Do you remember beer's "dark days?"

Thank god I'm 23. I raise my glass to all you BA's that had to suffer through the "dark days" Sounds like a nightmare to me.

 

OV splits were an important part of Upstate NY college and beer experience as well.

 

Back in the late 80's I drank a ton of "headwreckers" private stock but we got them in 16oz six packs with the puzzles on the back of the caps.

 

It wasn't that bad. The beer still got you drunk.

 

I drink whiskey if I want to get drunk.

 

3 for a buck. I used to get out of work at 12:45 am, quickly drive to the bar, throw a $5 bill on the bar, get 9 beers and change in quarters for a tip and the pinball machine all before last call at 1 am.

 

It's the same in NJ bars. What one can get a small local retail store now is "out beyond zebra".

 

It was true in the opposite direction for Stroh's... at least that was implied by the Stroh's commercial where the traveller opens his suitcase at the airport, revealing about 3 cases of Stroh's!

I don't know that I'd go this far... maybe Coors was the first "whale," but it was never craft. I remember finding out that Coors was available over the state line into Wisconsin at one store somewhere in the late 70s. My friend and I drove up specifically to buy it, brought it home with great anticipation -- drank the first cans and looked at each other puzzled: "Really? This is all the rave?"

Funny how availability clouds the perception.

 

Huh, never thought of it that way. Guess I'll just go back to drinking Olympia if that's all there is to beer.

Or not.

 

The first time I drank Coors was also the first time I drank Anchor Steam. Drank them back to back at a bar in San Francisco in 1976. The term "craft beer" did not exist. Coors was a cult beer on the east coast then. Guess what beer I drank the rest that afternoon. That day is when I became aware it was it the dark days.

 

bahaha, i remember drinking some of this augsburger stuff in the late 90's. I had some other stuff besides the golden.

I also loved Huber Bock...http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/435/6340

 

When you are underage you live by the addage my sainted Grandmother used to say: Beggars can't be choosers.

 

I was 17-21 during the dark days. We eventually found good beer but at the beginning the best beer we had was the one in our hands.

 

But that doesn't change the statement;

"Getting drunk" hasn't been my attraction to beer for a very long time, even when there was little choice in quality and I was only 21 to 25. I was always looking for flavor more than buzz.

 

OK man. Good for you. Stay on that high horse but the fact of the matter is nobody just drinks alcohol for the taste. Just not an economical way to get fluid into your body.

 

I remember when I thought Leinenkugel's was a higher end beer... Does that count?

I'm 24, btw... So no, I do not have any memory of the 1970's, not even the 80's.

 

Pasteurization makes a difference. I had unpasteurised Heineken on.tap my first visit to Europe in 1987, and that was an eye-opener. Does anyone remember Little Kings?

 

I lived in Marin County in the mid 70's and bought Anchor Steam on the very rare occasion I could afford it. Lucky Lager was the beer of choice then, otherwise....at $2.29 a stubby 12 pack, with the rebus!

 

This is a great topic. I turned 18 in 1982 and the drinking age was still 18 at that time. Plus nobody cared about your age which meant we were drinking beers in bars in and around Washington DC at age 16, so that was 1980, and I probably started sipping beers at a younger age, so my beer memory goes back to at least the mid to late 70s. the best memory is going to the Birchmere in Alexandria Virginia, watching people like Doc Watson and getting hammered on Stroh's Dark.

Anyway, yeah it was basically Budweiser, Miller, Coors for domestic, Mickey's Big Mouth and other garbage beers and malt liquors, and then there were the imports like Heineken, Beck's, St. Pauli (all the same), the Canadian imports, maybe a Mexican import like XX Equis, and then there was Guinness Stout which we knew was the best thing going in those days.

There was a place in DC called the Brickskeller and we quickly discovered their vast beer menu. The first beer that blew my mind was Chimay. That was probably 1982. Then suddenly the market was filled with imports, British Imports (Sam Smiths) and Trappist beers were pretty readily available by the mid 80s. Pilsner Urquell was pretty amazing the first time I tried that, mid 80s.

Then the American micros came on the scene, many came and went but I definitely remember Anchor as being around and the best and I still feel that way about Anchor, then came Sierra Nevada and Sam Adams. Then a host of regional beers and slowly the market was flooded with micro beers or craft beers but many of them were bad.

Today, you walk into a typical beer store and there are hardly any imports and rows and rows of great American beers, it's like which one do I choose today. God Bless America.

 

Wow...one of the first on this site that remembers Andeker....I grew up as a kid in south Milwaukee and remember seeing those Red Andeker signs outside every tavern just about...along with of course many others...Blatz....Schlitz...Pabst.....don't remember Miller as much from back then..

...Augusburger in the green bottles was right at the start of my beer drinking days in the mid 80's and remember some skunked versions so my impression is probably not on par with how good it was...