Old School Beer Favorite Leaving Montana Shelves

In dirty garages, hunting camps, and old basement refrigerators across Montana, inside ice coolers at backyard barbecues and on the wooden shelves of duck hunting blinds, you could always find a few cans of Schlitz beer sitting next to elk jerky, hot dogs, and suspiciously old cheddar cheese stuffed into Ziplock bags. Usually parked beside a blaze orange hunting jacket and a beat-up tackle box, Schlitz became one of those beers that you always found in Grandad's beer cooler.

Now it sounds like that era may finally be ending.

According to multiple reports, Pabst Brewing Company has announced that Schlitz beer is being discontinued after 177 years. For generations, it was the beer your grandpa drank after a long day outside. The kind of beer that somehow tasted better sitting around a campfire after freezing your butt off in a duck blind.

Schlitz dates back to 1849 and was once one of the biggest beer brands in America. At one point, it even outsold Budweiser during the height of Milwaukee’s beer boom. But times changed. Sales dropped over the years, shelf space disappeared, and younger drinkers moved toward craft beer, IPAs, and newer brands. Reports also say production numbers eventually fell below the minimum brewing levels required to keep the brand going.

For a lot of people in Montana, this feels bigger than just another beer disappearing from store shelves. It feels like another small piece of old-school hunting camp culture quietly fading away.

So if you still know somebody with a garage fridge full of Schlitz, or if you just appreciate old-school beers that look like they belong next to a tackle box and muddy boots, this may be your last chance to grab a case before it disappears for good.