College beers: When, where & what?

I went to college from the late 80's to the mid 90's (87-96...two and half degrees) up here in Canada (University of New Brunswick, which is Canada's oldest university, and then a small [mostly] women's university [wait what?])...most of my beer was pure crap...Moosehead Pale Ale and Moosehead Ten Penny were my staples, until about '90 when my sister met a guy who owned a pub...then I started my journey into imports and craft.

 

While attending college in MN from 1989-94 our mainstays were Busch Light (cans) and Old Milwaukee (returnable bottles)

 

Always good to see another Mountaineer!

 

I attended Sonoma State in California graduated 1995. Had an off campus class that I had to take to graduate. Had to drive past Mendocino Brewing Company and often would stop in for a couple of Red Tail Ales before my class. One day the professor who also had to make the same drive mentioned she saw my car in the parking lot of the brewery which explained my being late.

 

U of Michigan, currently. Mostly Rolling Rock and PBR for the binging nights. A few times we've gotten kegs of Two Hearted.

 

During my college years ('81-'85) it was all about the "imports" — Heineken, Becks, Molson, Moosehead, Löwenbrau, Grölsch and Foster's. Don't recall drinking anything domestic then. Not that there was much domestic worth drinking back in those pre-craft days. At least as far as 18-22 yr. old beer noobs knew.

 

In college we loved both macro and craft. Party with games like beerpong = macro. Chill hang out = craft. My first ever successful power hour: Yuengling. At some point we wanted more abv so we switched to icehouse, then natty ice, then... ugh... steel reserve. How many painful tailgate mornings were spent drowning in steel reserve? The world may never know.

It was all for a purpose, though. As students we had to rage sometimes. And if we wanted to be able to afford craft sometimes, we had to save money when we raged. Thus, the macro.

Answer to the where: Gainesville.

 

From 93-97 while at Augustana College in Rock Island IL, my hang out was a hole in the wall called Chet's with $.50 room temperature Hamms on tap.

"From the land of clear blue water...."

 

I know I'm fairly young so it's different for me, but my macro/shitty beer phase probably lasted about a month, for me the shit beers of choice were stella artois and yeungling, it's almost always been craft for me

 

1980's Villanova. Put down the Piels and Schmidts and picked up Yuengling. The start of my Brewing Career. Cheers

 

University of Delaware, '94 - '98 (after serving in the Air Force). Drank tons of cheap beer when my fraternity had parties (Natural Light, Milwaukee's Best, Keystone...) This is also the time when I started discovering that there was better stuff out there; I started with stuff like Sam Adams, Saranac, Pete's Wicked Ale, and Sierra Nevada.

 

Early 90s.
Buffalo.
Milwaukee's Best, Labatt Blue. Again and again.
Splurges were Killian's, HoneyBrown.
Best day of my life was driving to Toronto and drinking MolsonXXX on draft before a Stones concert.
Damn, not much good beer, but lots of great times.

 

Started in Northeast Ohio in the mid 90's, just cheap crap at parties, I remember Genny Lite (sp?) in particular for some reason. Late 90s in Pittsburgh and WV I upgraded to drinking bottled stuff (that meant it was good quality, right?), and drank a lot Yuengling Black and Tan, Killian's Red, and Dundees Honey Brown, with the occasional Pete's Wicked when I could find it.

 

1980 ga. Southern(statesboro ga),miller lite 24 oz on draft $1.00 LADIES NIGHT THURSDAY> oh yeah ratio 5 to 1, never went home lonely.Dance and billiards all night

 

College 80's South Western Pennsylvania., Rolling Rock, 5 dollars a case, hangovers for free! Of course back then not a big problem.

 

Iowa 1997-2001. Toward the end of college I used to be able to pick up 30-packs of La Crosse Lager for what I swear was $8.88. I still enjoy La Crosse now whenever I can find it.

 

Kutztown '94. Lot's of Lord Chesterfield Ale and Milw. Best.

 

Late 1969 to mid 1975 in NJ, then Iowa, then back to NJ again. My main "normal beer" choice was Ballantine XXX Ale (it was a very different beer than it is now). In the springtime, it was also always Pabst Bock (a beer which to this day I still very much miss). Chesterfield Ale and Yuengling Porter also found their way into the mix once I returned to NJ from Iowa.

My preferred premium choices back then...actually my first choices whenever finances allowed... were Ballantine IPA (which, factoring the inflation rate into the equation, was actually higher priced than even some of the priciest "craft" beers are today); also Löwenbräu Mäerzen, Bass Ale, and Prior Double Dark (when I could find it).

I am proud to say that Budweiser was never an option for me.

 

Late 90's - Milwaukee's Best
.
Meanwhile my wife was in Chico drinking $2 pitchers of Sierra Nevada - no fair!

 

2002-2007 Iowa State. Whatever was on fire sale or 30 packs of Old Style.