Editing Schaefer Beer (section)

{{short description|Purveyor of alcoholic beverages}}
{{More citations needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Infobox Beer
| name    = Schaefer Beer
| image   = 
| caption = 
| brewery = [[F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company]]
| year    = 1842 in [[New York City|New York]], [[New York (state)|New York]]
| abv     = 4.6%
| style   = [[American-style lager]]
| og      =
| fg      =
| ibu     =
}}

[[File:Schaefer beer case.jpg|thumb|right|300px|A 'super pack' of 30 cans of Schaefer Beer]]

'''Schaefer Beer''' is a brand of American [[beer]] first produced in New York City during 1842 by the [[F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company]].<ref name="story">The Schaefer Beer Story [https://theschaeferstory.wordpress.com]/</ref> The company relocated to Brooklyn in the early 20th century. It went public in 1968 with a $106 million stock offering.<ref name=story/>

In order to expand capacity for regional sales and fend off competition from national brands, Schaefer began construction of a large modern brewery in [[Fogelsville, Pennsylvania]] (near Allentown) that same year. Known as the Lehigh Valley Plant, it opened in 1972.<ref name=story/> In 1974, it was expanded from its original 1.1 million barrels-per-year capacity to 2.5 million, and then enlarged again in 1975 to over 5 million barrels.<ref>{{cite web| url=http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/schaefer_anderson.shtml| title=F&M Schaefer Brewing Company| publisher=Beer History| access-date=2015-04-28}}</ref>

In both the 1950 and 1970 rankings Schaefer Beer was one of the top selling beers in the US, ranking as high as fifth.<ref>Figures for 1970 indicate a total of 5,749,000 barrels for the F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Co., good for fifth place, but a mere one quarter of No. 1 Anheuser-Busch, Inc.'s 22,201,811, a third of No. 2 Jos. Schlitz Brewing Co.'s 15,129,000, and a quarter of No. 3 Pabst Brewing Co.'s 10,517,000.[http://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/shakeout.shtml] Number 4 Adolph Coors Co.'s 7,277,076 barrels only gained ground on the front-runners during the decade.</ref> Though it was producing more than twice as much beer in 1980, the gap between it and the top national brands was dramatically widening. In 1981, the Schaefer family sold the company to the [[Stroh Brewery Company]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Stroh Brewery's Bid for Schaefer Completed |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/14/business/stroh-brewery-s-bid-for-schaefer-completed.html |access-date=25 September 2018 |newspaper=The New York Times |date=14 May 1981 |publication-date=14 May 1981}}</ref>

Stroh's then took over the Allentown plant in its own bid for national market share. It operated the plant until the company was absorbed by [[Pabst Brewing Company]] in 1999. When Pabst divested its facilities and opted to become a "virtual brewer", it sold the plant to [[Diageo]] just two years later.<ref>[https://sites.google.com/site/jesskidden/lehighvalleybrewery Lehigh Valley Brewery]</ref> In 2008, Diageo sold it to the [[Boston Brewing Company]], the brewer of Samuel Adams beer.

Pabst retained the license to Schaefer, and as of 2021 outsourced a reformulated brew it labels "Schaefer" and sells in niche markets in the United States.<ref name="Schaefer">{{cite web |title=STORY |url=https://originalschaefercompany.com/pages/story |website=originalschaefercompany.com |access-date=September 30, 2021}}</ref>