Stroh's is coming back to Detroit. Old Style is brewing in La Crosse, Wis., again. And drinkers in New Orleans might soon be sipping on Jax beer, which hasn't been available since the 1970s.
The comebacks are courtesy of Pabst Brewing Co., which is betting that variety-seeking, craft-beer-crazed drinkers will develop an appetite for the classics. The strategy, called "local legends," relies on a two-pronged approach to resurrect old labels that have been dormant for years, as well as breathing life into existing brands via new premium varieties. New line extensions include Old Style Oktoberfest and Stroh's Bohemian-style Pilsner, which are both made in their original hometowns.
Pabst, known for its namesake Pabst Blue Ribbon brand, controls more than 70 beer brand names, including roughly 30 brands that are dormant, according to Pabst Brewing Chief Marketing Officer Dan McHugh. Modern craft brewers "can't go back to 1902. They can't go back to 1844," he said. With Pabst's brands, "there's this real strong nostalgia and heritage," he added. "You are not going to find an Old Style consumer that won't talk about their uncle, or their grandpa, or their dad."
The changes are occurring under Eugene Kashper, who bought Pabst in 2014 with the private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners for a reported $700 million. Mr. Kashper came to the U.S. from the Soviet Union as a political refugee when he was a child. He got his start at the old Stroh Brewing Co. and later co-founded Oasis Beverages, which operates breweries in Eastern Europe. Pabst was previously owned by investor C. Dean Metropoulos, who bought the company in 2010 from a charitable foundation.
Mr. McHugh, who joined Pabst from Anheuser-Busch in 2012, said Mr. Kashper has injected new energy into the company. "The difference is we worked for somebody that was ready to sell at any point," he said, referring to Mr. Metropoulos. "And now Eugene is really a beer guy. He is going to be in the beer business a long, long time running Pabst."
Old Style Oktoberfest is the first new beer in 15 years from the 114-year-old Old Style brand. The brew traces its roots to German immigrant Gottlieb Heileman and the G. Heileman Brewing Co. that he ran in La Crosse in the late 1800s.