Pilsner Hate

Wait a sec (Uh, oh - yeah, we've covered this topic before but because I'm apparently only a few years older than you and I also did extensive beer buying in your region...) that wasn't the case for everyone. Just a few miles up US Rt. 1 the large PA distributor chain, Brewers Outlet, had a store in Fairless Hills and, as noted in this "Domestic" list from a 1976 ad -

(Ballantine) India Pale Ale - the last regularly-brewed US-brewed IPA until "craft" IPA's like came along - was one of their stocked beers, as were a number of "non-macro" breweries' brands as well as non-AAL's (highlighted) like hoppy ales and a few dark beers - in particular, Philadelphia's famous Prior Double Dark.

A couple of years later, the store also carried the Ortlieb-brewed McSorley's Cream Ale and Sean O'Shaughnessy Boarhead Stout as well as other ales from C. Schmidt's & Sons - Tiger Head Ale, Ram's Head Ale and 20th Century Ale. (Also not in the above ad was Horlacher's "9 Month Old" Perfection Beer - I know they stocked it, tho', 'cause I bought their last case! ).

 

Lol, let me amend that, IPAs were completely off my radar, I had never heard of them, and I wasn’t old enough to buy beer in Pa at the time of this ad. I was stationed in NC, we bought beer at a gas station or a grocery store.

 

JK, the beer distributor near my family that we shopped was Brewers Outlet in Woodlyn, PA. My father would take me with him when I was young and I would walk around and see all of those beers that you listed. I always thought the case packaging for Ballantine IPA was cool since it made mention of being aged in wood:



My father would always just make his regular purchase of Piels Real Draft in 16 ounce returnable bottles.

I always wondered what sort of person would purchase a beer like Ballantine IPA. I never tasted the 'original' Ballantine IPA. It was before my time.

Cheers!

 

Living in Virginia and West Virginia at that time, it was available at the fancy stores. I bought it occasionally but really didn’t rate it above my usual lagers.

 

The closest I came to drinking an ‘original’ Ballantine IPA was a beer collaboratively brewed by Stone and Smuttynose they branded as Cluster’s Last Stand. This beer was brewed based upon a recipe formulated by Bill Pierce. I enjoyed that beer. I discussed it in a past thread:

https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...and-vs-pabsts-ballantine.217032/#post-2853438

Cheers!

 

Um... define "a lot."

 

I think Victory brewing out of Downington PA sells to NC. Prima pils is a world class example and not too difficult to find-

 

Less interested than when is the question? There were hardly any craft pilsners being brewed in the US back when things like Bourbon Barrell Aged Vanilla Chocolate Strawberry stouts were nothing but a crazy dream.

I find the tendency to portray the American craft palates of old as models of sophistication to be a bit overdone honestly. If you look at the Beers of Fame list, most of them are either rare, high ABV, fruity, hoppy, strongly flavored, or all of the above. Since that's what craft drinkers appear to have gravitated to for quite some time, it doesn't seem very surprising that, with 8000 breweries now vying for consumer's attention, those flavor extremes continues to get more extreme as brewers try to find a way to stand out from the pack.

ETA: reading that back it sounds a bit testy which wasn't my intention. I find these historical discussions interesting and am just meaning to offer an alternative thought.

 

That's definitely a fair assessment and I don't mean to say that the was some heyday of subtle and delicate flavor obsession that has passed. My observation is simply that in my drinking life, the "crafty" segment of beer started with primarily styles of ale like porter, amber, pale, red, brown, and stouts that rang in typically south of 8%. Then there were the various more flavorful than aal lagers, and the biggest boldest beers were the Belgian and Trappist styles (which tend to have a fair bit of sweetness but also have a lot more going on than just that). When I went to a brewery or a nicer beer retailer there was very much this sense that as you got used to the flavors typical to beer (bitterness, herbal/spiciness, breast/roasty malts, and such ) you could start to appreciate the various styles more.
Increasingly these days it seems that many of the most prominent breweries and styles offer up very simple and familiar flavors (fruit juice, chocolate cake, marshmallows, coconut, etc) mostly by adding these actual ingredients that aren't historically beer ingredients. And that's as far as many breweries care to push the consumer palate. The height of beer flavors for many consumers now seems to be an ipa that tastes exactly like mango juice or a stout that tastes exactly like a chocolate covered macaroon.
I really do not care what other people drink and enjoy and I'm by no means starved for the beer flavors that I like, but that shift to just the simple sweet flavors dominating represents a shift to a much simpler palate that parallels a similar shift across the food and beverage industry

 

Nice, nostalgic image - altho', looks awfully familiar . That's an image of the side of the sixpack carrier - since you were shopping at a PA retailer distributor you'd have seen the cases - during that era from Falstaff they were a bit less colorful:

Well, M. Jackson's first US ed. Pocket Guide to Beer (1982) listed it at 4 stars (the only US beer to get more was Anchor Steam's ***** - the only other 4 star US beers were Anchor Christmas (pre-spices), Rainier Ale and Prior Double Dark), so someone liked it. It was also about the most expensive US brewed beer in the early 1980s, other than the new "craft" beers that were popping up. (I couldn't believe it when the price hit around $4.50/six in the early '80s, when it was around $2.25 a few years earlier).

It was still around 40-45 ibu's in the late 70s-early 80s according to most sources (or around 3-4 times the typical US adjunct of the time). My favorite comment in the press about BIPA was music critic Robert Christgau review of beers in a May, 1975 issue of OUI:

Wouldn't Ballantine India Pale Ale, at ~7.5% abv, have been too high in alcohol to be sold in WV? You sure you're not thinking of the flagship Ballantine XXX Ale?

(Altho' even that was around twice the normal bitterness of the lagers of the period, 23-25 ibu's).

 

Thanks for the suggestions. Perhaps I'm just barking up the wrong breweries. I don't see these much in bottle shops but I'll keep a better eye out for them. My go to for a while was Even Keel, but it got replaced in the shops by better selling Mango E.K.. I find that variant to be an awful mess of artificial flavoring.

 

I get where you're coming from. The only thing I'd add is that I think we run the risk of drawing false (or at least overstated) conclusions when we try to make such broad comparisons between disparate phenomenon.

Pointing out the increase in sugary (particularly corn syrupy) foods over the last couple generations is a true observation as far as it goes. But the American food palate overall is also generally speaking far more sophisticated now than it was 30 years ago (e.g. every two bit grocery store now has sushi, an ethnic food aisle, and an organic produce section these days).

And if anything, the cohort of people who are most into craft beer (young, affluent, urban) are more likely to be among those most taking advantage of the things like sushi and ethnic food (or avocado smoothies if we want to get derogatory ) than they are to be amongst those horfing down Carvel ice cream cakes and Snackwell's. Just look at the kind of foods that are most commonly served at craft breweries/pubs.

It may seem like an obvious parallel on the surface but I don't think it actually lines up nearly as well as it first appears.

 

There’s definitely more lager love on the west coast. As an example every San Diego brewery now has a lager offering or several and it has become quite popular there. You have a number of breweries who specialize in lagers like Occidental, Eppig, Pfriem (they do everything but frankly their lagers are an enormous cut above the rest).

The unfortunate problem I think many people are having is finding fresh Pilsner. And it’s just as important as an IPA to be fresh. Granted it retains good quality longer but I certainly am going to pass on a Pilsner that is 2+ months old. Just isn’t worth it. I was dismayed this weekend where my local bottle shop was advertising a great Pilsner they just got in. I go and find the canned date was mid-February. Ugh. The seasonal pilsners I really enjoy because I have high confidence in freshness so every year Summerfest from SN is a selection. Will have to see what summer seasonals come in this year and grab some.

In my own experience I find if I’m below 6% abv I much prefer a Pilsner or Helles to an IPA / Session IPA / APA. Something I started that I’m planning to stick with for the foreseeable future is Sunday’s are lower ABV day. Too many times I hit it way too hard with high gravity stouts and DIPAs and then Monday morning for a new work week I’m a mess. So now it’s a day of mostly lagers and 6% ish IPAs. Very enjoyable, lighter, refreshing and not hung over the next day.

 

I have had the pleasure of drinking high quality Pilsners in the PNW (i.e., Portland and surrounding Oregon): pFreim, Heater Allen, Occidental, Buoy Beer Co.,..

This is the first time I have read about San Diego and Pilsners. Do you have some San Diego County Pilsners you would recommend? Are these seasonal beers or year-round products?

Cheers!

P.S. I attended HomebrewCon 2015 in San Diego and the only Pilsner I had when visiting downtown San Diego was Trummer Pils (brewed in Berkley). Were San Diego Pilsners popular then and I was just unaware?

 

John, FWIW pFreim was my favorite Oregon brewed Pilsner but the others I tried were very good.

Cheers!

 

It was the IPA with the wood grain label. I bought it in Charleston in the early '80's.

 

I don't know about that. We have Notch, Jack's Abby, and Von Trapp just to name a few.

And even breweries that don't focus on lagers are starting to brew more and more lagers. Heck, even Trillium now has a "lager program".

I didn't even include Suarez who's in NY (because I wasn't sure if you meant Northeast) or if we include the whole East Coast, Philly certainly isn't a slouch in the lager department!

 

No it isn't and the 'wealth of riches' just increases it seems like every day. I recently purchased a new Pilsner from Love City Brewing (Philadelphia). Just one more high quality Pilsner among the dozens we already have.

“Love City Deep Cut Pilsner • 5% ABV
Dry, lightly bready, with sweet herb & spice hop character”

Cheers!