This week, Pabst Blue Ribbon was all over newspaper headlines, and it wasn’t because the world finally realized that the beloved hipster and old-timer beer really isn’t all that great. It was because, according to multiple sources, the brand is set to launch its own whiskey. The brand’s partner New Holland Brewing Co. just got federal approval to start making a PBR-centric whiskey beginning next month. It’s assumed the whiskey will be contract distilled at the Michigan brewery/distillery.
While the idea of PBR having a whiskey seems odd, it’s pretty much the equivalent of Tostitos announcing they’ll be making Cool Ranch-flavored ice cream (although we’d try it). It’s not that brewers haven’t produced spirits before, it’s just that a PBR whiskey seems so strange. Maybe it’s just us.
In fact, there’s a whole slew of brewers that have branched off into the whiskey world with tremendous results. Below you’ll find a few of our favorites.