Hipster beer Pabst Blue Ribbon does well in recession - Dec. 11, 2009

Pabst Blue Ribbon kicks ass!

Bars and restaurants are reporting record sales, and bottle/can retail sales are up an incredible 30% over last year. The Pabst performance is pretty impressive for a retro beer brand which was once close to defunct and doesn't even have a brewery any more! (Pabst is produced at contract facilities, including some owned by its competitors.) It has been quite a comeback for the beer which has belied Fitzgerald's adage that there are no second acts in American lives. From a high of 18 million barrels in 1977, Pabst had fallen to a million in 2001, but its discovery by hipsters has approximately doubled sales in the years after the nadir. Meanwhile, expensive beers are getting killed this year, and even the mighty Budweiser brand is down 7%.