Editing Schaefer Beer

{{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>

==History==
{{main|F. & M. Schaefer Brewing Company}}
{{expand section|date=July 2023}}

==Advertising campaigns==
[[File:Schaefer Beer.jpg|thumb|An original Schaefer Beer promotional sign]]

The advertising slogan for Schaefer beer is the jingle "Schaefer is the one beer to have when you're having more than one." An earlier advertising campaign from the 1950s asserted, "What do you hear in the best of circles? Schaefer, all around!" In Spanish, Schaefer's slogan was "''Es la mejor, cuando se toma mas de una!''" ("It is the best, when you are having more than one!")

Schaefer had major exhibitions at both of New York City's World's Fairs, held in [[Flushing Meadows Park]]. During both the [[1939 New York World's Fair]] and the [[1964 New York World's Fair]], Schaefer sponsored "Schaefer Center", a restaurant that used beer as an ingredient in many dishes.

Schaefer was the official beer sponsor of the [[History of the Brooklyn Dodgers|Brooklyn Dodgers]] from [[1951 Brooklyn Dodgers season|1951]] until the franchise's departure for [[Los Angeles]] following the [[1957 Brooklyn Dodgers season|1957 season]]. During that span, one of its advertisement was featured at the top of [[Ebbets Field]]'s scoreboard on the right-field wall. The letters ''h'' or the first ''e'' on the [[wordmark]] lit up depending on whether the official scorer ruled that a batter reached base on a hit or an error, respectively.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://sabr.org/research/advertising-and-brooklyn-dodgers-1947 |title=Newman, Roberta J. "Advertising and the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947," Society for American Baseball Research. |access-date=2017-12-09 |archive-date=2017-12-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171209204106/http://sabr.org/research/advertising-and-brooklyn-dodgers-1947 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[Foxboro Stadium]], the home stadium of the [[New England Patriots]] from 1971-2001, was originally named Schaefer Stadium after the beer company paid [[naming rights]] for the privilege, one of the earliest known examples of a stadium selling naming rights.  After 12 years, the contract expired and the name was changed to Sullivan Stadium in 1983 (after the family that owned the team).

[[File:Schaefer beer can Puerto Rico.jpg|thumb|left|A vintage Schaefer beer can (originally for sale in Puerto Rico)]]

During the 1970s and 1980s, Schaefer was one of the top selling beers in Puerto Rico and Guam.{{Citation needed|date=April 2015}} A large and quite famous Schaefer beer billboard was once displayed at the main entrance to the city of [[Bayamón, Puerto Rico|Bayamón]]. Schaefer still holds the record for being the beer with the most unit sales in Puerto Rico, 13 million cases in a year, in 1979-80.{{cn|date=July 2023}} It became well known among Puerto Rican salsa fans.
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==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{Official | https://originalschaefercompany.com/}}
*[http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/schaefer/7337/ Listing on RateBeer.com]

[[Category:American beer brands]]
[[Category:Pabst Brewing Company]]
[[Category:History of Allentown, Pennsylvania]]