I grew up in Northern California, and so Anchor Steam is the obvious answer. Probably in the early or mid 70s. It was pretty expensive for the times (around $4.99 a six pack as I recall), so not something I drank very often. Also, it had far more flavor than I was accustomed to, and struck me as "heavy." It wasn't until I moved to Sacramento from Memphis in 1989 that I started drinking craft beer on a regular basis.
Great beer, but not something I see very often out here in the PNW. When I lived in Baltimore, there was a bar in town that would carry draft Kwak pretty often. Lot of customers would order it just because of the glass arrangement. Unfortunately, many of those same customers liked the glass so much they would take it home with them. The owner mentioned that the only reason he would even carry them (the glasses), was because he received 6 complimentary glasses every time he bought a keg.
Of course Jack. However, Kwak struck me as rather "passe" at the time (seeing as how I could find it without too much difficulty in Baltimore), and Monk's always had much more interesting and exotic stuff. That was the beer I was interested in.
Some Beer stores probably have Kwak up there if not much in establishments? Well, trying to snag a glass from a bar is very poor form. I never dared. Never thought about it either. Goody two shoes I know but not much a theft.
Anchor Liberty Ale was a true outlier. Back in the early 70s it was a starkly hoppy brew and to my thinking was a linchpin that is still being fiddled with. I'd like to have one now....Also Young's London Special....
Anchor's first Xmas ale if I recall correctly. There was an interesting article in the Celebrator brewspaper some years ago, discussing a visit by the brewing team from Young's (or some other British brewery, but I think it was Young's). They visited several breweries in California, including Anchor. The head brewer made particular mention of the Liberty ale, especially the rich, hop perfume nose. They sampled a lot of different beers during their visit, and had generally good things to say about everything they tried... but they made particular mention of the Liberty Ale, which they clearly felt was remarkable and a standout.
In my opinion, Anchor Liberty Ale was indeed a ‘game changer’ as I discussed: “…in 1975 another new beer brand was introduced, Liberty Ale, using a hop variety newly released in 1972: Cascade. The term “innovation” seems to be popularly debated when it comes to brewing but I have a strong viewpoint that the introduction of Cascade hops was an innovation to the brewing industry. Cascade hops provide vibrant flavor of citrus (often grapefruit-like) along with floral/spicy aspects. Beers which featured Cascade hops tasted very different from other existing beer styles/brands. This was indeed a situation of a brave new world for the brewing industry. The brand Liberty Ale was not marketed as an IPA when it was produced in 1975 but in my opinion, it was indeed the first modern IPA. And with the vibrant flavors of Cascade hops it was notably different from the ‘old school’ IPAs such as Ballantine IPA which was available during that time. https://www.morebeer.com/articles/What_Is_Craft_Beer Cheers!
For me it was early high school years, probably around 1993. A class mate of mines father was one of the original owners of Shipyard, so there was always plenty of Shipyard Export ale to pilfer around her house. I also remember drinking Pete’s Wicked and Magic Hat #9 around that same time. But HS, like many I am sure, was mostly cheap macros
In 1989 thru 1990, or so, I was buying cases of the Dubuque Star rendition of Erlanger -- they were killing it -- at least for what I was looking for in a better beer.
They couldn't say it, if it wasn't true! (right?) How did the chronology of Schlitz's Erlanger go again? Stroh tried to market it, new label and bottle... even got into a legal scuffle with Hudepohl (Christian Moerlein) over the "only American beer that meets the Reinheitsgebot" claim. They eventually bought Augsburger brand (when those ex-Pabst exec who owned Huber were about to sell it back to Fred) and so Stroh -which never had lucky with any "superpremium"- sold Erlanger to Dubuque Star. I recall one owner (they had several in the 80s) saying they put too much money into Erlanger and it failed for them, financially.
I know we've discussed this often in the past, and I never remember exactly what happened -- but I remember DS getting the Erlanger rights from some legal dispute with Schlitz that carried over to Strohs. Either way, it's funny that DS used the same label as Strohs and it was the "Märzen" tag that caught my attention back when... even though it really wasn't. Talk about they couldn't say it if it wasn't true.
Old Rasputin on Tap Had a friend dating a girl from Lennox13 , or maybe is was Hawthorne Little Watts 13, who worked at the Radisson LAX . Had it after drinking a 40 of OE ...never went back
