Stroh's Dark
Pabst Brewing Company

I grew up near Winston-Salem where they brewed this when I was a teenager and a bit beyond. There was a German Restaurant at our local mall and my friends and I (Underaged but close) would order Stroh’s Dark and sit at the bar and watch the people stroll by thru the mall. We figured the dark beer would look like Pepsi or Coke if anyone walking by recognized us because the restaurant served all their drinks except wine in beer mugs. One day the summer before my Senior year in high school, my crew and I were sitting enjoying our Stroh’s Dark, sitting near the entrance of the place when none other than our Head Football Coach and his Assistant (most of our position coach) walked up. We were all several sheets into the wind, but we played it cool. I suspect they both knew, especially our OL Coach….but we hey never brought it up….ahhh good times…1980! Loved that Stroh’s Dark! Wish it still existed!

 

 

Okay Folks, Former Stroh's Employee here and I can attest to the fact that Stroh's Dark was indeed Stroh's with Food Coloring. It is called Porterine, it is a high protein, caramel coloring that was added to kegs right after being racked. After its added, the bung is driven in and the keg is sent down the line to be palletized. The rolling agitates it distributing the coloring around in the keg. That is it. I used to be charged with weighing up this stuff and adding it. Its sticky and ruined lots of shoes. Another laughable part about Stroh's was the fire-brewed claim. We had a small flame under our brew kettles, about the equivalent of 10-15 candles. Our kettles had steam jackets, that's how it was heated.

The beer was good. We drank it when we got to work the keg line, every Thursday night. Our plant supplied the Southeastern US, not a very big market for Stroh's, so, one 8 hour shift was enough to get the weeks kegging out of the way. We did it by hand, the old way. Again, such small production made automated kegging systems pointless. Which was awesome for us, Thursday night was party night. The keg Line in the Winston Salem, NC plant was way in the back, away from all the action and supervisors never came back there. Good Times.

The beer was a medium dark brew, slightly sweet, had mild roasted notes, not much in the way of hoppiness. Decent mouth feel from the Porterine. It made the beer silky on the pallet and a bit heavy in the gut. Not something you would drink a case of, but a few pitchers among friends, heck yeah! As Macro-brews go, all of the Stroh Products beat their competition, just look at all the Gold Medals they amassed each year at the Great Beer Festival. Sadly, the price point was its selling point at the time, that meant it sold to the College crowd. Young people of the day didn't like more flavorful brews, they wanted the watered down swill AB continues to produce. Rice Tea as I call it. Today, with homebrewing and micro-brews being popular among the younger Americans, Stroh's Dark and other Stroh Products would have pleased even the most discerning Hipster.

This Beer went the way of the Dodo around the time Stroh's sold out to Pabst Brewing and PBR never got Miller Brewing (Miller did Pabst's brewing by contract) to produce any of the Stroh Dark or Stroh Bock, that I know of. So, extinction date was some time in 1999. RIP....

 

 

 

 

 

We used to consume this by the pitcher full at a bar here in the Detroit area quite often in the 80s. It wasn't/isn't just Strohs with food coloring. Taste of roasted malt with a hop twang right at the finish. Pabst should bring this back out everywhere. It can still be found in limited locations.