Pilsner and Lager Beers

Damn if we didn't drink a lot of the Miller brewed version back in the days of little cash...when it changed over in the late 90's and they upped the price to your average craft we had all moved on...

 

I recall the Miller version being one of the most expensive domestic lagers in the 80s. Something like $4+ a 6-pack, compared to $1.99 for Milwaukee's Best and $2.79 for Carling Black Label or equivalent (yes, I know CBL is Canadian). Rolling Rock jumped from the latter category to the Lowenbrau price some time in late 80s, much to my friends' amusement. IIRC, it was never cheap.

 

Sunshine Pils is great, add Prima and Dortmunder Gold to the top 3 list on brews I've had.

 

I meant cheap in compared to the micro brew stuff out in the early 90's Sam Adams, Pete's Wicked, Great Lakes...we avoided the cheap cheap big three Bud, Miller (MGD @ that time) & Coors

 

Carling Black Label was a US brand starting soon after Repeal, when the Brewing Corp. of America was formed, licensed the brand, and with the Canadian parent company - the generically-named Canadian Breweries Limited - as a large stockholder. Canadian Carling eventually took the company over in the post-War period, and by the 1950s it was a wholly-owned subsidiary known as Carling Brewing Co. and on it's way to being a top ten US brewery with US breweries coast to coast. I think they peaked around the early 60s at #4, behind only AB, Schlitz and Pabst.

Merged with National in the 70's and then the combined Carling-National was bought by Heileman at decade's end. Heileman continued to brew Carling Black Label in it's US plants and then the brand (like so many others) went to Stroh and then Pabst.

So, in the 80's, unless you were buying Carling Black Label in Canada (or the UK - where it remains among the top selling lagers or South Africa, or other countries- it was an early attempt at an international brand)...

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(above can from Carling's then-headquarters brewery in Cleveland, OH).​

...you were buying US-brewed Black Label from one of Heileman's 8 or so domestic breweries.

US- and then Australian-owned Heileman did play up the beer's Canadian origins even calling it "Canadian Style" (on the label marked "Product of the USA"), but to no avail - to Chaz's continued disappointment.

 

We were buying the long-neck bottles in hard waxed cases, largely for home-brewing. Most of those were (illegally) re-recycled from liquor stores that sympathized with the cause (they also let us have the Grolsch Dark pop-tops that were hard to find). But after a while, people started charging $5-10 deposits on the cases because they were so nice for storage. We never actually bought them for the beer. I can't tell you where it was brewed. All I know it was considered a Canadian label. Buying them in cans would defeat the whole purpose--the bottles were nicer than the content. (Compare: Sapporo is brewed in Canada now for North American consumption, much to their detriment, but no one would think of it as a Canadian brand.)

 

Carling Black Label (red can) tasted different that the white can. Don't argue with Me! Both were sold here at the same time, and I would specify Red can.

 

The true "returnable/refillable" bottle in the US, used by, and interchangeable with, most US breweries went by a number of regional terms. "Long/Tall Necks","Deposit bottles" (pre-dating the mandatory deposit laws that applied to all bottles, throw-aways or refillables, and cans), "Bar Bottles", "Export bottles", etc.

Yeah, and the cases (aka "shell") also had a deposit on them - originally I recall 2¢ per bottle and 52¢ for the shell, making it an even buck. In PA (where returnables outsold throw-away bottles 2-to-1 into the '80s) they raised the deposits to $1.50 at some point (since the many local PA breweries weren't getting their more expensive refillable bottles back quickly enough) but I never saw anything like $5-10. Sounds like a retailer was taking advantage of the customers, essentially paying the distributor the standard buck deposit and "selling" the case for huge profit.

I purchased them for both the beer inside and homebrewing - and still use them for storing cellared beer and bottle collections, excess beer glasses, etc.

 

Yup, returnable bottles and the cases they came it were (are) great! I used to be able to ‘buy’ a case of returnable bottles and the case for $1.50 at my local beer distributor. The bottles and cases are fantastic for bottled homebrew. As you can see below my preferred bottles/cases were from Rolling Rock (there is also a Bud and Bud Light case as well). All of those cases below contain homebrews (well, one contains an Heirloom Apple Hard Cider). It has been a busy spring/summer homebrew season. Thank goodness that bottle conditioned homebrewed beers last a long time (e.g., one year).

For the theme of Pilsners/Lagers: three of those cases contain pilsners: 2 for Classic American Pilsners and 1 for Bohemian Pilsners

Cheers!

 

If you can find Half Acre Pony Pilsner, it's amazing.

 

I had Short's The Curl earlier in the month. It doesn't get distribution outside Michigan, so it's not widely known. I received this with other Michigan beers. It was crisp and refreshing. It was my first pilsner in a long time. I'm going to seek out other pilsners as a result.

 

Spot on. I think "Mama's" is under-rated. A very nice Pils, "damn I only have two left". ;-(

I also like Pilsner Urquell. I can buy both it and Mama's at the Whole Foods down the street.

I'd like to try some of the harder to find Pils however. Lagunitas was a good Pils. Its a tad breadier/grainier but retains that awesome pilsner refreshment after a long sip.