Schlitz was one of America’s top-selling beers. After a brewery strike and pressure to expand nationally, management focused heavily on increasing output and reducing costs. This led to using cheaper ingredients and stabilizers while shortened aging time. The beer became less consisten and developed haze/flavor problems. Perception then spread that Schlitz was no longer premium quality leading to competitors such as Anheuser-Busch, Miller Brewing, and Coors Brewing out executing them on quality consistency, national distribution, modern marketing, and better logistic.
