was founded in 1844 as the Best Brewing Co of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Frederick Pabst, son-in-law of the brewery owner, would later join the brewery staff and eventually take control. After stewarding it into becoming the largest brewery in the country, Best was renamed Pabst in 1889.

It was around that time when Pabst engaged in one of the country’s fiercest competitions for brewery dominance against rival Anheuser-Busch. During the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 the two vied for the ultimate public support—and that of judges—for their brews. Final scores (that still lay in dispute by some) put Pabst 0.3 points ahead. The brewery responded by placing a blue ribbon on its packaging, something that remains to this day.

In the 1930s the brewery merged with Premier Malt Products and expanded its distribution around the United States but was hobbled by Prohibition and some poor business decisions. By the 1950s Pabst, although selling nearly 11 million barrels of beer per year, had been well outpaced by Schlitz and Anheuser-Busch. Twenty years later, after further management missteps, Pabst Blue Ribbon was remarketed as a bargain beer, after years as a premium quality lager. In 1985 Paul Kalmanovitz purchased the company and his Kalmanovitz Charitable Foundation helped Pabst Blue Ribbon, commonly known as PBR (and now being contract brewed by MillerCoors in the United States), become popular with both the college crowd and city dwellers.

In 2010 the company was sold to Connecticut-based Metropoulos & Co, which also took control of the brewery’s other brands, Old Milwaukee, Stroh’s, and Old Style. It produces about 6 million barrels of beer annually with sales revenue topping more than $500 million.