Heileman's Old Style Lager

Yellow and red shield shape, with black text on yellow and red old fashioned text on red.

The G. Heileman Brewing Company of La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA, operated from1858 to 1996. It was ultimately acquired by Stroh's, and its independent existence ceased. From 1872 until its acquisition, the brewery bore the family name of its co-founder, brewer Gottlieb Heileman. The G. Heileman Brewing Company declared bankruptcy in January 1991 and sought salvation with an aggressive push into the malt liquor market. In a controversial move, they developed a new brand of malt liquor calledPower Master. "Power Master" brand of malt liquor was brewed with an alcohol by volume of 7.4%, significantly higher than existing malt liquor brands. Protestors cited Heileman's distribution and advertising strategies as evidence that the company was targeting the high-alcohol beverage toward urban African-Americans, especially in Chicago, one of Heileman's core markets. A threatened boycott was organized against one of Heileman's established malt liquor brands, Colt 45 which at the time had an alcohol percentage of 5.6%. The Colt 45 boycott was called off when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives succeeded, in July 1991, in persuading Heileman to pull the "Power Master" brand from the market.