Do you remember beer's "dark days?"

Living in Syracuse, we made many beer runs to Canada to get "good beer". Lots of Molson Bradors and then later all the ice beers. I used to love OV splits (6 or 7 oz. bottles) You could drink like 20 of them in a night.

 

I recall a couple. There was a bar in La Crosse, WI (my college town) that boasted over 70 different beers in the late 70s. Hacker-Pschorr brews on draft were among my favorites.

 

I remember the thrill of walking into a local grocery back in the early 70s and seeing Pabst Bock on display! Mmmm. So much better than the 99 cent sixers of Goebbel's I was buying.

 

I remember those Dark Days when Canadian beer was arguably (certainly if you exclude Anchor, SN and Ballantine) far better than American. AM still amazed at how excitedf I got in finding even mediocre beer.

 

I actually remember some good pasteurized american beers that the BIG BOYS stomped out. Augsburger in the green bottle from Monroe, WI was a match for anything that was coming from europe, even Pabst Andeker wasn't bad.
Anyone remember the little 8oz? Old Peculier with the pull tab top? Back then it was unpasteurized and truly killer. Not sure if the cask in Yorkshire are still the same brew and/or unpasteurized. But if you ever drank it for a while you understood the term "lunatic broth", so drinkable and would knock you on your duff after a session.
Pasteuriized now, it killed the taste. I still can't find a Stingo, Worthington, Fullers, Traquair, etc that matches its drinkability. How about Lorimer's Scotch ale, only Harviestoun is getting close these daze and they haven't got a golden butterscotch ale like Lorimer's was.
Where did Bulldog Ale, Courage Directors, Whitbread, etc go to? Good pasteurized product is needed here in the south where the heat destroys everything. Most all of the american ale producers need to learn how to use hops properly and how not to just produce high alcohol soda pop(sugar, sugar) ales.

Aass Bokk was a great detour from the german dopplebock style, gone! Even Carlsberg Special which was pasteurized was interesting as a elephant strenght light dopplebock? the candied caramel taste was interesting and I think maybe Harboe has toyed with a similar product recently. Grolsch used to be unpasteurized and had a house character similar to say Weihenstephaner but with Spaltz hops.

We are supposed to be getting Einbecker products(pasteurized) here in Texas soon. So I will at least have a great german bock(Einbecker) and irish stout(Guinness F.E.S.) to survive on during the hot summer. Pilsner Urquell has been destroyed by SABMiller and stainless steel equipment expansions, so as with Bass the house favor has dwendled down to a vague essence. Same for the old pasteurized lablel "Hofbrau Dark and Oktoberfest". Which as really EKU Starkbier and HB-Munchen Oktoberfest, just pasteurized and relabeled for export. Again we have to have pasteurized beer down here to survive the heat's bacterial destruction of unpasteurized product. Not only for reliable taste but for long term health reasons.

Yes, I remember those daze, Dortmunder Kronen Classic, Berliner Kindl Weisse, Sapporo Black, the list goes on and on. Hevelius Kaper for Poland was the first pasteurized imperial pilsner I ever drank way before it became a
craft beer special. At about 8.5% for a 16.9oz bottle I think it was like $1.59, now Heineken holdings has turned it into lame malt liquor now. Oh, the capitalist world will comsume all things valuable for the never ending lust of greed and wealth and leave us to drink our own urine, fermented of course!

 

Anchor Steam, but you had to be in north Cal. to get it.

 

You

You get a bit annoying with all your talk about pasteurization. It's borderline pathological

 

Understood, but for me growing up in Texas it's precautionary to be aware. Today many good beers get passed up because they are expected to taste like "live" beer. Once the beer is brought up to 180 degrees and pasteurized it travels well into the temperate zones. Some flavor is lost and therefore will never have that fresh beer (or whatever) taste, but the compramise is to have a tasty reliable product. Skunked Heineken is just pasteurized beer that has gotten cold and then hot again before refrig and drinking. Most posters aren't aware, as well as code dates for when the beer was produced. A 3 year old bottle of any lager is deteriated from the time it was bottled.
Same with unpasteurized beer it should never be above 55-60 degrees or it beings to be contaminated by anarobic bacteria. Thats why a keg is rolled out and emptied in England or Germany after 2 days being tapped, oxygen has begun its course on the product and thats expected. I never drink beer/ale unless I know if its live or not and when it came out of the brewery. I judge the taste on that curve.
Live & for sure, bottle conditioned beer should be handled like fine wine. If the bottle ever gets to the point its not cool to the touch then its not worthy of aging and the wine is only deteriorating from that point on. Lots of people mishandle and lay down wine(unpasteurized product, yikes! said it again) only to revisit $50 bottles of aged red wine vinegar...he he, years later. The higher the ABV the better chance a beer has surviving travel. That's just life here on the high plateau, lil' doggie.......

 

Skunking comes from exposure to light, so you lost points there. Skunking has nothing to do with pasteurization, either.

 

I remember around 1976 getting a case of National Bohemian for about $4.50. Man I wish they had all the Belgians etc. then, like they do now.

 

I was lucky in Albany NY we had Newmans Albany Amber from the early 80's to around 1993.
Some guy named Jim Koch worked there. I believe he started his own brewery.

 

Funny to think about now, but [locally] G. Heilemans "Special Export" was widely loved and feared for it's full on 5% Abv.
Affectionately referred as "Green Death" it was hard core to opt for this over the "light beers" of the day

 

Pittsburgh Brewing company had about 100 beers out under that company, from Iron City, to Old Dutch, to Robin Hood Cream ale, to Old German, Mark V, and of course, Hop'n Gator.........Remember the old pale stale ale with the foam on the bottom...............Old Frothingslosh Anyone????

 

G. Heileman produced quite a number of brews under their name as well..... Remember Weideman, Old Style (still around) and Drewry's???

 

Old Style is ok at best, but a lot of these beers really sucked bad......

 

Or beer getting warm. Lost a few more points

 

He actually has a point on pasteurization. It's not just beer: cheese too.

 

My suspicions regarding them trying to portray themselves as a small/craft brewery were immediately raised when I saw Weinhard commercials on Spike TV.

 

We did too, and Labatt's Extra Stock.

 

Is this a record? A 1-1/4 year old thread randomly being brought back to life. How bored was DallasAlice to dig deep and revive this puppy? I can't think of an older thread being revived, anybody else?