Is Hamm’s & Pabst The Same Beer?

Well here it is, the article to end all articles… is Hamm’s and Pabst the same exact beer?

So to start off, if people don’t know already, Pabst and Hamm’s (Miller Brewing Company aka Molsoncoors (stupid new name by the way cuz really who the hell drinks Molson?) are separate companies. Pabst who previously until this year, did not own an actual brewery until they purchased the old Coors brewery in Irwindale California..…(well except for the Pabst Church in Milwaukee), contract brewed their offerings through Millers breweries across the country (Milwaukee, Lacrosse etc).

This topic of the beers being the same seems to come up more often these days and now is the time that it should finally be addressed by yours truly.

I’m part of quite a few beer discussion groups on the interwebs (shocking right) and when someone mentions anything about Hamm’s or Pabst, there’s always the guy who jumps in and says “They are the same beer you know, because my cousins brothers uncles cats dead grandmother works at the brewery and he says they literally run out of one brands cans and load up another brands cans and continue filling them up.”

Ok, now….first off What?

You are just going off of what you “heard”?

Second have you not took the time to go to the liquor store, buy these beers, and then actually sample them side by side to make sure you know what you are talking about? And lastly, do you know anything about brewing?

I would like to also add that if this is true, I find it odd that a macro brewery, Miller in particular, could be that lazy or negligent to do this…..or could they?

I mean think of the possible repercussions this would bring. Saying one brand is something when it is the same exact thing as another brand which claims to be something else. People would be pissed and feel duped into giving praise to a brand that’s really just some generic recipe thrown into random cans all over the place. People live and die by the beer brands they drink.

So since I have no life, I took the time to actually do a sample test on all three and this is what I found….

Before I opened all three, I checked the can codes and as far as I could decode, it looks like they were all brewed in Milwaukee on the same week. Check where I made the red slashes/arrow etc on the chart below.

Hamm’s Premium on the left, Pabst on the right.

Next I opened all three at the same time after being chilled to 42 degrees and poured each in a row.

I watched as all three beers which had some good head retention at first, but then quickly faded away.

Smell test; all three have a different smell to them. Hamm’s OG had the usual and predictable corn smell, Hamm’s SL had a faint whiff of corn but was more subdued, Pabst had almost no smell to it which was surprising.

Color test; well they all do look pretty damn similar, I will give them that, but as I looked closer, I did notice a slight haze to Hamm’s OG. This is when I was starting to wonder about the carbonation technique and the filtering before canning, if the beer is simply separated and not polish filtered, there would be a slight yeast haze.

Flavor test; It gets interesting here, Hamm’s OG not only smells like corn, it also tastes like it too. This definitely has a sweeter taste to it than the others do.

As for the Pabst and Hamm’s SL flavors, well these two are more similar to each other than OG vs Pabst. Hamm’s SL & Pabst has a more of a bitter hop finish with the slight corn flavor added in. Most of the times when I drink Pabst I get a slight metallic flavor with it, kind of like you do with most German style Pilsners like say Warstiener or Bitburger.

After the initial taste test, I then let all three warm up close to room temperature to do the real -real test and that’s when they did start becoming a little more…corny. The three started to taste more similar than they did when they were chilled. If I might add Americans serve beer way too cold. The colder the beer is the less you will taste it. Try a British bitter in a warmer temp closer to 50F vs the typical 42F etc. and your eyes will be opened.

Ok as for ABV, Hamm’s OG is 4.7%, Hamm's SL is 3.8% and Pabst is 4.8% according to the Pabst website and also the Miller Nutrition website. I could not find other info like Original Gravity, carbonation method or etc.

So what’s in the beer?

As far as I could find Hamm’s OG ingredients include (Water, Barley Malt, Corn Syrup*, Yeast, Hops) and for Hamm’s SL was ( Water, Barley Malt, Corn Syrup*, Yeast, Hops & Hop Extract).

Pabst states they use a combination of 2 & 6-row malted barley, select cereal grains and American and European hops and special corn syrup—(Not high fructose corn syrup) filtered water, and cultured lager yeast. The syrup is made of carbohydrates and some simple sugars like dextrose and maltose.

So now what? I guess in my personal opinion, could these beers and others be the same beer? Possibly. Do I think they are the original recipes? Haha no. Do I think they all have different qualities? Yes. Am I going to continue to buy these beers masquerading as others….maybe?

If I were to say any beers are the same beer, I would actually say that Hamm’s and MGD are the same beer and Pabst and Hamm’s SL are the same beer. Controversy!

So in closing, I probably wont find out the truth unless someone from Miller aka Molson or Pabst comes out and just tells me. I mean a brewer has to know if these beers are the same recipe and if they are slightly altered (filtered etc) or they are all the same recipe and just literally thrown into various cans without anything done to them straight from the bright tanks, which I find hard to believe.

But this picture below was posted to a Hamm’s group and unless he didnt put that Pabst can in there, this could further the argument that they could be the exact same beer….?

I do highly suggest other people try this test. If you want to just do OG Hamm’s vs Pabst, go for it. If you want to do all three and add MGD or something else Pabst owns like Natty Boh or Olympia try that too. Life’s short, takes risks.