Pabst Shortage Hits Brooklyn Bars; Hipsters And Tastemakers Most Affected

New York Magazine reports on the Pabst Blue Ribbon (hereinafter referred to as “PBR”) shortage hitting Brooklyn faux-dive bars:

There’s been a mystery brewing among the sort of dive bars in Brooklyn that appeal to rigorously trendy, budget-minded twentysomethings: What’s become of their favorite watery lager, Pabst Blue Ribbon? Pabst, which took off in popularity in the last few years, became a textbook case of how to market a brand without seeming to. Hipsters, already fascinated by down-market accessories like trucker caps, took to the low-rent beer with ironic fervor. Which is why it was so traumatic that, over the past few months, die-hard Pabst bars have reported that their regular orders have gone unfulfilled. “It’s a bummer,” says set designer Bryn Bowen, who recently tried to order a PBR at Lodge, a bar in Williamsburg, but found it was out. “I’m a connoisseur of working-class shit beer.”

The problem happened when the distributor went out of business, but don’t worry, as one of the bartenders quoted says, they have “other crappy beer.”