Full Circle: Time to Start Respecting AAL

I didn't pick up on the emphasis on "all malt". One observation I have is that a lot of those adjunct-containing beers in the 70s I liked seemed to have more body than some of the modern all malt beers. This could be due to changed techniques and malt varieties (and possibly due to changes in my palate). For example, the widespread current emphasis on higher alcohol contents could induce brewers to ferment wort more thoroughly, depriving the final brew of a robust taste.

 

I'm a Bavarian at heart, but I like both styles equally.

 

Oh, yeah. The real degree of attenuation went up constantly after Repeal.

The average of US beers, for instance:
1937 - 57.9 %
1941 - 56.7 %
1950 - 60.0 %
1960 - 61.7 %
1970 - 63.8 %
1983 - 64.6 %

The well-known American Brewer magazine study, 25 Years of Brewing (1958)- 25 years since Repeal - even noted it then:

 

Yes, I thought about not adding Michelob, since Vegas is the only place I can occasionally find it fresh. Binny’s (Chicago Big Box / TW equivalent) may have it, but I no longer shop there. I was told they are discontinuing Michelob Lager completely this year.

Would have also added the 1990s version of Michelob Light, the only light beer I’ve ever ordered on purpose and been satisfied. They reformulated it / watered it down after Ultra was introduced, not sure why they would have changed it.

Very good conversation between @JackHorzempa , @jesskidden and @John_M .

Would just like to add that the homogenization and “dumbing down” of beer is consistent with many food products, and consolidation and commoditization of many aspects of American life, a very sad phenomenon over my lifetime.

It’s great that there has been a renascence in independent craft brewing and auxiliary businesses such as craft beer focused bottle shops and beer bars. While I do enjoy a few AALs occasionally, I enjoy the fact that most of my purchases and beer consumption goes to local employees and ownership, or those of other communities when I purchase out of state beers.

 

I think it was the era. We all wanted something different than the bathwater we were "forced" to drink.

I remember having my first Guinness Stout (Extra, not Draught) in early 1982 and realizing beer was more than the cases of Old Style we bought every weekend.

I'd had access to other imports at the time, but they were few and far between. But that Guinness was an eye opener.

 

Well, don't know how old you are but that was happening before you --- or I --- were born. I always think of this comment in a 1937 FORTUNE magazine, in an article on P. Ballantine & Sons' success with marketing a reformulated "light ale" (Ballantine XXX Ale) after Prohibition in a beer market dominated by lager beers.

Of course, by the 1960s, that "light" ale Ballantine XXX Ale, and the brewery had been losing market share and was slowly dying - the ale viewed as too strong, too hoppy - an old fashioned "old man's" beer.

But, more than anything, I now want to try some Durkee mayo. Who knew?

 

Beer is unique in the fact that the entire market was nuked by government fiat led by the scum that led the prohibition movement. 1,300 breweries became 0 became 30 over a generation. And there were monopolies before that started by the Robber Barons in oil and a few other industries.

Since that time, however, a majority of industries have been consolidated either by laws and regulations written by members of Congress Fortune 500 companies, or by finance, insurance and other fixed costs that limit competitiveness to only the largest entity(ies).

• Local pharmacists driven out by CVS/Walgreens.
• Local grocery stores driven out by Walmart/Albertsons/Target/Bezos.
• Local hardware stores driven out by Home Depot / Lowes.
• Local department stores driven out by Kohl’s, Macy’s, Bezos.
• Local electronic stores replaced by Best Buy and Bezos.

I’m still able to find independent stores for many of the products I buy (mostly food and beer these days), but for those in smaller towns or cities, or those who don’t have the time to run around to several stores, they shop at the same dozen stores, and the wealth leaves their communities.

 

The trend to lighter beer isn't just a US phenomenon. Prohibition wasn't worldwide. In Europe World Wars caused drastic thinning of beers and restricted availability. I wouldn't characterize the prohibitionists as scum. Many were idealists whose ideas didn't come out right. They were a lot like, but maybe more sensible than, the people behind the US war on drugs. Neither campaign worked out very well.

 

Well, I know she's with the Smithsonian and all, but I wonder what she's referring to. Most sources I've researched put the number of active brewers with licenses to brew cereal beverage/near beer at the end of Prohibition along with ones making malt syrup at around 200, such as these snips from articles just before Repeal:

And the relavant section from a graph found in 1958's American Brewing Industry and The Beer Market - Shih and Shih.

There's little doubt that making near beer did not pay.

Plus there were breweries that simply maintained their equipment and were ready to brew as soon as Repeal came, although unlike the near beer brewers, did not have the time to have been ready for April, 7, 1933 Repeal Day in those states that had also legalized 3.2w beer (below - in white).

(Two difference sources - the AP missed Louisiana).

Pretty sure I've done a quick review and of the over 700 breweries operating after full Repeal and the necessary changes in state laws, etc., by 1934-1935, over half of them had some connection to pre-Pro brewing companies, even if names, brands, buildings and/or ownership changed.

 

I respect other opinions, and for those who fought for prohibition for the “right reasons”, without racial animosity and religious bigotry, I can respect their viewpoint. It appears as though your views are sincere, and I direct no animus to you or others.

My scum comment was the fact that the Prohibition movement was largely backed by “Elite” WASPs, in large measure because of racist and religious bigotry toward Southern or Eastern European immigrants, and or ones with a Catholic background (primarily Irish from the North). The same “class” of people who fought for discriminatory Blaine laws and others targeting Catholics, Blacks, Asians, Indians, Mexicans and others.

Chicago ran multiple mayors out of office, including Mayors Boone and Medill, for their attempts at prohibition and other anti immigrant policies in the mid 1800s. I still boycott collar suburbs Evanston and Oak Park 100 years later for their role in the prohibition movement, and largely intact populations and attitudes. YMMV

“The road to Hell is paved with “good” intentions.”

 

So similar traits in some prohibitionists and some "war on drugs" advocates. In '68 I spent a semester at Argonne Lab. Our first stab at going shopping we ended up in dry territory (Downers Grove??). We were shocked. Next time we headed in the other direction to Lemont, where we found alcohol.

 

You mean, besides those differences? Well, as an AB spokesman said the complaint was: "...not just to create negative publicity for Miller's Lowenbrau, but to seek serious FTC investigation into the advertising, labeling and packaging practices of this 'homemade import'."

The labels and sixpack "basket" were pretty much identical to the German-brewed Lowenbrau sold in the US, of which Miller had taken over the importation right a few years earlier in 1974, resulting in a lawsuit by long-time east coast importer, Hans Hollerbosch, Inc.

(It actually took a few years for the change over, so that some regions got Miller's and some the real thing.)

Based on a separate lawsuit filed in Illinois by a consumer, the BATF actually issued what at the time was called in the press an "unusual consumer advisory":

Of course, decades later, the current Anheuser-Busch, now a subsidiary of ABInBev, has lost similar class action lawsuits against their labeling of "homemade imports" like Beck's Beer, brewed-under-license Kirin as well as the former Craft Brew Alliance Kona-brands brewed in AB breweries and not on Hawaii. Besides payouts to consumers (I GOT MINE!), the Beck's case meant more black ink usage by AB's label print shop.

 

Yeah, and it was not uncommon in the US previous to the AB/Miller Lawsuit which was just one of the conflicts between the two brewers that were part of what came to be called the "Beer Wars". There were a number of former Canadian brands, like Carling Black Label and Red Cap Ale, Drewrys Stock Ale, and Frontenac Stock Ale that were brewed in the US after Repeal (brands that became known from bootlegging them from Canada during US Prohibition) and only a few years before the Miller/Lowenbrau deal, Carling in the US began brewing a Tuborg-branded beer.

Like Miller's Lowenbrau, it was not the same recipe but did use Tuborg's yeast strain, which the brewer likened to the "bloodline of a thoroughbred horse" and as a Carling VP explained:

A few years later, by then Carling-National would reformulate and rename their beer as Tuborg Gold, admitting they had previously used both US grown 2- and 6-row malt (likely corn adjunct as well) and the new recipe "doubled" the amount of German hops used. Resulting in, if not sales enough to keep the company afloat, one of the classic US beer slogans.

Carling-National would soon be sold to Heileman, which did want to add the premium-priced Tuborg Gold to their portfolio.

A bit of US brewing industry trivia - the first Carling Tuborg recipe was created by Joe Owades, famous for creating the process that resulted in the early US "light beers" Gablinger's and Meister Brau Lite, the latter of which evolved into Miller Lite (after some reformulation) AND for creating or tweaking the recipes of early US "craft" beers like New Amsterdam Amber, Pete's Wicked Ale and Samuel Adams Boston Lager.

 

JK, in the above Tuborg ad there is mention of "twice" fermentation. Does the 'second' fermentation equate to the lagering phase? If so, was it 'common' back then to consider lagering as being a fermentation process?

Cheers!

 

Probably Wheaton. I think they finally repealed their "prohibition" in 1985, but I remember going to a college basketball game there in the late 70s and we couldn't find anywhere to get a beer.

 

Do you watch the TV show Ghosts?

Cheers!

 

Um, I've turned down 'free' beer at a company gathering because it was two different mass produced AALs. To be fair, I *did* try one, but if I'm going to spend some calories on beer, I want to enjoy it.
That stated, back when I did a form of MMA with friends, a sixer of Coors Light was an excellent thirst quencher. So yeah, time and place.