Goodbye, Michelob Original Lager.

Well, the word from AB sources noted above sure suggest it's real (of course, that does not mean it could not return) and the topic of alternatives* was recently discussed in the thread In search of a light lager similar to Michelob Original Lager.
* Can't say a lot of them were "Good", though.

 

I've been going to the Tam in Boston and they have plenty of Michelob Lager (and Schlitz)

 

Thanks for the warning!

The obligatory question re: Michelob - draught and/or bottled? If the latter, date code? I suppose AB could always have brewed some Michelob in NH thanks to "popular demand" despite earlier telling consumers nationally it was gone.

Schlitz in Massachusetts was always interesting. When I lived there in '70s, Schlitz was actually the best selling beer in the state - accounting for just about ⅓ of the market. At the time (well, even now...) it struck me as strange given AB (with about a ¼ market share) had a brand new brewery just across the border in NH and there were still a few breweries left in MA, Carling in Natick (1976), Rheingold-owned but usually branded Jacob Ruppert in New Bedford (1977) and a briefly independent again Piel Bros. in Willimansett (1975). (Parenthesis = closing years).

After Schlitz closed the Brooklyn brewery in '73, Schlitz was probably shipping their beer to New England from Winston-Salem until the opened (briefly) the Baldwinsville NY brewery in '77 (and sold to AB 2 years later).

According to the FTC, those companies all had pretty minor (6-3%) shares mid-70s with only Narrangansett in RI (owned by Falstaff, and including other brands like Ballantine and Krueger) around 10%, behind 3 national brands AB, Schlitz, Miller) beating only Pabst.

 

Schlitz was #1 in the U.S sometime in the 60's I think...they eventually killed themselves off by cheapening the beer by I think rushing it to market without enough lagering time...might have cheapened the ingredients too or used less of something. Either way, beer drinkers noticed and they never recovered.

 

Well, the last time Schlitz (the brewing company) outsold Anheuser-Busch was 1956 - but it was close - 5.941M bbl. to A-B's 5.864M bbl. But my point was that, at the time, I was surprised by the amount of Schlitz I saw in Massachusetts since, at the time, they were shipping beer to N.E. from much further away than the other big national (AB, Pabst) and regional brands.

Yeah, messing with their process and ingredients in the late 1970s didn't help them but there were a few other factors (financial, overcapacity [they built a number of new breweries in the 1960-70s], management changes, legal) that also contributed to the brewery's demise. Still, even as they lost market share in the late 1970s (peaked in '76 w/24M bbl.) they were still selling over 14 million barrels of beer (so, including Schlitz Light, Schlitz Malt Liquor, Erlanger and Old Milwaukee) the year before they sold to Stroh, with their flagship getting a new recipe created by a former AB brewmaster, Frank Sellinger, who became Schlitz's president for its last few years.

 

As you note, probably the Schlitz slide was helped by their changes in ingredients and process. But other contenders lost out while apparently maintaining standards: Falstaff, Pabst, Schaefer, Strohs, Olympia . . . . Trying to combat ABs efficient breweries, effective advertising, and targeted promotion was generally a losing proposition (except for Coors with conservative internal financing and Miller with corporate backers).

 

I just picked up a 12 pack of Michelob and a 12 pack of Michelob Light from Total Wines in Westbury, New York

 

Last week I saw an old dude (yup, even older than me - w/cane and everything) in front of me as I was leaving, carrying a 6 pack of Michelob Lager out of a store that is a regular stop for me.
"Ah, ah, ah GHOST!" I thought, but then went back into the store and checked the macro coolers (on the other side from the craft cooler) and sure 'nough, Michelob Lager, bottling date seemed to be Jan. 19th, 2023 - "23019" I think. I do remember seeing and saying to myself "Oh, I'll remember that." But I've been wrong before and now it's got me wondering because I thought AB switched to "Best by" dating?
And that date above could also be the 230th day of 2019.
Damn, now I'm gonna have to go to the liquor store again...

 

I'll have to check the born on dates on mine.

The way they were stocked, I doubt they were particularly old. There was no dust on the cases.

 

So, the same store today:

So, I remembered the correct sequence of numbers but the label is different from the Michelob Ultras that were stocked next to it. Those say "Freshest Before" on top of the black box (LEFT) and the dating format is DDMONTHYY (with a 3 letter abbreviation for the month). So, what are these? Old stock? Seems weird that they'd be using two different date code formats.

 

I think it's January 19th, 2023. This is from a post on BA from 2017 (six years old, but it makes sense with what you're seeing).

Anheuser Busch switched to a best before date for Budweiser and Bud Light but still uses two different born on formats for its other brands: DDMMMYY (27JAN17) or YYDDD (17027). I've seen multi-packs of the same brand side-by-side which used different codes. AB InBev should get its act together and do one standard code.

 

Michelob was also discontinued a few years ago, so it’s possible Michelob retained their older coding whereas Ultra kept the new coding.

The Julian coding “almost works” at first glance (born on 2/12/19 (Julian #43) vs. August 18, 2019 (Julian #230), but AB has always been exact, so it’s likely not true. Budweiser is now 180 days after packaging, changed last decade from 110 days after packaging.

With the announced (to distributors, also confirmed via a customer service call) I’m really hoping this was bottled January 19, 2023 for consumers’ sake (Julian Date #019) as part of their last batches.

 

Here's the date on mine. I'm not sure how to interpret this.

 

Bottled the 136th day of 2023, I believe.

 

That has to be it. Unless it was bottled in 1936 or is from the future in 2036.

 

So if it was bottled in May, that seems like a little longer than the sales rep claimed this would be produced for.

 

If I had to wager, I’d bet it’s Julian best by, so best by January 19, 2023 for the first beer and best by May 16, 2023 for your beer.

Perhaps the customer service number can confirm if you are curious beyond guessing.

 

The big question being: how does it taste? A little oxidized, maybe weird caramel-like and earthy?

 

Not earthy, a bit of a caramel malt like thing going on but not weird. They've always had that quality to me.

 

Didn't mean caramel malt, more like stale caramel candy. Even a wet cardboard character.

If you're dodging all of that, you're probably doing just fine with the batch you bought.