Prepare to be disillusioned:

Newyorkposter – Somewhere over the Pacific, Pabst Blue Ribbon began putting on airs. That reliably blue-collar Milwaukee lager, later adopted by unbearable hipsters on the coasts, has turned up in China. And P.B.R., best known in the U.S. for being the cheapest beer on the grocery-store shelf, has—like so many expatriates before it—taken the move as an opportunity to change its image. For a beer, that appears to involve an elegant glass bottle and a fantastically ridiculous price tag. One bottle: forty-four dollars. P.B.R. has been reborn as “Blue Ribbon 1844” beer in China, advertised in magazines as a “world famous spirit” to be savored from a champagne flute. As a recent advertisement in Window of the South magazine put it: It’s not just Scotch that’s put into wooden casks. There’s also Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer 1844.

Ummmmmmmm, what? PBR in a classy black bottle with cursive writing being sold at $44 a bottle? Like is this planet earth anymore? One of my favorite cheap American blue collar beers turning communist? I mean I checked ALL over the internets to make sure this was some kind of cruel joke but turns out this is legit. In my day $44 got you a KEG of PBR, not one bottle. And there have been very few undeniable truths in my life but one has always been that if I want to drink 17 beers for 10 bucks and have my colon ripped apart in the morning, PBR was the go to. But now I'm not so sure. I need some time to think about this. Maybe some beer therapy or something. I feel like I don't even know you anymore PBR. I mean what's next, the Cubs are going to win a World Series? John Madden coming out with a soccer game? Somebody contact Basil Marceaux and add this to his cleaning house list stat! Right behind traffic stops and gold fringed flags.

PS: 400% chance this is the same PBR I drink from my tall boys just re-packaged.

Double PS: Is this secretly America's way of evening out our deficit to China? Like I'm pretty sure we owe them $5,321,009,232,230.42.....conservatively. So we get them hooked on $44 PBR and bingo bango in 6 months our national debt is solved! Well played PBR. I should never have doubted you.

I think I found Basil Marceaux's VP candidate!