Is Pabst and Hamm's the same beer?

Strange... my parents would always talk about how THEIR parents drank Hamm's and Olympia all the time, but I've rarely (maybe never) seen them around here? What happened?

 

I prefer Hamms Its is crisper with a more creamy finish, Pabst is also good more sweet to me. BTW Hamms is always in my fridge.

 

Well, Theo. Hamm once had two breweries in California (LA and SF) and, of course, Olympia was the major west coast-based brewer by the 1960-1970s - even if AB and Coors had larger market shares. In 1970, those 4 were the largest selling brewers in California (rounded to nearest whole percent):

Coors - 30%
AB- 14%
Olympia - 16%
Hamm - 8%

Oh, that's a long (sad) story... and dinner is almost ready.

 

After all the praise for Hamms on this site, I had a couple with my father over Thanksgiving. He had loved it when he lived in Illinois and it was not distributed here.

I will have to agree with those that it was a very refreshing, completely non offensive and easy to drink beer. Was fairly fresh and Dad had bought the tallboys.

My recent trial of PBR was far less favorable--skunky to me. Not sure how old it was.

Need to side by side but my recent impressions were quite different. Vastly preferred the Hamms.

 

I've had Pabst on draught and Hamms in cans. I'm firmly in the camp that subscribes to Pabst being sweeter and Hamms being drier. Both have noticeable corn flavour.

 

I've been told by a recent employee that they are the same beer.

All of this talk about 4.6% v. 4.7% doesn't hold much ground, because these companies have target ranges to hit specifications. These beers are likely 4.4%-4.9%. So some versions of Pabst may be lower than others, or vice versa.

 

I’d need to try 3/4/5 aals to be fair, probably 5. I going to have my wife do it blind this weekend. I predicting I can easily find a favorite, but I’ll guess I can’t name it and I’ll be surprised. Never done a blind taste before, really interesting because it’s common beers.

 

So what 5?
Bud
Miller
Pbr
Coors
whatever else look interesting and common.

Can’t buy Hamms or Narragansett by the can here. No Schlitz. Maybe a Modelo or something similar.

 

Throw Corona in the mix. Tastes enough like PBR to me that I’m surprised it’s been such a runaway success over the past forty years.

 

Dale, can you purchase Yuengling Lord Chesterfield down there? That would be my suggestion.

Cheers!

 

What!?!

You aren't going to suggest Carling Black Label?

Cheers!

 

Not here.

 

Not here as well.

 

Not the same, not even close.
PBR is it own breed, as the same with Hamm's.
PBR is more sweet
Hamm's is more bitter an dry.

 

Another thing which I've found to be helpful when tasting beers, particularly when it comes to identifying hop flavor in a mildly hopped beer, is to drink an even milder tasting beer beforehand, just a small glass or so. Just as the bright flavor of hops in a beer can dull the taste and even aroma of a less hop forward beer (try drinking and smelling a bottle of AAL before and after an APA), I've found that a less bright tasting beer can make your tastebuds be more receptive to hops in another beer and make them stand out more. I would think that a light beer could do the trick here, say a Coors light. I would try both brands on their own first however, then try the light beer along with the two beers on a separate occasion to get both the "unprimed" and "primed" impression of them.

 

Budweiser, MGD (actually I'd do High Life instead personally), Coors Banquet, PBR, and a Mexican lager like Modelo or Corona would be good. I'd do Corona personally.

You could throw a ringer in there such as Founders Solid Gold.

We did a blind tasting of AAL's a number of years ago. Corona was in there, and it was hands down the winner for us. PBR did horribly if I remember correctly.

Granted age wasn't considered, so that could have played a part.

Age of the beers, we were all 21+.

 

Was a time, when it was first released, that MGD was the same beer as High Life. Only difference was that MGD was microfiltered and High Life Pasteurized. Could you taste a difference? I couldn't. Not sure if the process is the same these days.

 

Yeah, I noticed the other day that based on their current "Nutritional Info" pdf (below edited to delete "0's") it looks like they might have tweaked one or the other - slight difference in calories and MGD's ingredients list both "hop extract" and "hops" .


AFAIK, and given TTB regulations about the use of the term "Draft" for packages under 1 gallon, likely the pasteurized - microfiltered/sterile fill split still exists (as does Miller's "cold filtered" terminology ).

And since it's still in my Imgur account, the original label for MGD of the late '80s made it obvious:

 

I'd forgotten that they actually called it "High Life."

About the time MGD was introduced and was gaining popularity I took the Miller Brewery tour and actually saw the process of separating the beer line for packaging. Guide wasn't shy to point it out and describe the cold filtering and Pasteurization. So I asked, "Then they're actually the same beer?" "Yes."

IIRC -- weren't they pitting the non-Pasteurized quality against Coors at that time? Funny how the world turns.

Oh yeah -- reading an old AAB article reminded me of the other epiphany -- when the line split for the packaged MGD, it also filled kegs of High Life. Essentially making MGD and High Life draft the same beer. Of course, I knew it was only a matter of time until the marketing department introduced Miller Genuine Draft on Draft.

I once tried MGD Draft and High Life Draft (yeah, they sold both simultaneously) side-by-side. You can guess the result.