Single Serving Breweries

In my old age I've been getting even more cynical. I guess things have changed at ABInbev. I don't think adjuncts are a fatal flaw in beer. Was it you who indicated that Pabst Andeker was "upgraded" to all-malt in the early 80s? I actually liked the 70s version better!

 

That is the common wisdom - don't recall if AB ever officially admitted such. But they did give Schwaiger his own pinback button.

Hey, it's always possible - Sugar in a beer a brewer says contains no adjunct "grains", that is. (That was the case with both Pabst Light and Schlitz Light, the latter briefly the second best selling Light Beer in the late 70s - at least, according to Joe Owades, who said while both beers were 100% malt, with "pure glucose" added.

As for cynicism, yeah, it might come with aging (tho' I've always had it myself and might be going the way... it's easier.)

Yeah, I'd say that's an understatement, starting with ownership...

Mighta been. I trace my cynicism about US "All Malt" beer to the same era, when Schlitz releases one of its last gasps with the all ,alt Erlanger. Sure, it had no adjuncts but it was still a pretty disappointing product. "That's it?" I stuck with adjunct-brewed products like Augsburger, Chesterfield Ale and the 3 (briefly) Ballantine Ales.

 

Agree about Erlanger. Augie, Chesterfield, and Ballantine Ale all 70s favorites of mine. I was also a McSorley's fan. Wasn't Huber's Augsburger all malt? Their brewmaster said so when my new, unsuspecting spouse and I had a beer at the Huber brewery tap during honeymoon 1976.

 

Checked a couple of sources (M. Jackson and a 1980 Chicago Trib. article) and they both state it was around 80% malt (regular + high kiln/special dextrine) with corn extract. Fred Huber stressed that dropping Cascades and using German Spalt hops (recommended by a German brewmaster/hop expert Eugene Achatz) in addition to the Hallertau's in the 1977 changed Augsburger from "... a good beer to a great beer."

 

Floodland and Fair Isle in Seattle. Fair Isle canned a beer but it’s only sold as a single, but is mostly 375/750. Floodland predominately does 750 ml bottles with a few 375’s and magnums.

 

My faulty memory of the conversation from 76? Likely. I left the Huber marketing area in 77 so can't comment on whether the 77+ Augsburger was great. To me, the 75-76 Augsburger was close enough.