Premium beer back in the day?

Wow, I never saw it in NJ until the late 70's when a store in Summit called The Beer Barrel carried it. I don't remember the price but it was very expensive compared to everything else.

 

I remember it costing $4.80 per six-pack in 1974. It was available for about four years and then vanished. I returned in 1984 for about $6.00 per six-pack.

 

That jarred my brain it was $5.99 a 6 pack. It's $9,99 now 40+ years later.

 

I was an underage drinker in the 70's but this was my impression as well. We thought it was Bud in a prettier bottle. But in the mid-90's Michelob Draft and Michelob Original Lager were superior to my palate and the same price as Bud. At that point craft around here was mostly Sam Adams Lager and a local brew pub Gritty Mcduff's with an ESB so the bar was not high to be considered better.

 

I suppose that Kyle MacLachlan as Jeffrey Beaumont in the movie Blue Velvet was portraying a “cool kid”?

 

I'd much rather have a nice Italian pilsner

 

When I started drinking an occasional beer in my teens (I know, I know).... the fancy stuff was Lowenbrau and Bass Ale when I could get it. Heineken was my Dad's stuff, and he would let me taste when young...didn't really like it then (or now).

 

When I started drinking in the late 60s, most of the premium beers were from outside the US: Heineken, Lowenbrau, Bass, Moosehead. Michelob was by far the most sought-after US premium beer.

 

Bella!

Cheers!

 

Back in the early 90's, Michelob was still seen as "premium" compared to the standard Bud, Miller, Coors flagship offerings. Taste-wise, I'd say it was bolder and a mostly justified opinion.
I mainly remember people thinking that the not-so-obvious BMC beers were primo, too. Beers like Ice House, Red Dog, Southpaw, Natural (the non-light one), Killian's, along with the waves of "Dry" and "Ice" beers. If someone had something really, really premium, they usually had an import lager. Beck's, Heineken, Corona, Moosehead, Lowenbrau, or the (VERY unusual at the time) Hoegaarden. Sam Adams, Rogue, Anchor, SN, Pete's, etc. were viewed similarly although a lot of people turned their noses up to those. "They don't taste like real beer."

 

I wasn't much of a beer drinker "back in the day" (early 70's). I'd scream "hey, Old Style" at Wrigley Field, (it was better than Bud), but I always enjoyed a Grolsch with the flip top cap or an Augsburger, Lowenbrau or even a Fosters.

Is any of that still available?

 

Well, I can buy Grolsch and Fosters (brewed somewhere in the US I presume) at my local Retail Beer Distributor.

There is an ongoing thread that Lowenbrau is not available in the US.

It would seem that Augsburger was last brewed in by Stevens Point Brewery a number (10?) of years ago. Do you have a good beer memory? What did the Augsburger from 'back in the day' taste like?

Cheers!

P.S. I will await a post by JK providing clarification and/or corrections to the above.

 

Analyses can show the relative strengths and, to some extent bitterness and body. But the "popular priced", "premium", and to some extent "super premium" beers in the 70s all existed in a small range. Alcohol was 4.5 to 5.0 abv. Bitterness and body also resided in a narrow range. In my opinion preferences were more due to personal taste than to objective measures of "quality". There were several super premiums that were apparently designed to compete with Mich. Following is my personal opinion from memory, and isn't a definitive review. While I thought Michelob tasted much like (not better than) typical premium beers, including Bud. Pabst Andeker was my choice among lagers. Huber Augsburger and, in the late 70s Henry Weinhards were good. Hamms Waldech and Schlitz Erlanger were just OK.

 

You didn't ask me but . . . . I drank Augsburger regularly in the mid to late 70s in Chicago. I thought it was the closest US lager (that I found) to German helles. I think it had more bitterness than Bavarian Helles. There was also a dark and a seasonal bock that were also good, but I don't think those measured up to German imports at the time. Augsburger label was sold to Stroh after Huber sold the brewery in '85. Augsburger was never the same. When Huber took over again for a time, he marketed Berghof Beer that was probably close to the original Augsburger recipe.

 

Michelob was always tasty and easy to drink, and several. I loved Red Cap Ale, Ballantine Ale, National Premium, Encore, Andeker, Rheingold, Ringnes when I could find it and just drank a boatload of indusrial Schlitz and my Dad's Lowenbrau and Heineken. And Blatz draft and Beck's Dark at The Pickwick....Wait, there's more!!!!

 

Berghoff Dark, & Lowenbrau (American version) were the premium beers that I drank back in the day.

 

I did a quick web search on Augsburger and found an article by Michael Jackson:

“For some years, Fred retained the ambition of launching a hoppier Van Merritt at his family brewery in Monroe, Wis. Another Chicago brand, Augsburger, had found its way (via Potosi, Wis.) to Monroe. Inspired by an encounter with a German brewer, Fred Huber turned Augsburger into the hoppiest U.S. lager of its time. "Augsburger embraces the brooding bitterness of Spalt with the spicy finish of Hallertau," commented my 1982 "Pocket Guide to Beer." As a "domestic super-premium," Augsburger won a reputation not only in Chicago, but nationally. It was his greatest success.”

http://www.beerhunter.com/documents/19133-001650.html

The Augsburger of circa 1980 sure reads like a tasty beer.

Cheers!

 

Yeah, it was in the bottom tier of super premiums that I could get a hold of.

Erlanger, Andeker, Augsburger, Herman Joseph's..I reckon that I am missing one.

 

Schlitz made Encore and it was very tasty.