Chicago's very own Legacy Lager

Yes, remember it very well. Also got to meet Steve Dinehart, the owner, a few times -- very good guy.

Beside Legacy, IIRC, there was an Irish Red, a Weizen, and a Bock (Doppelbock?). All very good and welcome additions to the shelves in the early days of micro-brewing.

https://chicagoreader.com/news-politics/local-brew/

Good, historical perspective. Not sure I remember the Hibernia brewmaster worked at Chicago Brewing, but it certainly explains why I liked the beers.

@jesskidden -- Jack Schaller ring any bells?

 

Well, claiming he "... helped develop ... Ballantine India Pale Ale..." while brewing at Falstaff's Ft Wayne brewery might be a bit of a stretch since the beer (the brand, at least, if likely not the recipe) dates from the 1870s but was probably re-formulated after Repeal by Ballantine's Burton-trained brewmaster and then again when the brand move to, first, Falstaff's Narragansett brewery and then to Ft.Wayne.

Larry Bell once (post #50) posted a story of Schaller's BIPA work:

 

Well, that's the author's words, no real quote. Besides, I'm more interested in his work at Hibernia -- that was a real favorite brewery of mine back in the early days.

 

According to reports at the time, he was hired by the new owner of Walter's Brewing Co. as an assistant brewer/chemist in 1985, at the same time they changed the name to Hibernia and announced the new flagship brand, Eau Claire All Malt Lager. (Never realized that the new company kept two Walters as employees, with John Walter intially remaining the brewmaster.)

A couple of years later, Fred Scheer had become the company's brewmaster with their portfolio listed as:
Eau Claire All Malt Lager
Eau Claire All Malt Light Pilsner
Hibernia Bock
Hibernia Weizen
Hibernia Oktoberfest
Hibernia Winter Brau

 

These were the 2 I drank a lot of back in the late 80s.

Thinking back on those days, I can't recall where I'd buy it. Maybe on trips north where I'd stop at small spots to hunt rare labels.

 

Yeah, I remember buying the Eau Claire All Malt Lager in the northeast (I think I might still have a sixpack carrier around...) Not on that brand list (from the 1987 Brewers Digest) was another early beer, Hibernia Dunkel Weizen, which came in second at the 1985 GABF (obviously in that controversial "consumers poll"), as the local paper reported, "...just behind an entry by James Cook of Boston, which was brewed by Pittsburgh Brewing Co."

 

Surprised it was distributed so widely.

 

Well, it used to be an industry rule of thumb that the NY-NJ metro area was the largest "expensive beer" markets in the country (in 1980, the region accounted for 8% of the population yet purchased 30% of the imported beer). I always figured at the time that area distributors went out looking for all those new US "specialty" beers and made offers to the breweries for bulk purchases rather than the other way around.

In the early-mid '80s, I remember the beers from brewers like Anchor, Boulder, Arkansas-based (!) Smith & Riley, Grant's Yakima Brewing Co. beers, Pickett's, Portland (contract-brewed by F X Matt), Augsburger, Hudepohl's Christian Moerlein and the Merchant du Vin's US brands like Schell and Cold Spring being available.

 

I can see MdV, they were everywhere -- the local rep was a regular at one of our locals that carried all their stuff. I bla... uh, credit him for getting me in to better beer.

Hell, I even participated in a road trip/pub crawl with the guy. He's who introduced me to Kirby Nelson at Capital (at that time... 1989?).

 

Everywhere that mattered (to us), at least Pretty sure somewhere I had a very early 80s article about their MdV's northeast division and they had 3 distributors - one in NJ, one in the Boston MA area and a RI firm. I'd guess in all those 3.2 states and the ones that prohibited or limited beer ABV to under 5% weren't being covered by MdV.

Heck, when I owned a retail license in NYS near the Canadian border around that time, neither I nor most of the competition carried any imports, I had to drive 50 miles and pick up Ballantine Ale (the distributor wouldn't come to my store and his warehouse was in an old barn with dirt floors) and once I asked my AB house rep about Michelob and he just rolled his eyes because it was too expensive for the market. I don't even recall any Labatt's or Molson.

 

Funny, because in Michigan's UP (in the late '70s thru the late '80s) -- not a high income area by any stretch, we always bought Canadian beers over the usual BMC (Old Style) stock.

I can't remember seeing Michelob, but I'm sure I wasn't looking.

 

I believe this beer is being revived by Metropolitan?

https://wgnradio.com/100-years-of-wgn-radio/chicagos-very-own-golden-lager/

 

Not sure where you're seeing "Legacy Lager" in that story. Legacy was brewed in the early 1990s by Steve Dinehart at his Chicago Brewing Company -- no connection to Seip.

Maybe the "Chicago's Very Own" tagline WGN uses confused you with this thread's title -- CVO wasn't a Legacy Lager marketing term -- just Les' choice of words for his post.

That said, Metro is a great Brewer so I'd bet the WGN beer will be good.

 

I'll vouch for the Hibernia Dunkel Weizen (just another consumer!). Drank a sixpack visiting Chicago. I remember it as a solid dark beer, but not tart like German Weizens. I also sampled Biberbrau and Legacy Lager on visits there, both very good to my taste.

 

I'm very easily confused so I'd guess you're right.

 

In the late 70s, in the relative civilization of Long Island, our Yaphank beer store owner made regular 50 trips to Queens to pick up beer from "Mr. Kulmbacher" including Monchshof and Yuengling.

 

Baderbrau?

 

shaky memory here. yes.

 

Bieberbrau