Heidelberg Lager

Yeah, the brand, like many other (once) large regionals, bounced around. US-based Carling bought the brewery in 1958, eventually becoming a Carling-National brand (below left - in Carling's "keg bottle") when those two companies merged. Carling even attempted to make it their (super)premium beer for a time (pre-Tuborg) when they brewed it in Massachusetts and sold it in New England.

It became a Heileman brand when they bought Carling-National in 1979 (below, center) and the brewery in Tacoma was closed. Heileman brewed it at their other breweries - mostly Rainier in WA but also Blitz-Weinhard in OR and even Lone Star in Texas.

As you note, it was still being marketed as late as 2002 (above, right). Since Pabst bought most of the Stroh/Heileman brands in 1999, the logical assumption is that it was a Pabst brand in its final days.

Pabst had sold their Olympia brewery in Tumwater, Washington to Miller (which only operated it for a few years) so it's probable it was coming from that brewery but it's possible (but unlikely) it was a Miller brand.

So... (Of course, a brand that bounced around to different owners and brewed a different breweries probably had numerous recipe changes over the years).

For a short while, I kept track of these "revived" brands but it became overwhelming and pretty useless, since most failed. All these little local craft brewers with excess capacity hope they can find the success that Narragansett (another ex-Pabst brand) has had but that brand has been the exception rather than the rule. For another example, see the Champagne Velvet thread.

@moodenba might have some memories of Heidelberg Beer when it was a Carling brand.

 

Heidelberg (then Carling-owned) was a strong seller in Portland in the late 60s when I came of age. I thought it was pretty good, and it had a good share of the draft market in taverns (beer bars to the uninitiated). In fact, Carling had a bigger market share in Oregon than Washington (see appendix of https://www.ftc.gov/sites/default/files/documents/reports/brewing-industry/197812brewingindustry.pdf). Earlier in the 60s, they sponsored TV, an example being "Championship Shuffleboard". Players representing taverns that featured (presumably) Heidelberg played table shuffleboard in the studio. I remember a newspaper photo of an early Timbers soccer team (late 70s) in the locker room drinking Heidelberg. The mostly English players complained in general about the gassy American beers. Carling marketed Columbia as their low price brand. Also in the early 70s Heidelberg started bottling Alt Dark beer (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/384515319327), which I thought was a major step up from Blitz Bavarian Style Dark. I never saw the "national" brands of Carling, Black Label or Red Cap Ale, on the west coast.

 

Heidelberg is one of the few beers I ever saw my Portland-born Grandpa drink that wasn't Olympia. That would've been between the late-60s and mid-70s.

 

7 Seas is a generally solid, but rarely exceptional brewery that's been around about 15 years already. Time flies: https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/20658/

 

The can is perfectly retro to the 70s. The beer has lacing, which was almost unheard of in a macro lager (at least since the 60s), and the photo suggests that the deeper amber tint that is more like macros from the 40s and 50s.

 

The new Heidelberg is now my go-to beer. Best of the cheap and the semi-cheap beers. Raiding the local Plaid Pantry on a regular basis. The tavern (beer bar) Room 122 in Beaverton, OR stocks it in their refrigerator... The new brew is said to be a different recipe than the old brew, definitely not the original, but the new brew
has a light, dry feel, followed by char... very cool. My barber says he had an uncle who kinda subsisted on the original Heidelberg, and when he died there were cases and cases of Heidelberg his widow had to give away...

 

I remember Heidelberg along with Carling's Black Label and Schaefer as one of my go to 12 packs when funds were low back in the early '80s. Did the job but no more than that. Is bringing back retro brands now a thing? North Coast Brewing Company Is bringing back Acme Brewing Lager after discontinuing their ale variants in 2022.

https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/acme-beer-san-francisco-18711211.php?utm_source=marketing&utm_medium=copy-url-link&utm_campaign=article-share&hash=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuc2ZjaHJvbmljbGUuY29tL2Zvb2Qvd2luZS9hcnRpY2xlL2FjbWUtYmVlci1zYW4tZnJhbmNpc2NvLTE4NzExMjExLnBocA==&time=MTcxMDg4NzUyMDkxMg==&rid=ZmMzMjhhMTktYTg3My00ZmJhLTljYjQtNGNjNGUzM2JkZGFk&sharecount=Nw==

 

Bringing back old brands is sort of a thing. A few by craft brewers: Narragansett (independent,but brewed by FIFCO); National Premium (brewed by Heavy Seas); Heidelberg, Champagne Velvet (Upland), Acme (this has been revived twice; first in the 70s and more recently by North Coast)
Of course you have beers that never left: Utica Club, Genesee, Straub, Yuengling Premium, Huber, Point Special, Schells, Shiner. Also Stegmaier if you overlook the move to the Lion, Inc. in the 70s. And Grain Belt at Schell.
Then you have all the old brands that have changed hands and will be brewed as cheaply as possible and marketed until sales become miniscule (zombies?).