Without Craft Beer

I'd still be drinking imports, but yes, variety is definitely the spice of life!

 

That one is easy: Habbersett!!

http://www.habbersettscrapple.com/

Habbersett Scrapple and Troegs Dreamweaver Wheat (Hefeweizen)!! YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers!

 

Without craft I would not have a stick to beat CAMRA with.

 

Do you speak softly!?!

Cheers!

 

Sounds like I need to visit AR then

 

I can't wrap my mind around such a scenario.

 

Agreed.

I too can't speak to the accessability of either imports or locals in Arkansas, either then or now, but when I reflect on bacherhood travels in rural areas of states such as North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Kentucky or early post marital travels in rural or semi-rural areas of Illinois, Indiana (especially southern Indiana) and Michigan. I have no trouble sympathizing with the OPs perception that most all of that stuff was unavailable to him until relatively recently with the growth in popularity of beers from breweries other than BMC. As some are fond of pointing out, what matters is not reality but our perception of reality.

 

Naturally I'd expect a Pennsyvania Homer to say something like that. But to get the best scrapple you really need to get to the true source and get your scrapple at one of the farmer's markets someplace like Bird-in-Hand, Paradise or Intercourse. Those Amish are the only ones who really truly understand the right ways to use all of the pig except for the squeal.

Puts Habersett, Rapa, Arnolds and especially Dietz & Watson to shame any day of the week.

 

Where did you visit in SC? There has been a Green's package store in Columbia, Greenville, and even Myrtle Beach since the 80s, and they carried pretty much all of the beers I mentioned. Of course there has always been tons of BMC around here...and likely will be for years (and years and years) to come.

 

I only hope that Jack doesn't feel as strongly about his local scrapple as he does about his local German-style beers. Otherwise he might not take too kindly to your "recommendations."

 

Well this was probably the early 80s and pretty much small towns and rural or semi-rural areas. One that stands out in memory is Hartsville (IIRC about midway between Florence and the Sand Hills State Forest). There were a few really cute girls there at Coker college and there also seemed to be a shortage of eligible males, so we were motivated to look for beverages that would create a positive impression. Big cities like Greenville-Spartanbur areas or Columbia weren't on the agenda. (Myrtle Beach? Naw, that was for the city slickers who wore their preppy clothes and drove fancy cars.... )

 

Well, Hartsville is a good example, as you can now get a decent assortment of "craft" beer even down there. Of course having the Sonoco factory in town does bring an international element to an otherwise very rural area.

 

As I think I've suggested earlier, that international element as a result of having a small company or a college in the town seems to me to be critical to the differences between some locations and others in shaping whats available in the way of restaurant food and beverages. Even today driving though places like southern Indiana or PA outside of Philly or Pittsburgh you can almost always identify the towns that have a College, a successful business headquarters, or are the county seat by their level of visible economic health. Similarly, having been to Atlanta a few times I can understand why some of my associates say "Atlanta? That’s not really part of Georgia." (And I've heard the same thing said about Charleston, SC.)

 

Amen, brother... LOL

 

There you go again, trying to bring historical facts into a modern day context!

No Sour? And I'd wager that they didn't even have an attached mini-golf course or video game arcade. FAIL!

P.S. Without Craft Beer I'd be drinking a pasteurized regional Bock from a returnable bottle --just like in the old days.

 

Without craft beer neckbeards wouldn't have a place like this on the internet to go and argue with other neckbeards.

 

It’s all good.

Lots of high quality Pennsylvania brewed German style beers and lots of high quality Scrapple to pick from.

Life is good!!!!!!

Cheers!

 

And YOU forgot Jim Robertson. I think his books in the '70s were the first ones ever published to examine, evaluate, and describe beer from a critical point of view. I'm relatively certain that his books predate any of Michael Jackson's!

 

Actually, Pabst Bock was really not such a bad brew at all (at least until the late '70s, anyway). Probably the best of the American bocks of the time, in my opinion.