Do you remember beer's "dark days?"

The Wm. Newman Brewing Co.'s brewery closed around 1986, in part because of financial problems and eventual bankruptcy associated with the closure of it's contract-brewer for its bottled beers, C. Schmidt's & Sons a couple of years earlier. The contract-brewed Newman beer lasted a few years longer, moved to F. X. Matt but as I recall it, the distribution region got a lot smaller, too.

Koch was never employed by Newman - he took a sort of "hands on" seminar that Newman offered to potential "micro-brewers". It was a way for Newman to make a few extra bucks.

Actually, the way Koch tells it, what he learned from Newman was to NOT start his own brewery - too expensive and labor intensive on a small scale (all the more so, since Koch wanted to brew lager), etc - but to contract brew his beers. (Koch picked Pittsburgh Brewing Co., home of Iron City Beer). He had some pretty unkind (and somewhat inaccurate) things to say about Newman's in Olge's Ambitious Brew (from the Google Books preview).

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A few years after starting Boston Beer Co. Koch did open a small "pilot brewery" in Boston, and supposedly bought some of Newman's brewing equipment to originally outfit it.

 

Haha this thread is back? Wowww. Interesting info for those of us too young to remember.

 

And by someone who just joined BA yesterday and whose only two posts are here.
I remember my dad bringing home the bock beer that the local brewers put out during the spring. My grandfather used to drink German exports in the 50's but was a Michelob man.

 

Great thread..even if it's a resurrected one.
I can totally relate to the Molson and Brador stories, those were THE beers for teenagers like me, trying to be cool. Then there was Lowenbrau, St Pauli Girl and Heiny if you had more $$. The bang for your buck back then though..was Haffenreffer Private Stock..40oz. Two of those, and you were done!

 

Huber was a BIG BOY? Bet Joseph Huber and Hans Kestler would get a kick out of that!

To Augie being a match for anything coming from Europe... not so sure. I knew a vet from the post war days who liked Augsburger, but he always asked me why US breweries couldn't make beer like those he drank in Germany.

 

Not to mention the angst over the cold-to-hot myth.

 

That must be generational too, I sure don't remember any of that concern. We had a local with Special Ex on tap in the mid-80s, drank it their all the time with "no fear."

Now, when my friend and I found EKU-28 as we were honing our beer chops... was scary!

 

Remember the thread? Or the Dark Days?

 

That sounds just like the vet I was talking about a few posts up -- always raved about German beer, but thought Michelob (on tap) was the best he could find from the US. This was the early to mid-80s, mind you -- on the tail end of the Dark Days.

 

I am talking 60's and he also drank Miller. Still can see the fridge filled with Mich and Miller.

 

I find amusing the posts like this, which pop up now and again, where the writer thinks that craft brewers don't need or want to taint themselves with making money. If your favorite brewer isn't concerned with making a profit, better buy up all you can---the place won't be around long.

We could also do a quick comparison of the number and quality of craft breweries in capitalist countries vs. the same in non-capitalist economies and see what we get.

 

I think he was referring to that "skunky" Heineken taste, not so much skunking in general.

 

Heineken only has a skunky character after it's been light-struck in a green bottle. If you ever have it on tap or from a can you'll see.

 

The fella I mention started drinking beer in the late 40s and soldiered on into the 80s.

 

Glad I don't own a bar in England or Germany only getting two days from a keg:
"Thats why a keg is rolled out and emptied in England or Germany after 2 days being tapped"'

of course this must be true, commies drink the best beer:
"Oh, the capitalist world will comsume all things valuable for the never ending lust of greed and wealth and leave us to drink our own urine, fermented of course'

Yes and most of all:
"Most all of the american ale producers need to learn how to use hops properly and how not to just produce high alcohol soda pop(sugar, sugar) ales."

What a douche and all in his first day (and only?) on BA.

 

When I was younger, there was no such thing as beer's dark days per se. The only dark days were those that you didn't have enough cash to buy some. Besides, there was usually something different out there to try, as long as you could find it and again, have enough cash to buy it.

Fast forward to today and I believe I would describe beer's dark days as going into a bar or restaurant that doesn't have at least 1 or 2 decent [a/k/a non-macro] craft beers on tap.

 

I read it as Huber's Augsburger was stomped out by the Big Boys from Milwaukee and St. Louis -- and Golden.

 

Oh yeah, I can see that -- guess I was reading it as a synonym to "churned out."

But I definitely lament those days that Miller stormed Huber's castle and drove him out of the state.

 

You must have been in a lucky area, even the "different" stuff tasted about the same as the "usual" stuff when I first started drinking beer in the late 70s.

On the flip side, I must live in a lucky area now, because even the dive places around me have one or 2 beers worth ordering -- and I definitely remember the times when they didn't.

 

OK. sure enough.

wait. what?

huh?

you only drink a beer if it comes with papers?

is this a joke? this is a joke right? come on, you almost had me.