PBR is Making a Comeback!

[klauskuche]

A favorite local watering hole in Stumptown, The Goose Hollow Inn, owned by former mayor Bud Clark has been serving PBR Imperial pints at $2 a whack for quite some time now. It is also the beer of choice on my boat for those hot summer outings on the river. People say, "Chef, why do have this cheap beer on your boat?" Hey, boat gas is $3 a gallon and you can either drink those fancy beers and not boat, or drink PBR and boat. Pretty simple. Besides a cold PBR hits the spot on the hot sunny days If your a fan of PBR and your evern in Portland hit the Goose or the Delta Cafe where they serve a 40 of PBR in a champagne bucket. Cheers!

[klauskuche]

PBR is almost as bad as Miller High Life. (The worst beer I have ever tasted.)...

Wow. Far be it for me to tell you how wrong you are about PBR and Miller High Life. Different strokes etc. But, boy, if these are the two worst beers you've ever tasted you either drink nothing but fancy-pants beers or simply haven't tasted very many beers. I'm guessing it's the latter 'cos there are plenty of lousy fancy-pants beers too. Had a couple this weekend as a matter of fact...

At worst, PBR and MHL are drinkable. At best, say, on a hot summer day fresh from an ice-filled cooler, they're damn fine examples of American-style beer. I feel safe in assuming you've never had an Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee's Best, Carlings Black Label, Rhinelander, Old Style, Michelob, Busch or even a Miller Lite. Miller Lite, now there's an example of a popular beer that I simply cannot abide.

Other fine, cheap, drinkable American beers include Hamms, Schlitz and Blatz. Gimme an ice cold Hamms ANY summer day.

Frank Booth was right.

Kurt

Ditto on the Old Style, and for the folks in the PNW that would be Schmidt, also know as the animal beer because of the various can art. Certainly these beers are way above your average Bud or Miller etc. and they are very price friendly. As far as the worst beer ever, if you have ever heard of the generic "BEER" then you know what I am talking about.

[saturnbar]

Give me a Point Special Lager or a Leinenkugel anyday, of course you have to be in Wisconsin to get either one. I remeber pulling them out of the soda machine for loose change at Beloit College back in the day. That was living. Charlie

[mongo_jones]

As far as the worst beer ever, if you have ever heard of the generic "BEER" then you know what I am talking about.

i once drank a lot of something called "scotch whiskey" out of a bottle at a party (many years ago). i think it was a supermarket generic--"lucky's scotch whiskey". is there really something branded "beer"? who makes it?

[stephenc]

PBR is almost as bad as Miller High Life. (The worst beer I have ever tasted.)...

I feel safe in assuming you've never had an Old Milwaukee, Milwaukee's Best, Carlings Black Label, Rhinelander, Old Style, Michelob, Busch or even a Miller Lite. Miller Lite, now there's an example of a popular beer that I simply cannot abide.

edit: Yes, Michelob is fantastic.

Edited June 9, 2004 by stephenc (log)

[NeroW]

I do enough things that get me labeled a hipster already. I'd rather have a Yuengling.

Hee hee. Like drinking Yuengling?

[phaelon56]

I believe there was a branded "Beer" which was a generic. Back in the late 1970's or early 1980's there was a generics craze. Not sure about the rest of the US but here in the Northeast, all the major grocery store chains put in a "Generics" aisle or section that had lots of products in plain white boxes with black lettering. All were "generics" just labeled with the product type or description. It's not different than the "store brands" like A&P's Sunny Square which have been around forever but it was a distinct fad. Here in central NY state we even had "Generic Grocery stores". They were the predecessor to budget chains like Aldi and Sav-A-Lot that are now popular in some areas. Limited selection aws available with little or no fresh meat or produce and everything had the generic white label or box with black lettering. You had to bring your own bags or boxes and pack them yourself. The fad passed and the generic aisles or departments in our local grocery stores were converted to "bulk departments".

The generic grocery stores eventually all closed but we did have one enterprise that hung on for years: the "generic bar". Someone opened a bar on Marshall Street, the hangout area for Syracuse University students. It did not have any official name - only a sign outside that said "bar". There was an absence of decorations inside and no theme - it was just a place to get drunk. It quickly became known as "The Generic Bar" and there were even black t-shirts with a big bar code and the words Generic bar printed on the back.

Generic beer in our area disappeared when the generic stores vanished but it was most likely made by the West End Brewing Company in Utica NY. They have their own brands (Matt's and the entire Saranac line being among them) but are a major contract brewer for private labels beers of all types. Although they will brew swill for the right low price they also make some fine products and were the original contract brewer for Brooklyn Lager when the Brooklyn Brewery name was revived. Those who fondly recall the first few years of Brooklyn brewery product as being better than what they now brew should be aware that the change probably occurred when Brooklyn began brewing their own. The Saranac products are worth exploring.

[HerndonJake]

That said...I drink Straub, Yuengling Premium and Lager, and High Life on occasion. But the worst beer of this type is certainly not Pabst. It's Utica Club.

Having been born in Utica and taking many a FX Matts brewery tour back in my college days, I feel the need to stick up for the home town brew. Chilled and with a pizza, Utica Club ain't to bad. You want bad, try a Piels. Having had many a six-pack walk in the door with dad at 5:30, I can tell you first hand that's some nasty brew.

As for the High Life, I have to say on a warm day, a nice cold bottle takes me back to 1980, high school and a big cold quart bought with a fake ID...

but keep it cold, that smell being discussed was often refered to as "skunky" and didn't taste much better even with the pallete of a 16 year old.

My $.02-

[phaelon56]

Having been born in Utica and taking many a FX Matts brewery tour back in my college days, I feel the need to stick up for the home town brew. Chilled and with a pizza, Utica Club ain't to bad. You want bad, try a Piels. Having had many a six-pack walk in the door with dad at 5:30, I can tell you first hand that's some nasty brew.

As for the High Life, I have to say on a warm day, a nice cold bottle takes me back to 1980, high school and a big cold quart bought with a fake ID...

but keep it cold, that smell being discussed was often refered to as "skunky" and didn't taste much better even with the pallete of a 16 year old.

I never did like Piels but I drank many a glass of "Matt's Premium" back in the day. I'd actually take Matt's or UC over High Life any day. I still don't get the buzz over PBR. It's an okay cheap beer but there are plenty of other decent ones in that category. IMO Schlitz was pretty bad - not sure f they even still make it.

As for skunky.... I think Genny Cream often defined that genre (not that it stopped me from suckin' em down when there was a special at my neighborhood bar for shots of bourbon with 16 oz "Green Monster" chasers.

[herbacidal]

Miller Lite, now there's an example of a popular beer that I simply cannot abide.

Yea same here, I think.

I think I may have had some last year and it tasted okay.

But I know I had a can from the fridge last week or so

(sitting there for a decade probably)

and it was horrid. Couldn't finish it.

[Boneless]

"Beer"- the generic swill found in the white cans with black block letters- was brewed by the Falstaff brewing company. It was printed in very fine letters on each can.

[NulloModo]

Wow....

hmmm, there is a local Fondue joint that uses PBR as the beer for their 'Beer and Cheese' fondue. I have tried the beer straight... but it is better in the Fondue ;).

Now Yuengling, easily the best cheap beer on the market IMO. I love the lager, has a lot of the flavor and character of a Newcastle brown for a lot less bank.

[scottie]

Wow, the shitty beer thread!

My first year in college, that's 1991 BTW, the only people who drank PBR did so in reference to the David Lynch film, "Blue Velvet." As in, Dennis Hopper's character saying, "Heineken? Heineken?! Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!!!"

At the time, I myself was a Milwaukee's Best devotee. We used to press the can tops against our foreheads, and call the resulting imprint the "Mark of the Beast."

That was the year they pulled Powermaster. A sad day for Midwestern fans of 40 oz. malt liquor.

Then there was Cool Colt 45. You remember, it was the menthol beer! The advertisers' reasoning went something like this: Black people like menthol cigarettes. Black people like malt liquor. Therefore, Black people will like menthol-flavored malt liquor, especially if Billy Dee Williams is selling it to them.

This product lasted approximately two weeks.

I could go on, but I won't.

[mongo_jones]

Then there was Cool Colt 45. You remember, it was the menthol beer! The advertisers' reasoning went something like this: Black people like menthol cigarettes. Black people like malt liquor. Therefore, Black people will like menthol-flavored malt liquor, especially if Billy Dee Williams is selling it to them.

This product lasted approximately two weeks.

ha ha ha!

[Mayhaw Man]

Then there was Cool Colt 45. You remember, it was the menthol beer! The advertisers' reasoning went something like this: Black people like menthol cigarettes. Black people like malt liquor. Therefore, Black people will like menthol-flavored malt liquor, especially if Billy Dee Williams is selling it to them.

This product lasted approximately two weeks.

ha ha ha!

I have a poster from this and from another product that St Ides Malt liquor made (briefly) along the same vein (I am not sure that it EVER went into distribution-I got the poster from a distributor).

[mongo_jones]

I have a poster from this and from another product that St Ides Malt liquor made (briefly) along the same vein (I am not sure that it EVER went into distribution-I got the poster from a distributor).

can you say "scan/photograph and post"?

billy dee! billy dee! billy dee!

[beergirl]

I have a poster from this and from another product that St Ides Malt liquor made (briefly) along the same vein (I am not sure that it EVER went into distribution-I got the poster from a distributor).

It's very much in production. I've seen delivery trucks painted with the St. Ides logos while driving backroads in South Carolina. Here's more information: Beer Marketing Company.

[tommy]

Now Yuengling, easily the best cheap beer on the market IMO.

it's 6 bucks a 6 pack in NJ and 4 bucks a pint in NYC.

[Varmint]

Wow. PBR. I lived in Milwaukee for three years, and touring the Pabst plant was one of my favorite forms of recreation. I remember riding my bike to law school, passing through the middle of these old brick and stone semi-gothic buildings, right under the huge arching PABST sign that hung across the road. The tour itself made me proud of this fine institution. The tour “guides” were often college-aged stoners who just wanted to be able to drink beer all day and get paid for it. As you pass through the brewery itself, you soon learned that this single brewery was responsible for producing more cheap beer than any other spot in the world. PBR, Olympia, Colt 45, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, Old Style, Blatz, McSorleys, Ballantine (and all their “light” versions). Of course, they also made their “premium” beer, Andekker. At the end of the tour, you ended up in a tasting room that was made to look like a typical German pub. What’s weird about this room was that is was connected to the Board room, where the big business occurred. The tour guides let you stay and drink to your heart’s content – all free, of course. I occasionally would ask for some snacks, and they could usually find some leftover pretzels from the prior Board of Directors meeting. What a place.

The Miller tour, however, was a sterile, Disney-esque affair. Everything was behind glass, and inevitably, the guide was some sorority girl named Buffy or Missy or Heather. You received two tickets, allowing you two 8 ounce beers at the end of the tour. Bah.

Finally, my favorite way to drink PBRs was to get a case of returnable longnecks for about $6.50. I miss those. My favorite way to drink this beer at a bar was at the National Liquor Bar, where you could get a 12 ounce PBR (or Andekker) and a shot of rotgut whiskey for a buck. Man, I miss Milwaukee, but my liver doesn’t.

[tommy]

As you pass through the brewery itself, you soon learned that this single brewery was responsible for producing more cheap beer than any other spot in the world.  PBR, Olympia, Colt 45, Old Milwaukee, Lone Star, Old Style, Blatz, McSorleys, Ballantine (and all their “light” versions).

this explains why McSorley's is practically undrinkable.

Edited June 11, 2004 by tommy (log)

[NulloModo]

Now Yuengling, easily the best cheap beer on the market IMO.

it's 6 bucks a 6 pack in NJ and 4 bucks a pint in NYC.

Eh? Going rate here is $7 a 12-pack for bottles.

[tommy]

Now Yuengling, easily the best cheap beer on the market IMO.

it's 6 bucks a 6 pack in NJ and 4 bucks a pint in NYC.

Eh? Going rate here is $7 a 12-pack for bottles.

lucky you. enjoy your yuengling! and where is "here"? i might go there.

Edited June 12, 2004 by tommy (log)