Stroh Brewery Company

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The Stroh Brewery Company was a beer brewery located in Detroit, Michigan. They produced or bought the rights to several brands including Stroh's, Augsburger, Lone Star, Old Milwaukee, Red River, Schlitz, and Signature.

They became the United States' third largest beer brewer when they bought G. Heileman Brewing Company in 1996. The company was sold to the Pabst Brewing Company of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1999; most of the brands have continued under the Pabst name. The Augsburger name is licensed to the Stevens Point Brewery.

Stroh's was long a part of everyday life in the Great Lakes region, being especially popular with blue-collar workers at the many manufacturing plants throughout Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and Ohio; it was a favorite of college students in the region as well. For many years, Stroh's was one of the major sponsors of the radio broadcasts of the Detroit Tigers and Cincinnati Reds professional baseball games.

In the mid-1980s, after Stroh's announced the closing of its long-established facility on Gratiot Avenue near downtown Detroit, Detroit FM album-rock station WRIF produced a recording lamenting the event titled "After the Brewery on Gratiot Is Gone." It was performed by one of WRIF's on-air personalities who called himself "Dick the Bruiser" and used a gravelly voice to sound like a "tough guy". It was sung to the tune of the song "The Boys of Summer", which was a solo hit at the time for Don Henley of the Eagles. The song did not mention Stroh's by name, perhaps due to intellectual property rights, but it was clear from the reference to "the brewery on Gratiot" that the song was referring to Stroh's.

[edit] Company History

The Stroh Brewery Company was founded in the United States in 1850 after a German immigrant, Bernard Stroh decided to capitalize on an opportunity to introduce a different style of beer into the American market. At the time, most beers were either ales of English or Scottish variety. However, although Stroh's flagship beer would be a German-style light lager, no one should be under the impression that they were the first to introduce this type of brew into the American market.

[edit] Memorable advertising campaigns

Stroh's had some memorable TV commercials as well. One featured a youthful-looking fellow asking for a Stroh's Beer at a bar, with the bartender asking him for identification (the age was not mentioned, due to the minimum legal age for drinking at the time being 18 in Michigan and Ohio and 21 elsewhere). The purchaser willingly furnished an ID, with the bartender serving him a Stroh's Beer with the greeting "Happy Birthday!".

Another featured a man confronting his son with great emotion. "Son, answer me. Do you drink beer?" To which the son tearfully replied, "Yes, dad, I drink beer. I'm thirty-four years old!" The father put his arm around the younger man and asked to be reassured that the beer was Stroh's.

Later, Stroh's was known for its amusing "Alex the Dog" commercials, where Alex would fetch a Stroh's from the refrigerator for its owner. One commercial ended with Alex lapping a liquid after pouring two glasses of Stroh's, with his owner yelling "Alex, that had better be your water you're drinking!".

For many years, their radio and TV commercials ended with the jingle "From one beer lover to another... Stroh's", which made it one of the more memorable slogans of the era in the Great Lakes region where Stroh's was marketed.