Pabst Blue Ribbon

[vengroff]

Read all about the remarkable turnaround in this Sunday's NYT Magazine.

The roots of PBR's comeback can be traced not to it's home town of Milwaukee, but to the microbrew haven of Portland, Oregon, where "in local supermarket sales it trails only Coors Light, Budweiser, Bud Light and Corona." The trend has now gone nationwide; "it is endorsed in 'The Hipster Handbook,' a paperback dissection of cool, and is popping up in trendy bars from the Mission District to the Lower East Side. Sales in Chicago are up 134 percent."

[tommy]

i can't bring myself to drink that piss water unless i'm watching Blue Velvet, in which case i drink a whole bunch of it.

[Craig Camp]

Our brew of choice in high school and the favorite beverage of all of my uncles in Harvard IL.

Behind my desk sits a framed 1962 scorecard that my dad kept of a Milwaukee Braves game against the Cubs that he took me to. Warren Spahn pitched for the Braves and the Cubs lost. Pabst was 35 cents a bottle and I am sure he enjoyed a couple at the game. It was on my 9th birthday.

PBR is a part of my history.

[MatthewB]

Hey, PBR in bottles--must be ice cold--ain't all that bad. Much better than Pudwiser.

[slkinsey]

Yikes!

Beer that's flavored like the world's most popular beverage... water.

[MatthewB]

I've been rich (for me) & I've been poor.

When I've been poor, PBR was the beer. 'Nuff said.

[NeroW]

PBR me ASAP.

I like PBR. I'm poor.

[Nick]

Pabst Blue Ribbon was my first taste of beer. I was about ten or eleven years old and my father, a friend of his, and I had been fencing our upper pasture so we could pasture some heifers there over the summer. It was a hot day and when break time came we sat down in the shade of some trees. My father and his friend opened a couple of cans of Blue Ribbon and since I'd been pulling my weight in fencing, I got to have a couple pulls on my father's can. It sure tasted good on that hot summer day.

That was back in the early fifties and I don't think I've drunk it since then. Given the choice, I'd probably take PBR over Schlitz though. Is Schlitz still around? Or Black Label - one of the worst beers of all time?

[beans]

Something makes me a little sad when I think of PBR. Reminds me of when my dad, a Northworst Air mechanic was on lay off because of whatever union's squabbles and he was economizing from his usual German import. That was a long time ago now....

One of my favourite watering holes, Liquid, has a one weeknight only PBR special -- a shot of Beam served up neat and accompanied with a can of the swill. (The table tents are everywhere around the whole place!) The bar is patronized by a mix of yups, in the biz folks and the tragically hip. The stuff sells! I'll walk in and see everyone smiling, laughing, chatting and seemingly thoroughly enjoying themselves with a can of PBR in one hand.... I couldn't cave in, but it looked like fun! Just the sight of a few of the prosecutors, bailiffs, an occasional judge and any other miscellaneous bunch of lawyers (the bar is near the majority of our courthouses), all suited in their Brooks Brothers best, complete with a can in hand.

Who would have thought?

[Stone]

Pabst Blue Ribbon? Fuck that shit.

[tommy]

Pabst Blue Ribbon?  Fuck that shit.

you mean heineken.

[KNorthrup]

The Portland parts of the article were more accurate than I expected. But they actually have been doing quite a bit of outright marketing here. No alternative radio spots, but plenty in the alternative press. (Not the WWeek quoted in the article but their competition.) Every bar in town got a new neon window sign a few years back. My barbershop (part of an uberhipster chain but they're two blocks away and cheap willing to cut my hair anyway) gives cans away while you wait. Several places (including a creperie) have special combo meals that include PBR and no substitutions allowed. The geek chic hipster crowd does seem to drink little else. I don't care for beer in general, so PBR is pretty bearable. No beer flavour. Although the person behind me in the grocery store checkout line the other day had PBR Light and I really wanted to (sincerely) ask how that was even possible but wasn't sure how do not offend him in the process.

[nerissa]

Whups. sorry for starting a duplicate thread.

Back in my indie/punk rock radio dj days in college, I drank a lot of PRB and Old Style. This was Chicago after all.... cheap, and not as bad as Olympia or the Beast.

As I was reading the article this morning, I was imagining my friends who who are the unaffected hipsters,meaning they don't have trust funds and wear trucker hats...they are poor, they recognize good beer. They will still continue to drink PRB and Old Style, but I can imagine some of the Dumbo/Williamsburg crowd already moving on.

Old Style doesn't do much marketing either, although it is sold at Cubs games and is the de facto beer at most Chicago neighborhood bars.

[NeroW]

Bought a 30-pack of PBR last night for $9.99.

Just so you know.

[MatthewB]

Bought a 30-pack of PBR last night for $9.99.

Just so you know.

What's the estimated finishing date?

[vengroff]

Bought a 30-pack of PBR last night for $9.99.

Let's see if we can put this in perspective, shall we.

30 12oz cans is 360oz, which means you spent about 2.78 cents per ounce.

1.5l bottles of Evian and other similar spring waters go for about $2. That's 3.94 cents per ounce.

So water is more than 40% more expensive than PBR.

[timothycdavis]

It IS cheap, and, when broke, will do in a pinch, 'specially if ice cold.

that said, to consider it anything like, er, tasty, you've got to be either a serious alcoholic, an "ironic hipster," or, like most in Charlotte, NC, both.

Honestly? I think Schlitz is better. Has more of a sweet aftertaste.

[fresco]

"So water is more than 40% more expensive than PBR."

The real thing is always more expensive.

[MatthewB]

"So water is more than 40% more expensive than PBR."

The real thing is always more expensive.

Ummm, you've been hanging around professional women, fresco?

[fresco]

Is a "professional" woman someone who professes to be but isn't? That's a drag.

[hollywood]

IIRC, when I was very young PBR used to sponsor boxing on TV. They had a snappy little jingle sung by gregarious male voices that went like this:

What'll ya have? Pabst Blue Ribbon.

What'll ya have? Pabst Blue Ribbon.

What'll ya have? Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Pabst Blue Ribbon Beer.

[MatthewB]

Is a "professional" woman someone who professes to be but isn't? That's a drag.

I've never had that experience.

But please, fresco, do tell!

[fresco]

"I've never had that experience."

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

[MatthewB]

"I've never had that experience."

Methinks the lady doth protest too much.

Don't go shy on us now. That switching tactic won't work with me.

[fresco]

That's not what I hear.