College beers: When, where & what?

NYU '96 - '00. Lots of Rolling Rock, Fosters, Red Elephant, Bud 40oz (drank a lot of these since they were the cheapest at the bodega), and some Sierra Nevada.

 

'95-2001 to get my BS and MS at Clemson University...I drank a lot of Newcastle, McEwans and Highland Oatmeal Porter when I had the money and Miller High Life when I didn't.

 

Western Illinois
2007'-11'
Keystone Light most of the time. Used to do the pick 6 from time to time, but I can't pinpoint anything special. I would also look for cheap off brands as well, just for kicks. Cases of Beer 30, Stag, Red Dog, Game Day.

 

Early 80's. Genny Cream Ale, Schmidts, Strohs and Rolling Rock pony bottles.

 

2000-2004 NJIT. Miller Lite, Beast, or 40's of Olde E and Steel Reserve.

 

2010-2014 (yeah, recently), TCNJ. Kegs ($60) and 30 Racks ($15) of Keystone Light was the move for cheap beers, but our local discount liquor warehouse did random twelve packs of craft bottles for $12. It's a deal that I still can't believe exists.

I feel as though the beer scene in college is changing though. Halfway through my Freshman year, I had a bunch of stuff from Victory, and it was never the same after that. Our move would be picking up mix-sixes, local six packs, or the aforementioned random 12 packs to hang on at our house. In our friend group at least, craft beers were just as prominent as the cheap stuff. I feel as though with the variety and accessibility of craft today, it's a completely different situation than even a decade ago. I know my dad had like three beers he would rotate between, solely because that's all there was in his college town.

I got to try a lot of beer in college, and I think that hasn't really been possible until recently.

 

2000-2004, Western Massachusetts, mostly Pabst kegs.

 

Central Michigan
1995 - 2000
30 packs of Milwaukee's Best for 8.99 at Krogers. Or, whatever was on special at Old Mission. On special occasion, we would spend a few bucks and get a few Oberon's, but for the most part, the Beast was in the fridge.

 

Worcester, MA 2002. Natty Ice, Busch. Treated ourselves with Harpoon.

 

2005-2008, Slippery Rock University, started at 22, graduated at 25, lots of Straub, SNPA, Pabst, and North Country Brewery was right downtown. Good times.

 

Late 1970s - Early 1980s
East Carolina University

Started out drinking Miller High Life, then branched out to PBR, Schlitz, Strohs (which always seemed to be on sale for $2.29 a six pack), and that crisp distinct beechwood aged goodness that is the King of Beers. Never cared for lite beer much.

Out of the ordinary beer for then was Lowenbrau Dark, Tuborg Gold, Heineken Dark, Grolsch, and I once had a Guinness which was the strongest tasting thing I had ever tried to drink at the time.

It is worth mentioning that we considered Coors to be the white whale. It wasn't distributed east of the Mississippi at the time and a huge mystique had developed surrounding it, probably due to the influence of Smokey and the Bandit. Alas it eluded me until around 1983 when it began to be distributed in North Carolina.

 

Busch Lite. In half's and racks. Illinois State.

 

Anything stone!

 

NIU Go Huskies!
I was on our house's board so I threw parties and bought the typical - Kegs of Miller/Bud, a bunch of mix drinks, but then I persuaded my fellow board that we needed a stash of board beers - Thats when we started buying bombers of Ale Smith, Stone, 6ers and 12ers of Founders, Victory, Bells, Goose... the switch to craft in my house began that year

 

Univ. of Delaware
2005-2009

Keystone Light was the drink of choice for our parties...it went down like water and was $11 for a 30 pack. I did get into craft beer during junior/senior year with some Dogfish, Sierra Nevada, and Sam Adam's, but never broke those out during parties.

 

West Chester University (about 30 min outside Philly)
'92-97 (Don't knock the 5 year plan...was having too much fun)

Natty Light, Beast, Golden Anny Ice, Molson XXX (when we went skiing to canada), Icehouse, Plenty of Yuengling, Honey Brown, Pete's Wicked, Mickey's occasionally, Rolling Rock. Basically whatever we could get. Oh yeah, A LOT of Jager!

 

Emerson 2001-2005. Lot of Busch, Bud Light, Corona and whatever was on sale at Marty's on Comm Ave (I remember getting cases of some off-brand honey brown for like 50 cents a bottle).

 

I drank a lot of Stroh's Signature, Molson, and Labatt's in the early 80's while attending art school in Detroit.

 

2008 - 2012. Flying Dog, Miller High Life, and whatever Tommy's Pizza would tap senior year.

That said, we had plenty of fancy beers from craft loving housemates, but I drank a lot more Bitch and High Life than anything else.

 

West Virginia University (Morgantown) 1977 to 1987. We used to buy Blatz by the case in the early days and stack several to use as an end table. Before that, one could go to the local quickie mart and buy a quart of Stroh's and a pack of smokes and get change back from your dollar...