Schaefer Beer
Matt Brewing Company / Saranac Brewery

I'm trying to understand how these beers that have been retired and now are being brought back work. I do get the history of how the original declined and eventually shelved. I also get how tastes have changed, so to bring it back it would need a market. Thing is though why bring it back if the formulation was updated etc...? Its not the same product as the name indicates. While this was/is not for everyone, I remember it well enough as a refreshing beer for me. Now, I've heard all the comments before about how my generation doesn't know beer or somehow thinks this beer is like drinking piss etc.. I'm ok with that. Someday you will be old like me, yearn for something from your youth which has been long gone or has come back as something else. Why not just use the original recipes, market it for what it is, don't expect sales of 1.1MM cases, then it serves both purposes. One for the older people like me that remember and enjoyed it and one for rediscovery and cultivation of a new market. Eventually, tastes will once again change, history of these things will be viewed differently, sort of being historically accurate. Just making a different product using an old name is only licensing and a bit deceptive. Lots of folks will go on here to hate on Schaefer, but a new market cannot possibly go by that since they're judging a different formula and following the bias. Make the original, let the market decide, also don't try to reclaim the glory days of the name in two years time. Start slow, limited distribution. Look up old market data and go for those areas. I'm not ranting or angry, just trying to sort this out and suggest a different approach. Just like Heineken Special Dark, not a beer for everyone's taste, but since you're brewing beer and have established distribution, why completely discontinue it? Scale it back a bit, but still produce it until it becomes popular again.

Pours a clear light amber, golden honey with a fizzy 2" head that slowly recedes to a solid ring, moderate retention. Nose is light malt and light, slightly earth hops; very subtle hints of honey and lemon. Taste is clean, though not too expressive; baked flour, almost like a saltine; not at all sweet; a bit more hop would be nice, but the lack of corny, adjuncty sweetness means that the absence of bitterness isn't a deal breaker. Mouthfeel is on the thin side, but nice fine carbonation makes it really refreshing. Definitely the one beer to drink when you're having more than one.

Still owned by Pabst's as far as brand but outsourced to FX Matt for brewing, Schaefer beer returns to being brewed in NY using its heirloom recipe for the first time since the 1970s. Don't let the low 3.8% ABV fool you it has a crisp lager taste, good old school hop note and we'll balanced malt. Very high carbonation that remains active and crystal clear golden hue. Crisp mouthfeel. Really a classic example of how beer tasted on the early 1900s. Well done.