I remember…..

The Texas Brewing Company was reincarnated in 1992 in Dallas by a highly successful oil wildcatter who was looking for something new and different to create.  Originally located in Ft. Worth, the Texas Brewing Co., during its peak, grew to a 250K bbls. capacity before closing during prohibition.

The oil baron who revitalized the company had discovered that the name and beer labels were available, so he trademarked them and built a small microbrewery in downtown Dallas.  He began brewing and packaging, but made many mistakes, by far the biggest of which was the liquid he put produced, which at best, was bad. The company never got off the ground and eventually sold.

The new buyer kept the name Texas Brewing Co., and retained Stroh Brewing Co. in Longview to brew the beer.  Obviously his liquid was very good, but once again, poor decision making going to market resulted in a second closing within the first year in business.

Ten years later, a new craft brewer started in Ft. Worth called Texas Beer and Soda Co.  The brew master was experienced, but once they started brewing and selling product, complaints began to surface regarding the quality of the liquid.  Initially, the blame was placed on inferior crowns which caused the beer to oxidize.  The bad beer was destroyed and a new batch replaced the old. But once again, the liquid was of poor quality.  Bacteria was discovered in the filler which caused the liquid to go bad, however, by the time this discovery was made, it was too late.  The brewery was soon closed.

Recently, another distributor commented on quality issues with new crafts in his market, and stated that in his opinion, this was the biggest issue he faced in taking on new upstart beers.  His final comment was, “remember what happened to Schlitz?”

Two weeks ago, I received a heads-up alert from a Gusto Club member of the old Schlitz employees in Texas, that a Milwaukee public TV station was doing a show on the Schlitz Brewing Co.  The show, I Remember, featured stories on companies and people from Milwaukee’s past.  In this segment, the show’s guest was Peter Uihlein, a family member that ran Schlitz, and who had worked with the company for years.

The story explains the history of the brewery, how they impacted the city of Milwaukee, and what happened to cause the death of a 24 million bbl. company.  Simply put, if you cut corners and put out an inferior liquid, you will fail.

Below you will find the story.  Despite the fact that the story is 26 minutes in length, viewing it is worth the time.  In fact, all craft brewers should see this clip simply for the purpose that the distributor was referring; there are no short cuts to success in the beer business.