Is Pabst and Hamm's the same beer?

I live right in Milwaukee and the tastes are very close but honestly I think Pabst is sweeter more hoppy and a little more bitter. I will drink either or but where I live a 30 pack of Pabst is 18 bucks compared to Hamms 30 pack being 13 bucks thats a huge diff and I find myself going Hamms a lot more these days not just cause youll save a few bucks but tastes crispy and I do not get that corn syrupy feel after a few like I do with Pabst.

 

I’ve had both in the last couple of months, and I believe they’re different recipes. I’m pretty loyal to PBR (as my no-frills beer), but as cheap as it is, Hamms is even less at my Wally World, so I tried the Hamms. To my taste, it’s a little less crisp and a little less flavorful than PBR. Maybe I’m biased, because there’s not a lot of difference, but the PBR just seemed a little more refreshing. And AALs, if anything, should be that. The old Hamms TV ads are very memorable, though.

 

Whatever happened with this? Curious to see the results...

 

Never did it, but it would still be interesting. One day I might.

 

Gone here as well... haven't seen it in months

 

It most definitely is not. Source those are my 2 favorite summertime beers hands down. Though I only have Hamms at the moment. Want me to walk down the street and get me a pbr to try to compare? Edit do beer recipes ever get so old they become public property?

 

Yeah I liked that one also...gone now
I prefer Rainier myself if I want an American macro. I do think it's a little different from Hamm's, Olympia or PBR.
Oh just remembered Hamm's Golden Draft..that was nice

 

A beer recipe alone can't really be patented or copyrighted, etc. The only protection for a recipe is as a "trade secret" * - not likely for a beer like Hamm's which has been owned in the last 50 years or so by at least 4 different large companies (Heublein, Olympia, Pabst and MillerCoors), brewed in numerous breweries by many different brewmasters and likely using many different recipes, with various different hops (in the '50s, they claimed to use a blend of imported hops and hops from their own Yolo County, California hop ranch), malts and adjuncts.

Just one example (not a lot of specific info on Hamm's current recipe), in the 1960s, Hamm's in St. Paul malted its own barley, and as an adjunct used "milled hearts of corn" (grits). Today, MillerCoors uses "Corn Syrup (Maltose)" and even they only claim that they "believe" it "... approximate(s) the original Hamm's recipe".

* See Can You Protect A Recipe Under U.S. Law?

 

My boss worked with a former Pabst brewer and he confirmed that they are indeed the exact same beer. I was surprised since I thought Hamm's was notably better that PBR, but he heard it straight from the source.

 

Was checking my files for something else and came across a letter from then-Pabst Masterbrewer, Bob Newman. No date on the copy/paste and the link is dead but Newman retired in 2012 and he refers to Pabst's having no breweries (so after the closing of their last breweries Allentown and San Antonio, 2001-2002)- thus somewhere in that decade. He writes:

So, they were stickin' to that terminology, despite time and Eastern European history marching on...

 

I love all these anecdotal stories proving they arent the same .

Maybe ask someone who works at the production facility. Might be surprised. Just sayin.

 

I would expect the hop mix to be different at least, using whatever hops MillerCoors has on hand for their other recipes (US and German bittering hops, US and German aroma hops). If Pabst is still using that Slovenian grown variety that is. I would be surprised to learn that they are using a non-standard hop for a budget brand. I imagine that they would want to use bulk purchased ingredients as much as possible for Hamm's, and that they can't simply pilfer from Pabst's stash.

 

Patrik, I too would be surprised about this but as you know obtaining 'accurate' information from breweries (e.g., brewery websites) is a challenging task.

Cheers!

 

Do you personally know a brewer at MillerCoors that brews these products? If so, please contact them and ask the question.

Cheers!

 

Someone i know who worked there told me interesting things regarding the similarity of those two brands.

 

Was that someone a brewer?

I have zero doubt they are similar since they are both AAL beers but as to whether they are identical?

Cheers!

 

Holy cow, three pages on this..

 

Quality/ Lab role. Other people in production also have knowledge of the brands/ ingredients besides just the brewers, if thats what you are hinting at. And I quote: "they would just just switch the cans & packages on the packaging line and run the same tank." Something like that.

 

Again, not the same beer. Know why? They don't taste the same. Do a side by side taste test and get back to me.