Old Milwaukee
brand of American beer first brewed in 1890
Old Milwaukee is a brand of American dry lager owned by the Pabst Brewing Company. The brand currently consists of four different brews: Old Milwaukee Ice, Old Milwaukee Lager, Old Milwaukee Light, and Old Milwaukee Non-Alcoholic. Old Milwaukee is brewed throughout the United States and various packages are currently distributed in all 50 U.S. states, many Canadian provinces, and in select international markets.
History
Old Milwaukee Beer was first brewed in the 1930s as a value-priced beer by the Joseph Schlitz Brewing Company. It was discontinued in 1942 following grain shortages caused by World War II, but reintroduced in January 1959. In 1982, the Schlitz Brewing Company and the Old Milwaukee brand were acquired by Stroh Brewery Company of Detroit. In 2000, Stroh's and all of its beer brands and recipes were acquired by Pabst Brewing Company, where the brand currently resides.
Canada is one exception: in 1999, Sleeman Breweries of Guelph, Ontario (a division of Sapporo Breweries) acquired Stroh Canada, becoming the Canadian manufacturer and distributor of Old Milwaukee. The purchase doubled Sleeman's volumes, although the Old Milwaukee brand competes on lower margins than premium beers.
Accolades
All three Old Milwaukee brews have won top honors at the Great American Beer Festival and the World Beer Cup.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Old Milwaukee” as brand of American beer first brewed in 1890. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as brand of American beer first brewed in 1890. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 30, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7084534. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1959, 1982 and 2000.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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This entry incorporates text from “Old Milwaukee” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.