An occasional column of often-times mindless ramblings.

• The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported online yesterday that Pabst is for sale for a reported $300 million. As faithful Sioux Brew readers know, Pabst is only a marketing company. It owns no physical breweries. Its beer is brewed under contract by MillerCoors.

Pabst is comprised of a portfolio of “old-school” brands. Most notable being Schlitz and, well, Pabst. And this is what matters to Sioux Cityians. Pabst bought the brands of the G. Heileman Brewing Co., which bought the brands of the Kingsbury Brewing Co., which bought the brands of the Sioux City Brewing Co.

So, Pabst probably owns the Heidel Brau name and trademark. There is no mention of Heidel Brau on the Pabst website, but when I did a trademark search about 10 years ago, Pabst showed as Heidel Brau’s owner (as I recall it was a debtor in possession type of deal).

Upshot is that maybe any new Pabst owners would like to part with the Heidel Brau brand. Or maybe some local benefactor with a spare $300 mil. would like to bring the whole company to Siouxland.

Or, if someone could get the brand cheap enough, wouldn’t it be cool for a brewpub to open in Sioux City and start brewing Heidel Brau? I know the recipe is floating around there somewhere……..

-Tim Hynds

Pass the mash is a new occasional column of beer-related news and tidbits that are worthy of posting, but are not quite beefy enough to warrant their own story.

Yes, it’s a blatant rip off of beloved former Cedar Rapids Gazette sportswriter Gus Schrader’s Pass the Hash column of miscellany.

* Amana, Iowa’s Millstream Brewery has ditched twist off crowns in favor of the pry off variety. Stay tuned for some “big” Millstream news….. Unless you follow my twitter feed (tfhphoto)….. then you already know.

* Empyrean Brewing of Lincoln, Nebr., has inked a deal with Sioux Falls’ Global Distributing to enter the South Dakota market. Global took deliver of their first shipment of Empyrean beers Wednesday.

* The hop harvest is complete at Lucan, Minn’s, Brau Brothers Brewing Co. About 1,200 pounds were harvested.

- Tim Hynds