Grandpa Brews

How so?

 

I would imagine, yes. Cluster is still grown and therefore someone has to be using it - I doubt it's "craft brewers". As to any specific beers using Cluster I haven't got a clue, but my guess is that it's some of those throwback "grandpa" beers.

On that note, or as an aside, is someone still brewing Rainier? I haven't had that in 'literally' decades. Oh, and another one, "Old Style" - or even "Pig's Eye"! Wow, a lot of great memories coming back based on this thread.

 

I was a beer and wine wholesaler for decades. I had a great affinity for beer going back to my Dad;s Lowenbrau and and an early journey to Europe. We ushered in the new era of beer in the early 00s when North Carolina raised the beer alcohol limit above 6%--Pop the Cap. We lobbied hard. The rest is history still growing.

 

I've always wanted to find some Olympia because Clint Eastwood always drinks it in his movies.

 

Rainier is a Pabst brand.

According to their website, they have more than just the AAL in the Rainier brand family. (They even have an IPA! - sort of...)

 

While I haven't been up there in a few years, northern Minnesota was always a goldmine for "grandpa" type beers. In one liquor store, you could get: Schmidt's, Schaefer, Olympia, Hamm's, Stroh's, PBR, Old Style, Grain Belt, Schlitz, and Old Milwaukee, maybe others I'm forgetting too (Meister Brau possibly?). We sampled them all over the years, and liked Hamm's and Stroh's the best.

 

Those are two beer brand names that haven't come up yet in this thread. I've heard of the Burgermeister name but never came across it way back when. Falstaff was the beer that Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese pitched (no pun intended) every weekend on TV as announcers on the CBS(?) Baseball Game of the Week.

 

There is or was? I thought all but National Premium were long dead (and NP was resurrected a few years back, but not much heard from them since).

The most respected Rainier brand from the era of the OP was Rainier Ale, which Heileman and then Pabst dumbed down, and the latter eventually killed a few years ago (@Bitterbill ?)

Lord Chesterfield Ale is still brewed by Yuengling, though apparently the distribution region is much smaller than for their flagship Tradition Lager and a few other brands. (One NJ distributor rep told me it would be dropped eventually a few months back, another one said he didn't think so - just the other day.) But if you're looking for a US golden ale brewed with Cluster - I'd think you're out of luck.

Yeah, Falstaff was a huge "Top 10" national brewing company from the late 40s into the early 70s, and they eventually owned two different breweries in California (San Jose and San Francisco) and were the SF Giants sponsor right after they hit town - don't know how long that lasted.

Burgermeister (aka "Burgie") was a big local San Francisco brand and was the one of the largest brewers based in California in the late '50s (around 1M bbl), second only to Lucky/General. The brand later went through a few large brewers' hands (Schlitz > Hamms > Pabst, IIRC) before the it disappeared. When Olympia bought Hamm in the mid-70s, there was a brief hope that their SF brewery would stay open and brew just Burgie, but they eventually sold the label to Pabst (which had a brewery in LA).



.

 

Rainier Ale must still be around as there are lots of recent ratings on Untappd, less so for BA.
And I never thought that it was dumbed down. More like amped up and that was a death blow for my love of that Ale.

 

Yeah, that's what I thought but haven't been up around central NYS for quite a while, so thought it was possible. When I lived in the "Southern Tier" region in the mid-80s Matt Premium was huge, maybe the biggest draft choice after macros AB, Miller or Labatt. I was pretty surprised 'cause I thought I was moving into "Genesee Country".

I'd been a fan of Matt's since an earlier period of living up along the NYS/Ontario border in the late 1970s and most every bar up there had Matt's in brown deposit bottles - the throw-aways were clear, so I avoided them. They even had clear 7 oz. long neck deposit bottles, and bar often used them as salt and pepper shakers (some company made plastic snap-on cap with holes for just that purpose).

Apparently when Matt Premium was first released in the late 1940s, it was an all-malt beer - pretty unusual for the time. I've wondered in the new "Haus Lager" is based on that since they do make reference to an older brewery recipe.

 

Damn, you know what I mean. You a testy devil, aren't' you?

 

"Testy", no (well, sometimes)... I just thought by writing "once again" you were implying that Pabst or someone else was resurrecting even more old Schlitz and Carling-National brands.

Would especially like to revisit the US-brewed Red Cap Ale again. (Used to hang out in this tiny little cellar bar near a friend's house that sold only [well, as i remember it] Budweiser or Red Cap Ale, both in long neck deposit bottles, stuffed into two bar sinks full of ice).

And what did happen to that National Premium reboot? (Gone the way of most revived brands, I guess?) Ah, the website's still up - NATIONAL PREMIUM

 

Loved the chugs mugs, the only one left is Mickeys.

 

I believe Champagne Velvet qualifies, given its history. Upland has remade it from supposedly the original recipe. I drank this when I could find it on tap in Terre Haute during my college days. The Upland Version tastes like I remember the reboot from Terre Haute Brewing Co back then.

Should be available in MI, OP.

https://growlermag.com/glass-from-the-past-champagne-velvet/

 

More of a grenade bottle but the opening is chug. Thank goodness the pull tab went away.

 

Someone who knows a nostalgic sucker should bring it back, I’m their market.