Good “Crushers”?

I'd guess, like other "international" multi-brewing co. brands (maybe Carling Black Label the most famous and longest-lived?), the beers were "brewed to local tastes".

 

JK, do your local beer retailers still sell Carling Black Label?

It has been a looong time since I have seen this beer at my local Retail Beer Distributors.

Cheers!

 

I think to a degree this was true, but apart from a place such as UK with their tax-induced low gravities and abvs I imagine overall that the Skol beers were pretty much in the 10-11% gravity range and around 3.6% abw/4.5% abv. Basically modern highly attenuated light lager beers. IBUs probably around 20 or slightly below. Maybe some breweries used American rather than German hops, maybe some used a slightly higher proportion of adjuncts than others. But for an international brand circa mid 60s-70s I think alot of the markets where it was sold were moving in tandem. Neither of the markets featured were known for their strongly hopped light lager beers at the time.

 

For me, my "crushers" are

- Night Shift's Whirlpool
- Schilling Alexandr
- Jack's Abby Shipping Out of Boston (and House Lager)
- Weihenstephaner Orginal Premium (and Hefe, of course)

 

My normal crushers are:

• Bud Ice
• Jack's Abby House Lager
• Pilsner Urquell

 

Came here to say Bud. Bud heavy even. Yesterday I was having what I call a “Budweiser attack” so I stopped after work because I can’t beat it.

 

Not JK, but . . . . I don't ever remember seeing Black Label in the US (yes in Canada). Even when I lived in Portland, OR, in the 60s when Carling owned the Tacoma brewery. Their Heidelberg was a common draft in Portland taverns, and I remember Heidelberg Alt Dark and Columbia, but I don't remember seeing Black Label (or Red Cap). Nor do I remember seeing it in San Diego in the early 70s either. Black Label seemed to have had a spotty distribution.

 

I had a childhood friend named Oscar and his father's go-to beer was Carling Black Label. I saw a lot of Carling Black Label beer while growing up (many decades ago).

My father's beer of choice when I was a kid was Piels Real Draft in 16 ounce returnable bottles. I am pretty sure he purchased a case of those beers for less than 4 bucks.

Cheers!

 

Do they sell 4-packs of 0.5L Paulaner cans where you live?

 

If I’m having more than 2 of something, it’s probably going to be Bell’s Amber or North Coast Scrimshaw.

 

Lord Chesterfield does have a more pronounced flavor that I enjoy. I just do not see it around as much as the Lager. Maybe I need to look around for it.

 

How about Super Bock? Odd name as it's a lager. From Portugal, but you used to see it everywhere. Haven't had it in quite a while, but recall it was pretty refreshing.

 

Hey, I didn't say it was still "(a)live" in the US , only that it was one of the longest-lived international brands (still around in the UK, Canada and, IIRC, South Africa).
@Chaz might have some info on Pabst's Black Label's recent market it the US.

Carling's heyday in the US was during the 1950-1960s (going from the 45th largest brewer in 1950 to #4 in 1960s) and after that it was steadily downhill, but still a top ten brewer in the mid-70s, and after merging with National and bought by Heileman, by 1980 the latter was still selling around 1 million barrels of Carling Black Label and Black Label Light.

In the '70s Carling apparently saw the eventual collapse of the "popular-priced" segment in which Black Label was marketed (or they just weren't happy with the profits) and tried to make their brewed-under-license Tuborg their premium-priced national flagship. Supposedly, being assured of getting the US rights to the brand was a contingency of Heileman's purchase of Carling-National.

Articles on Heileman's closing of the Tacoma WA "Heidelberg" Carling brewery say Black Label was being brewed there and ads show it was sold on the west coast in California in the 70s.

 

The last thing I’d heard about Pabst’s plans (such as they are) was probably 2013 or so, and they wanted to make an effort to return “SCHMIDT BEER” (of Saint Paul, Minnesota) to some degree of market noteworthiness, if not prominence (and that effort has finally begun to show some results).

As far as “Carling’s Black Label” goes, Pabst doesn’t promote it, and it hasn’t been listed among their brands, online (at least that I can find) for more than ten years.

And inasmuch as it has “always” been available at a handful of retail and on sale (bars!) locations, the availability has certainly been seriously impacted by the aluminum can shortage of the past two years (and it hasn’t been a bottled or draught product for about thirty years).

In fact if my reading of the best-by / batch codes is correct, there were two runs in 2021, and three in 2020. So it’s rare!

For what it’s worth, Charlie Smigo’s excellent tribute page is still up and running, but the “where to buy” section hasn’t been updated in eight years — which is completely understandable, considering the minimal impact and interest the brand still continues to generate.

Locally, there are about five single unit retailers that have maintained a dedicated consumer base, and I expect it’s the very same in the last few holdouts across the U.S.

 

Yeah, their website(s) and general web presence seems to constantly be shrinking. They're down to listing only 8 of their traditional beer brands -
Blue Ribbon, Stroh, Stag, Lone Star, National Bohemian, Old Style, Olympia and Rainier - when just a few years ago, it looked like this:

You'd think with all the time they save by not brewing beer*, they'd keep their interns busy online. Remember on BA when contractee brewing companies like Pabst were called "Beer Marketing Company"? Gee, for the current Pabst, "marketing" isn't even correct.

*Yeah, OK - they seem to have taken over City's ownership but not sure how much Pabst-branded beers are coming out of those 3 or their recently acquired MC Irwindale brewery.

Looks like they have adopted former Pabst owner, Paul Kalmanovitz's anti-worker, anti-union attitude down at the Memphis brewery, by taking nearly a year to agree on a first contract with the new BCT&GM local voted in a year ago.
https://mlk50.com/2021/11/24/blues-city-brewery-union-workers-unanimously-approve-contract/

Yeah, that was the first place I thought of and then clicked back when I read "Updated June 29, 2014".

 

Adhering strictly to the price point guidelines:

Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy--Something about this brew is just perfect on a hot summer day.

Schell's Keller PIls (although not sure if that one is available in the OP's Texas market)

Blue Moon--Yes, I'm serious.

 

And one of those listed isn't even brewed anymore --
https://brewpublic.com/beer-history...-beer-as-olympia-artesian-vodka-continues-on/
Unless you count Olympia Vodka? . . . And is Schlitz really gone?

 

Nope. @Redrover just posted about drinking one yesterday:

“I had a High Life and a Schlitz yesterday.”

https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/heavy-aal-comeback.663844/#post-7414560

Cheers!

 

They still market other brands, but they only list those 8 on their website's BRANDS page https://pabst.com/brands/ which notes:

Their Olympia website still lists the beer as being available:
https://theoriginalolympia.com/pages/beer
But Pabst's websites are notorious for errors and being outdated...

 

The Golden Pilsner is also brewed in Fort Worth.