Breaking news of importance to all Royal Enfield motorcycle fans in the United States: Schlitz Beer is back and it's no better than it ever was.Err. Let me rephrase that: Schlitz Beer is back and it's as "good" as it ever was. That doesn't sound quite right either. Let me explain.
About the time Royal Enfield motorcycles were in production in England and available for sale in the U.S., Schlitz Beer was a major brand. The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous was its slogan. Another was: "When You're Out of Schlitz, You're Out of Beer." Still another: "You Only Go Around Once In Life, You Have to Grab for All the Gusto You Can."
Whether you liked beer or not, you could not live in the U.S. and be unaware of Schlitz advertising, which was fairly clever and everywhere you looked. The ads were especially common on television, where they convinced me, before I was of drinking age, that if I ever did learn to like beer, I would drink Schlitz, if only to support the great advertising campaign.
Here's one ad that featured a motorcycle (unfortunately not a Royal Enfield):
Schlitz fell out favor and quality suffered in the decades of brewery consolidations that wiped out many brands. Schlitz isn't an independent brewer anymore, but its maker recently brought it back to market, promising that quality will be as it was "in the 1960s."
That's progress for you! Certainly, any Royal Enfield motorcycle owner can understand the appeal of a product that markets itself as being the same as you remember. I sampled a six-pack while in Milwaukee recently. Yes, I believe this is the same beer I tasted in 1969.
The Schlitz web site features other television and print ads from its glory days. They are fun to watch, even if you're not drinking.
Schlitz never went away, you could find it in small quantities in random stores, but the recipe did change over the years. They just changed it back to the original formula.
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