BeerDates.com:
The Stroh Brewery Company
(Detroit, Michigan)

Brands

Trying to keep Stroh's brands straight will drive you insane. While Stroh often let its bought-out competitors keep their original brewery names, it usually moved their mailing address to Detroit and converts their brands to Stroh production codes. Here's the best breakdown BeerDates.com has:

Core Brands

In addition to their eponymous brands (Stroh's ® and Stroh's Signature), SBC sold Goebel®, Schafer, Silver Thunder, and Old Milwaukee®, under the Stroh Brewing Company name.

Subsidiaries & Licenses

The Schiltz Brewing Company (brewers of Schiltz ®, "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous" and Red Bull) and Two Dog Beverages (makers of Two Dog Brew, a malt beverage, not a beer) are Stroh subsidiaries using the same coding scheme as the Stroh core brands.

Goebel packages may be labeled "Goebel Brewing Company" or "Stroh Brewing Company".

The G. Heilman beers (including Altes®, Black Label ®, Blatz, Champale®, Colt 45, Crazy Horse, Heilman, Kingsbury, Lone Star, Mickey's®, Pfeiffer, Old Style, "Red, White & Blue", Schmidt's®, St. Ides and Weinhard's) started using Stroh's new dating system at the end of 1996. (Stroh sold Mickey's and Weinhard's to Miller Brewing, and all its other brands to Pabst.)

One interesting way to spot a Stroh subsidiary: Schiltz and Two Dog have the same address on their containers: PO Box 32875, Detroit, MI 48232-0875. Even more interesting: Stroh doesn't put a full address on their core brands. Huh?

Other

Based on the UPC numbers on a beer distributor price list, I know Augsburger and Red River are brewed by Stroh's subsidiaries, but I'm not sure what company is named on their labels. Those two brands are so rare where I live that I haven't seen a bottle of either in a long, long time.

Who Brews Them Now

After its disolution in 2000, some Stroh brands were discontinued, while others were purchased by other breweries.

The Pabst Brewing Company acquired the most Stroh/Heilman brands. They currently produce Colt 45 malt liquor, Lone Star, Schaefer, Schlitz, Schmidt's, Old Milwaukee, Old Style, Stroh's, and St. Ides malt liquor.

The Miller Brewing Company got Mickey's Malt Liquor and Henry Weinhard's.

Most other Stroh/Heilman brands disappeared after 2000. These lost brands include: Altes®, Black Label®, Blatz, Champale® Crazy Horse malt liquor, Goebel, Heilman, Kingsbury, Pfeiffer, Red Bull malt liquor, "Red, White, & Blue", and Silver Thunder malt liquor.

Two Dog is still distributed in the U.S., but I don't know where, or by whom.

Code Placement

Cans are dated on the bottom. Bottles are dated on the shoulder. 12-, 18-, 24-, and 30- packs are dated on the short sides of their boxes, usually near the upper left corner. Cartons are coded along the top edge of the long side.

Code Scheme

Stroh keeps changing its date format, but its definitely been an expiration date for as long as I've been maintaining BeerDates.com. Beer can collector Chris Bailey helped me the first two entries, but I'm solely responsible for the rest:

1. For beer produced from 1989 to 1991, I think the production codes began with MMDDY dates. That's probably an expiration date, but I'm not sure.
2. From 1991 to 1993 (or 1994, I'm not sure), they used YDDD dates.
3. For beer expiring between 1994 and March 1997, the 2nd through 6th digits of the production code are an expiration date in YMMDD format. All beer using this format is past date!
4. For beer expiring between March 1997 and September 1998, the first seven characters of the production code are the expiration date in MMMDDYY format. Beer dated before is past date.
5. For beer expiring betwee September 1998 and early 2000, the first five digits of the production code are an expiration date in MMDDY format. (The same format used for Miller expiration dates, but that's just a coincidence.) Stroh beers dated before are past date.
6. Afer 2000, Stroh brands use the Miller or Pabst brands. Duh.

Now, for some gratuitous detail....

Out of boredom, I tried to decode the full production code back in 1996. As used then, there were two slightly different coding schemes; one for boxes, and another for bottles and cans. The two schemes are identical for the first six characters (the important part) -- I'll explain the box version since I don't understand the can/bottle version after those first six characters. Special thanks to James Olson <Ol1009@aol.com>, a former Stroh's employee, who explained everything after the 10th digit. An example code (taken from a Stroh's 12-pack box):

261008STRVPDL 1106
SP4

• The 1st number is the brewing plant. James says plant #2 was the St. Paul, Minnesota plant where he worked. He also confirms my observation that all the non-alcoholic brands come from brewery #8. (I bet the workers at Plant #8 are disappointed.)
• The 2nd through 6th numbers are the expiration date: last digit of the year, a two-digit month, and a two-digit day. (If your beer is dated before , don't drink it. I once tried some Stroh's that was nine months past date and it was flat as a board. Ick. The memory still haunts me.)
• On boxes, the 7th and 8th characters are a brand code. The brand code also appears as part of the regular packaging, often on the edge of the box, or near the UPC. Some of the codes are:
  • GO -- Goebel
  • OM -- Old Milwaukee
  • SI -- Signature
  • ST -- Stroh's
  • SZ -- Schiltz
• The 9th character indicates which variety (of the actual brand) you're looking at. R stands for "regular". L indicates a "light" beer. I identifies an ice beer, and N reveals one of those evil non-alcoholic pseudo-beers.
• The 10th and 11th digits are, according to James, "the packaging style". I think that the 10th character indicates the packaging size. For example:
  • B -- 6 pack of 12 oz. bottles
  • C -- 20 pack of 40 oz. bottles
  • E -- 18 pack of 12 oz. cans
  • K -- 24 pack of 12 oz. cans
  • Q -- 24 pack of 12 oz. cans
  • T -- 30 pack of 12 oz. cans
  • V -- 12 pack of 12 oz. cans
• The 12th and 13th digits indicate the type of lid. James says "DL" means "deposit lid" (for cans sold in the deposit states), and "XC" means "ecology" for cans that just say "Please Recycle".
• The four small digits are bottling/canning time (of day), on a 24-hour military-style clock. (Trust me: "military" and "beer" go together. Really.)
• The small letters are the packaging plant. James says "SP" was the St. Paul plant.
• The one or two digits after the plant letters indicate the production line the beer was packaged on.

Manufacturer Numbers

Stroh uses several different manufacturer numbers for its various product lines. That's mostly a result of buying out other companies. Currently, the numbers include:

Number	Product Lines
52300	Augsburger, Old Milwaukee, Schlitz, Red Bull
71250	Altes, Colt 45
72040	Stroh's, Signature, Goebel
72720	Black Label
73360	Blatz, Champale, Colt Double Malt, Colt Ice, Kingsbury, Lone Star, Mickey's, Old Style, Pfeiffer, "Red, White, & Blue", Schmidt's, St. Ides
78250	St. Ides
92000	Red River, Bull Ice, Old Milwaukee Ice

Yes, Old Milwaukee Ice, Bull Ice, Colt Double Malt, and Colt Ice really do use different manufacturer numbers than their parent brands. I'll be damned if I know why.

Related Links

• HOME: Mickey's
• HOME: Two Dogs International Pty Ltd
• NEWS: Stroh Sells Out: Pabst, Miller Pick Up Brands (April, 1999)
• NEWS: Crazy Horse Dispute Settled (April, 2001)