REAL GUSTO IN A GREAT LIGHT BEER. A gentleman who attended my parents' church earned a lot of money using his biochemistry degree to accelerate the action of enzymes in beer brewing. The accountants called it productivity gains. The drinkers used less generous verbiage. Forty years of mugging by reality later, the original Schlitz formula is back.

Within days of the Schlitz 1960s formula being brought back to Milwaukee, the beer was largely sold out - snapped up by both older guys who remember the beer from back in the day, and younger drinkers curious about the fuss.

What intrigues is the corporate incest that has transpired.

Pabst Brewing Co., which owns the Schlitz brand, is expanding production based on the heavy demand in Milwaukee ...

That "owns the Schlitz brand" is not excess verbiage.

Compared with the Schlitz sold in cans, the reformulated Schlitz in bottles has a more full-bodied taste. Pabst, based in suburban Chicago, owns dozens of brands but doesn't operate any breweries. Classic Schlitz is brewed under a contract arrangement by MillerCoors LLC at its Eden, N.C., brewery.

Go figure.