Remembering the "Old Man Beers" of my youth

[ramzilla]

How-a-bout this one.
A bunch of us guys loaded up 13 cases of these to go to 4 Wheel Drive Hill climb races in Ironto, VA back in the early 80s.
Well, we brought back 7 cases. We had to choke them down and half of us got terrible headaches while drinking.
Never forget that. Thought we were being smart and buying cheap, so we'd have more beer for races. Man we were
in bad shape.

 

[CWG66]

How-a-bout this one.
A bunch of us guys loaded up 13 cases of these to go to 4 Wheel Drive Hill climb races in Ironto, VA back in the early 80s.
Well, we brought back 7 cases. We had to choke them down and half of us got terrible headaches while drinking.
Never forget that. Thought we were being smart and buying cheap, so we'd have more beer for races. Man we were
in bad shape.

Mmmmmm. Nothing better than "no-name" beer.

 

[CWG66]

I still fondly remember the beer strike...restaurants and bars were serving premium brands at domestic prices because there was nothing left to serve.

 

[DougRuss47]

My Dad and Grandpa's Favorite Beer....."Drewhy's" Always had it Handy !

 

[MaxxVolume]

I miss the stubby bottles. When the Canadian brewing industry went to long necks I switched to cans. Beer doesn't gurgle out of long necks right.

Agreed....when I was first introduced to Molson`s (Early `70s), it was still in those stubby bottles, and labeled "Molson Golden ALE"....somewhere along the line, after the switch to long-neck bottles, it was changed to "Molson Golden BEER"....not quite the same (or as good) as the earlier version....

 

[3kitty]

I still fondly remember the beer strike...restaurants and bars were serving premium brands at domestic prices because there was nothing left to serve.

Too funny .... remember that too!

I lived 12 miles from the American border and just across it was a small town but had a couple of bars/vendors.
A couple of buddies and I would take orders and go in a half ton truck to this little town and load up on American suds.

We didn't get charged any duties...they barely looked at us.
Don't think that would work today.

 

[55Redneck]

I remember both beer strikes (1978 &1980) and never had a problem getting beer. A family friend was a cab driver who went across the border daily and filled the trunk of his ex RCMP Dodge Monaco (think Bluesmobile) with beer, that thing held a lot of beer. Drank some pretty weird beer though, Chinese,Czeck, Spanish, and even quite a bit of Billie beer which wasn't bad.

 

[sanford12]

Growing up next to Peoria IL there were lots of distilleries and there was a PBR brewery all because of the spring water was very good. The Pabst we got was excellent. After they closed the brewery and we got Pabst made somewhere else we really started to miss the old Pabst. Where ever they were making it they sucked at it. Years later outside of Wrigley Field I tried a PBR on draft and there was the old good taste. Like coming home.

Hey, Mabel! Carling Black Label!

A buddy and I bought a case of this because we were short on money. Took one taste of it and threw the can away. Lorin had it all to himself.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Pearl from Texas was a classic. RIP. I'll still drink a Lone Star when in the yellow rose state.

I was recently able to buy some Lone Star in Tennessee. It every so many years makes it to Tennessee, and when it does, I buy myself some and drink them.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Being from Southern New England we had Narragansett Beer,but my old man drank Schlitz. I know someones making it again but I'm talking about the 'Gansetts from the old Cranston St. Brewery in Providence.
View attachment 1289930

For a basic good American Lager, I often "Have A 'Gansett". For the price, I like Narragansett and Hamms better than most every other American light lager. Good and inexpensive.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

I drank quite a few of these...

View attachment 1289769

I drank two of those myself, tonight. Finished my brew off with a Killian's Red for the night. And some nice lounge music (AK content)

 

[KentTeffeteller]

The first whole beer I ever drank was a Weideman I swiped from my mom when I was about ten. In high school a favorite of the gang was the little seven ounce bottles of Rolling Rock,they came in a twelve pack box. The old National Boh was another cheap favorite. I still buy some "lawnmower beer" from time to time, but there is so much good stuff around now.

I used to like Rolling Rock, before InBev took over, then AB/InBev. It used to be distinctive, and a good easy to drink light lager which was distinctive. Now it's mediocre at best, with none of what made it great. I miss real Rolling Rock a great deal.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

The state of amnesia

To quote the Country singer, Moe Bandy "I Get Honky Tonk Amnesia, and Sometimes It Lasts All Night Long". And it's a good thing that I own 4 copies of this classic drinking song, it gets played a lot.

 

[KentTeffeteller]

Flashback - Blatz Bock. Rumor has it the stuff was brewed from the slurry that came out when they deep flushed the tanks. Certainly different, and only beer I knew of that came in both smooth and chunky when it was on sale.

Picked up on a couple t-shirts a few years back. It'd been years since the company went away, but somebody found a bunch of them in a warehouse they were tearing down and sold them on the bay.

PS ... Pabst bought out the label way back when, and rumor has it they still run a batch every now and then for Midwest sales. Doesn't last long, and it's catch as catch can.

Getting Blatzed was a verb, when I was in High School. It meant Blatz was on sale cheap by the case, and you got Blatzed before the night was finished. A few of the electronics students and broadcast students were well versed in the art of Getting Blatzed (and we all did it, even this engineer)

 

[KeninDC]

I used to like Rolling Rock, before InBev took over, then AB/InBev. It used to be distinctive, and a good easy to drink light lager which was distinctive. Now it's mediocre at best, with none of what made it great. I miss real Rolling Rock a great deal.

I believe Rolling Rock is no longer brewed in those famous glass-lined tanks. It used to be a treat when my Pennsylvania roomies in college would bring a case back after Thanksgiving break.

 

[sKiZo]

I believe Rolling Rock is no longer brewed in those famous glass-lined tanks. It used to be a treat when my Pennsylvania roomies in college would bring a case back after Thanksgiving break.

Probably because that rot gut eventually kept eating thru the glass tanks. ;-}

(Some of my favorite rot gut though)

 

[Ross6860]

In my college years, we drank a lot of Schmidt's of Philadelphia - $19 for a half keg... Many a frat party was fueled by that stuff...
I'm one of those who drank Lowenbrau in the '70s, too, thought it better than most of the stuff we drank in college - it was still made in Germany, then...

I worked for C. Schmidt & Sons for about 30 months. They had a huge brewery in Cleveland (the last major brewery in Cleveland). We also brewed Rolling Rock when they were on strike ('82 or '83).

Pretty interesting experience. Schmidts owned dozens of "labels" at the time. There were only four recipes (plus Rolling Rock). Brew One, Brew Two, Classic, and Light. The only differences in what went into the bottles or kegs is how much water was added and how it was filtered. Yep, watered down on purpose to meet alcohol levels and/or taste. Bottles and cans got pasteurized, kegs did not.

We also had ale rooms, but never made top-fermented ale while I was there. Everything was cold-fermented for a long time.

We used to take the unfiltered/un-cut beer out of the tanks right before it was time for processing. That was the best beer I've had. Cloudy, thick, cold, and strong.

In college we drank a lot of Buckhorn unless one of my buddies was going back to Chicago or Green Bay. We would all order a couple cases of Heileman's Old Style.

 

[musichal]

Old Milwaukee was a favored brand of me and my buddies for awhile because it came in 14oz cans priced the same as the other brands' 12oz-ers.

Before that, in the mid-sixties the most popular two brands among the old guys were Country Club and Schlitz. I worked at a curb store where one of my duties was curbside service until some do-gooder reported that the store owner had "children selling beer" which ended our tips (I was eleven). Ladies usually bought Miller ponies.

I was a Budweiser fan at one time and can still recite the brewing fine print that appeared at the top of the logo, from memory. Eventually, my favorite brew became Grolsch. If I were able to enjoy alcohol now, that would be my choice, if it hasn't changed.

 

[Pio1980]

Old Milwaukee was a favored brand of me and my buddies for awhile because it came in 14oz cans priced the same as the other brands' 12oz-ers.

Before that, in the mid-sixties the most popular two brands among the old guys were Country Club and Schlitz. I worked at a curb store where one of my duties was curbside service until some do-gooder reported that the store owner had "children selling beer" which ended our tips (I was eleven). Ladies usually bought Miller ponies.

I was a Budweiser fan at one time and can still recite the brewing fine print that appeared at the top of the logo, from memory. Eventually, my favorite brew became Grolsch. If I were able to enjoy alcohol now, that would be my choice, if it hasn't changed.

Grolsch, the onomatopaeic beer. Sounds the same coming up as going down (like yogurrrt).

 

[55Redneck]

Old Milwaukee was a favored brand of me and my buddies for awhile because it came in 14oz cans priced the same as the other brands' 12oz-ers.

Before that, in the mid-sixties the most popular two brands among the old guys were Country Club and Schlitz. I worked at a curb store where one of my duties was curbside service until some do-gooder reported that the store owner had "children selling beer" which ended our tips (I was eleven). Ladies usually bought Miller ponies.

I was a Budweiser fan at one time and can still recite the brewing fine print that appeared at the top of the logo, from memory. Eventually, my favorite brew became Grolsch. If I were able to enjoy alcohol now, that would be my choice, if it hasn't changed.

Grolsch=Nectar of the Gods. My absolute favourite beer, EVER! As far as I know (up here in Canada) it hasn't changed one bit in the 25+years I've been drinking it. Come to think of it, it's been a while. I think I need to pick some up. It ain't cheap up here though.