Russian Beer????

Disappointing news on the beer front as Pabst Brewing has been purchased by the Russian brewer Oasis Beverages. Pabst was sold for an estimated 700 million dollars by C. Dean Metropoulos which purchased the brewer for 250 million dollars in 2010. Not a bad profit for owning a company for about four years. Pabst was founded in 1844 and started winning competitions before the American Civil War. It marked those victories by placing a blue ribbon around every bottle until 1916. The brewer was going though about 1,000,000 feet of blue ribbon each year. In the 1940's Pabst started sponsoring sporting events. That was industry leading at the time. By 1977 when they reached their peak Pabst was selling 18 million barrels of beer per year. In 1985 Paul Kalmanowitz bought Pabst for 63 million dollars and decided to do no advertising. He wanted the beer to speak for itself. Sales slowly came back and in the last 10 years sales have more than doubled. Many of America's popular brands at the time were experiencing declining sales. Last year Pabst sales were 6 million barrels. It isn't just our beloved Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer that is involved. Pabst produces all of the following.
Pabst Blue Ribbon
Jacob Best
Schlitz
Old Milwaukee
Colt 45
St. Ides
Stroh's
Old Style
Lone Star
Olympia
Rainier Beer
Schmidt Beer
National Bohemian

So now we will be drinking Russian beer. Old Glory may fly proudly on the flag pole but the Red, White and Blue label of Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer will have lost a bit of its American heritage.