Senior Citizens, what beers were popular when you were growing up that are no longer around?

Question

BQ: Maybe some are in specialty stores. Know of any?

Answer 1

There was a big 'revolution' in beer in the US in the 70s and 80s. Before that there was really only one kind of beer, light American lager like Budweiser and Miller and Coors.



There used to be a lot of 'cheap' beers, most of them regional but some national. Carling's Black Label, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Olympia, Falstaff (West Coast), Schlitz, Lone Star (in Texas), etc. They were really awful, if you ask me. American beer was 'designed' to be weak, so you could sit in front of the TV in your undershirt and drink a whole six-pack. We still make beer like that but it's not as bad as it was.



In fact Budweiser says right on its label that 'This beer is made from only the very finest corn, rice and barley' Corn and rice have no place in a lager beer, they are only there as 'extenders'. This is like a wine label saying 'This wine is made from only the very finest potato peelings!'



Anyway in the 70s we had a 'revolution' and now a wide variety of very good beer is made here, often by microbreweries that are totally unknown outside of a small area. We have lots of all-malt beers, bock, porter, stout, IPA, pilsner, etc. etc. Those used to be only foreign, and if you didn't live in a big city you'd have to search for them!

Answer 2

Hamms. Only remember that (beer wasn't something I gave much thought to as a kid) they had these commercials on tv with cartoons bears--from the land of sky blue waters (I think that was the jingle). Actually, I have no idea what beers are still around. Is Pabst Blue Ribbon still here? I know Budweiser is. There are so many beers out these days. When I was in my 30s or so, I used to like Henry Weinhardt Red but then they stopped making it.

Answer 3

Storz beer, brewed in Omaha, NE, which closed 41 years ago. Just last year a craft brewery opened up there, using the same name, but the beer isn't the same - it is better! I also remember Andeker, Lucky Lager, Blatz, Grain Belt, Burger, Schlitz, ...there are others, like Olympia & Pabst Blue Ribbon, that were bought up by other brewers and brought back, no longer the same. In most cases, that is a good thing!



But although my favorite domestic beer is still made & sold, you can't seem to get it here in California -- Leinenkugel Creamy Dark.

Answer 4

Ballantine Ale used to be very good. Excellent, actually. It was delightfully bitter, more so than any other ale I've ever tasted, and they used to age the stuff in wooden casks for a year.



But the original company went out of business because of the average American's total lack of taste. And then the name was bought and sold several times. And now there is an ersatz so-called Ballantine Ale produced by the Pabst conglomerate and brewed by the Miller conglomerate.



I wish "Hamm's the beer refreshing" really were a thing of the past, but you can still get it in many places. It is now brewed by another company, but it remains America's worst tasting and lowest-grade of the "lower shelf" beer products--consumed only by impoverished and ignorant rednecks.

Answer 5

Was never really a drinker but I used to have a pint of Brown and mild,that was a bottle of Brown ale and half of mild ale from the pump.. I am now TT only because I do not like alcohol,last drink I had was 2008 on our Diamond Wedding anniversary Lots of beer was drunk in the 30s 40s and 50s, now it is wines and spirits that are the fashion

Answer 6

Tivoli! It was a local beer that would have been considered a "craft beer" today. In the fall, they had a run of Bock beer. It was a wonderful beverage. You had to "know someone". I remember getting ours from a Tivoli employee on the loading dock, and paying later.



We used to get genuine, imported from Ireland, Guinness Stout. I don't know what that stuff is, in the Guinness bottles, on the store shelves is, but it isn't the same stuff. Certainly another brew that we used to get, that's not around any more.

Answer 7

The most popular when I was a growing up were:Tetley,Walker,Wilsons and Magees. magees was a local brewery which along with most breweries of the time have been bought our by the multinationals and more or less standardised. We now have two local independent breweries in our town which good quality real ale. unfortunately lots of the younger ones seem to prefer the gaseous tasteless stuff know as lager. Lager was unheard of when I was in my teens.

The US I believe has a lot of microbreweries doing real ale

Answer 8

My stepdad and mom (back when she drank beer) would drink something called Drewrey's. I think it was a brewery in Detroit. Doubt if they make it any more. Also, there was something call Pheiffer's - I only remember it because my mother had a figurine of a Pheiffer (like a fife player) in the kitchen.



edit for all who mentioned Hamm's: this is the commercial I most remember when I was a kid, probably because of the cartoon bear and the jingle



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o83xxWCel8g

Answer 9

Meister Brau

Answer 10

I remember Utica Club, Genessee, Schlitz, Schaefer, Pabst and Ballantine.



BQ....Utica Club is a thing of the past, I'm pretty sure. Don't know about Schaefer. The others...I 'think' they're still available here and there.



(Lol, just about everyone if my family liked beer except for yours truly.)



Edit...My husband just reminded me about Piels, RB. I had completely forgotten about it.

Answer 11

There was a Grain Belt beer in South Dakota. Maybe it's still around....I moved.

Answer 12

Olympia - "It's the Water"

Hamm's - "from the land of sky blue waters"

Pabst Blue Ribbon

Answer 13

Hamms

Answer 14

Blatz, in Wisc.

specialty stores only, I hear

Answer 15

I used to drink Colt 45 back then but barely drank beers other then that.For my hubby it was Coors.

BQ-I think they still have them out or you have to requested them tho.

Answer 16

Carling's Black Label.

Answer 17

Olympia

Schlitz

Pabst

Primo

Schaefer