Paulaner Is Now Available In Cans

That has to be city and suburbs (haven't looked at the link, yet).

 

I was looking at some Miller-Lowenbrau labels via Google and to the right of the lion it says: Lowenbrau Established 1383 Munich, Germany. To the left it gives the "Brewed under license and authority" spiel. Funny that nowhere does it warn us that "This beer bears no resemblance whatsoever to the German beer we're ripping-off."

Funny that the feds found switching the Product of USA to black from white was enough to satisfy the consumer.

 

But the Extra Stout was fairly common, you could get it at any corner Bodega or beverage center.

 

Yup.
Lousy copy of a 1977 newspaper article, but ya get the idea, re: "MUNICH" - but with most everything else pretty much the same.

IIRC, the switch from German brew imported by Miller to Contract-brewed by Miller at their Ft. Worth brewery (initially, IIRC) was gradual, some US markets getting one while others got the other.

 

@jesskidden What happened to the dark-beer trend, import or domestic? Was it just simply not selling, and then Guinness took the rest of the market?

There is a single place I know in DC that keeps an import Dunkel on tap, this particular one from Hofbräu. It’s akways a treat to go there, but it can be a hassle to pursuade the staff to serve me one when it’s happy hour and there are cheaper discounted options. I urge them it’s what I want.

 

Do you mean that there's a flavor loss due to not having the yeast in your glass, or a flavor loss since it isn't going through fermentation in the bottle/can?

 

Oh, I'd say it was one of those styles (like seasonal bock) that would pop up occasionally from some brewers, and others would follow, only to die out again, and in other cases some of them might have had a regional popularity as a "specialty" beer. Both Miller (Clipper brand) and Pabst (Classic Dark) in the late 70s came out with "Light" Dark Beers, and as noted, AB began bottling Michelob Classic Dark in the mid-80s and even Iron City did a big push for a new Iron City Dark around the same period.

When Huber was having a lot of success with their Augsburger brand, expanding well outside their traditional mid-West market, Augsburger Dark seemed to be always on the shelf along side it. When Huber briefly operated the old Meister Brau brewery in Chicago under it's old name of Peter Hand, one of their flagship beers was Old Chicago Dark.

Even into the early "craft" period, C. Schmidt's & Sons Prior Double Dark seemed to gain in reputation (M. Jackson called it "the most distinctive dark beer produced in America.") and the brewery obviously reformulated it (they used Cascade hops by the early '80s) and even spent some money on a new unique bottle, packaging it in 4-packs and, IIRC, nearly doubled the price!

I wouldn't attribute the death of US dark beer to the growth of Guinness, but others might, I guess - but most US darks were noted for their malty sweetness, unlike Guinness' roasty bitterness.

And as to "why" - well, it is happening again with the general lack of US bocks and the disappearance (from shelves if not always portfolios) of non-flavored many porters and stouts, or any dark lagers or ales of average ABVs.

 

I remember getting one of those imported beer selection boxes for Christmas of 1981 -- it had Harp, Guinness, and 4 others -- that obviously didn't stand out in my mind (maybe Bass). I saved the Guinness for St. Pat's 1982, but I can't recall if it was the Extra Stout or "Original." @jesskidden and I have discussed this before -- I think he has an image of the label that was on the Guinness bottles back then.

 

Yeah, but that's probably reflective of your location (and, I think, a lot of retailers elsewhere had it on the shelf but just didn't sell a lot of it). Into the 1980s, "Guinness" made up only 1.6% of US import beer market [1983]- or about 4% of #1 Heineken's share ( ~40%). And as imports took off, in the 80s and early 90s, most of the newer, hot brands (Foster's, Moosehead, Dos Equis, Corona) just leap-frogged over Guinness.

Yeah, in the early 80s, "Guinness" in bottles was Extra Stout (no "Original" in the US that I've ever come across in research except recently). There was a short-lived "Guinness Cream Stout" which was supposed to be served via their "surger" to try to replicate the nitro Guinness Draught, also in the 80s.

Of course, the question always becomes what recipe they used for the US (and Canada) Extra Stout - the ABV of the ES's has jumped around quite a bit.

 

I seem to remember that you have a Guinness label image in your archives -- it has a serial number somewhere near the center and some Kelly green highlights in spots. Sound at all familiar?

 

JK maintains a wonderful web site available for all to see.

Here is one image from that web site for the Foreign Export Stout:



Much more information on that site:

https://sites.google.com/site/jesskidden/guinnessinamerica

Cheers to JK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

This one? (I have it filed under 1970-80s - but I think that "11.39 oz" size might narrow that down some more.)

Also, interesting how similar it is to the late 1950s US label Jack posted above - even tho' it's a different beer and a different importer.

Forget now what the deal was with those serial numbers - will check. Once a bottling date - "Dec. 12, 1985" would seem likely - but at some point, they were meaningless but looked "cool". ("Cool" was different in the 1970s...)

 

I guess they didn't have the budget to perform a design refresh!?!

Cheers!

 

I believe that's the one -- I kept the empty bottle on my shelf until I moved home in the Spring of 82. Wish I could remember what I thought of the beer...

 

Yeah, according to David Hughes, in some countries (doesn't specify the US) eventually the numbers weren't the date code (they claimed people were rejecting bottles that were too old, and the brewery was getting too many returns) and they went with a "notching" system, visible on the right side of that "peeled" label.

 

I personally think that there needs to be a reappraisal of the Vienna type, as well as of the Bohemian-Vienna-Munich typology. Assigning brown colored beers to the Vienna type leaves pretty much only variations of dark brown and black to the Munich or Bavarian type. The Bavarian lager beer was also known as braunbier in its native Bavaria, a name which makes alot of sense once you've seen the color of a beer using no roasted malt and only pale and munich base malt for color. To me the Löwenbräu beer looks like a Bavarian lager beer. Could I forsee a Vienna lager branded beer having the same color, sure, as it is evident that there was a color spectrum to the style (based on the lager beer-märzen beer distinction that was used in Austria), but I don't think such variations of the Vienna type should be allowed to distort our understanding of the Bavarian type.

 

If only there was Beer Advocate back then...

...as a random aside, I was born in the spring of '82.

 

What's 22 years between friends? Right @jesskidden ?

 

Speaking of 1982, here's an old stubby bottle that my HS girlfriend brought back for me from Ireland (it was full at the time ):

And you can clearly see how it says Best Before End Mar 1982 right above 284ml.

I was going to drink it regardless, but at least now it helps to date the memorabilia .

 

Just had a can of DAB. Been reading about it here, finally picked it up. Good solid German lager