Fear and Loathing In My Refrigerator

I am a sucker for ad campaigns like the one we just went through here in Madison.

On October 1, Schlitz was re-introduced to beer consumers in my city. For all of its quirks and lunacy, we really do drink a LOT of beer in Madison, and in Wisconsin in general.

There was a major ad blitz in newspapers and internet media. Certain bars were the first to receive their deliveries of Schlitz, and many of them had it on tap. They used vintage sixties and seventies cars to deliver the beer, which is also a cool hook. The makers of Schlitz have re-introduced the beer in its original form. In other words, they are using the old recipe, not some modern day chopped down cornwater like Miller Lite. It had me sort of excited. I love history, and throwback stuff is always interesting to me.

I am not one to enter the fray with these sorts of things (you will NEVER see me wait in line for a movie ticket either) so I decided to wait a week or two and then pick up a sixer at my local liquor store. I like the packaging very much (click for larger). On this, they did a fantastic job.
But the proof is in the pudding, as they say, and man does this beer suck out loud. This is really the "Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous"? It is brewed by Pabst now, so maybe I shouldn't be so surprised. Drinking it is OK, but the aftertaste is something I can't describe. Almost like having a sweaty t-shirt in my mouth or something. If this is really the original recipe, I wonder how it lasted so long. Oh well, I will still force down the remainder of this sixer, but for my light summertime yard work brew I will be sticking to the High Life for now.