After returning last year to Seattle after a long absence, I realized that my understanding of Seattleites has changed. They do not drink beer the way they used to. For much of the 90's, Seattle was known as a great micro-brew town, but has evolved into something completely different. Now, Seattle is a strange mix of people drinking exclusively micro-brews, gluten-free beers which are even available at Seattle's stadiums, and cheap-ass brewskis with Pabst Blue Ribbons leading the pack.

Pabst Blue Ribbon, as far as I know, has no relation in its roots to Seattle and instead owes its roots to the Milwakee home-town of Laverne, Shirley, Squiggy, and Lenny. Yet, every bar I go to (and this will give you some indication about the kinds of bars I frequent), there are Pabst Blue Ribbon tall-boy specials. What's up with that? The beer is on par with Budweiser or Coors and possibly Keystone, but has become the drink of choice for the hipsters that populate the streets in both Seattle and Vancouver.

Is this new loyalty the result of the King of Beers, the standard of "American beer", having sold its soul and its label to a Belgian brewing company or is it instead the result of a clever marketing campaign by Pabst to garner the support of the youth? According to Wikipedia, my ultimate source in information that may or may not be true, Pabst is no longer the small-time brewing company that it was- its now owned by a Los Angeles company. In a rather unusual sponsorship, Pabst agreed to be the official sponsor of an unofficial fraternity at Oregon State University. As a result of the sponsorship, the lucky fraternity guys at the fraternity got a lot of free merchandise, but unfortunately not a drop of free beer. No word on whether Pabst will sponsor Lambda Lambda Lambda frat of Revenge of the Nerds fame as well.

I first became a fan of Pabst in Milwaukee which is a better city than I thought it was and is known for its cheap beer specials. The best deal in town when I was there was a shot of Jamieson, followed by a Pabst Blue Ribbon chaser, and a Marlboro to finish things off. I heard there's something similar in Seattle, but here the cost is around $11 and in Milwaukee the cost was $3, which is hard to beat.