, it will make for an easier transition of those folks to craft beer (if the drinkers don’t all die first).
Maybe. Probably not. But possible.
I haven’t noticed any upgrade in the BMC crap - my brother hands me one now and then when I’m over. But I have noticed an improvement in Schlitz, a cheap beer I used to buy back in the day. The Schlitz I had recently definitely seemed better, with a faint hop note and maybe a bit better body. It could’ve been just getting it fresh, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they tinkered with the recipe a touch. I’d love to see the cheap brands like Schlitz, Stroh’s (and others) steal some sales away from BMC on the bottom end, while craft beer comes at them from the other direction. Hell, some of the hipsters are even drinking PBR now. 
This reflects my thinking.
The Schlitz is $4.77 for six talboys. I say that ia a deal as long as they keep this up.
I’ve always said how easy it would be to make a mass 'merican lager with a little bit of flavor that would appeal across the market.
I agree.
During our BJCP training class we would do a blind judging every week.
One week we were told to judge a particular beer as a Munich Helles.
After discussion as a group of our impressions and scores, the group of about 20 trainees and two instructors landed on a score of 41. The beer?
From the land of sky blue waters, Hamms.
It has become my car camping beer. Seems apropos.
Maybe there were lightened up to compete in the light beer crazy market, but now they’re going back to differentiate themselves from the light beer craze.
It’s also possible that you appreciate subtle malt/hop character better than you did in high school/college. That’s certainly true for me.
Bingo! Not only appreciate, but simply having the ability to differentiate subtle yeast/fermentation/ingredient characteristics on the palette.
I’m sure my perception has improved over the years as a brewer but this is not the issue. The recipes have discernibly changed or been tweaked.
Perhaps, I haven’t drank enough “campin’ beer” consistently enough to be able to call out a change in recipe formulation.
Schlitz went back to their classic recipe oh at least 5 years ago probably. Personally, I liked the other version.
I’ve always liked Old Mil. It at least had some substance to it.
I’m a long-time fan of factory beer, and have never had any issues with them.
It’s the light versions that I can’t stand. Why not just take your factory beer, and add a little water to it? Buying just does not make any fiscal sense.
I agree as well. Michelob has all along been a very good American lager for the price, and it got even better when they went back to ‘all malt’ 7 or 8 years ago. To bad it’s not more widely available on draft; in my Dad’s day, it was actually a draft only product and I remember him talking about he and his co-workers from Lockheed going to the Newark NJ AB brewery for lunch, with came with glasses of really fresh Michelob.
Interestingly, industry reports indicate that the production of Michelob in general is something like only 1/3 of it was just 20 years ago!
I still pick up a sixer of it every now and again, and still marvel at how well made it is considering it’s BMC status. If it had just a touch more hop character (as I’m suspecting it may have had at one time), it would be pretty near perfect.