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Beer Selection at Giant and Safeway


DonRocks

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Rolling Rock, but only if it's in a smoke-filled blues hall.
Rock doesn't count anymore. Not only had it been owned by one of the big European companies for a while, but it is now owned by Anheuser Busch which is shutting down the Latrobe brewery and moving all operations to someplace around Philly.
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Leinenkugel Red anywhere near the Twin Cities.
Would that be the twin cities of Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire Wisconsin? I sure hope you are not trying to attribute a fine Wisconsin brew to the city that hosts the nasty and vile Vikings. OK, calling it fine might be a stretch, but definately drinkable.
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Hey, I went to college in Brockport, NY (pronounced Braak-port) where we drank oceans of Genny Cream. $1.99 a six-pack. You couldn't beat it.
Up in Clinton, NY, Genny Cream was ever-present, as was Utica Club. Gotta love Shultz and Dooley!

Fort Schuyler was by far the worst beer available in the area, though. 75 cents a glass, in 1999!

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Would that be the twin cities of Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire Wisconsin? I sure hope you are not trying to attribute a fine Wisconsin brew to the city that hosts the nasty and vile Vikings. OK, calling it fine might be a stretch, but definately drinkable.
Absolutely, Sthitch. A few years ago at a meat and cheese store in northern Wisconsin (yes, a meat and cheese store, bless 'em), I saw a summer sausage shaped like a Leinie's bottle, label and all. I still regret not buying it.
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Blatz

Is beer still being produced under the "Blatz" name? Blatz used to be a national brand (the first of the Milwaukee brewers to go national, in fact). There's a long, strange-ish chronology of Blatz HERE. It's unclear, though, if any beer is still being sold under the name; if so, it would appear that it's being brewed by Miller under contract to Pabst, which has owned the Blatz name two different times.

Blatz was the sponsor of the Amos 'n' Andy television show; I don't know about the radio show.

"I'm from Milwaukee and I oughtta know

It's Blatz, Blatz, Blatz, Blatz wherever you go!

Blatz is the name you will always hear.

Blatz is Milwaukee's finest beer!"

They don't write 'em like that any more.

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Hey, I went to college in Brockport, NY (pronounced Braak-port) where we drank oceans of Genny Cream. $1.99 a six-pack. You couldn't beat it.

It was also the honored guest at the first keg party I ever threw in my dorm room freshman year in Meadville, PA.

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When I was in college in Boston, the standard cheap crappy beer of choice was Narragansett, generally known as Gansett. There was a bar/restaurant up in Allston much frequented by BU yahoos known by the endearing name The El Phoenix Room. It was ostensibly a Mexican restaurant ( hence the "El"), but mostly people went there because they had $0.05 drafts (every night!). I actually don't remember what they had on tap, but it was probably Gansett. The food was terrible.

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Old Milwaukee was the go-to beer in central NY in the mid 80s. While it was swill and it was cheap, drinking it allowed us to sneer at the rubes imbibing Milwaukee's Be(a)st. Mickey's Big Mouth just plain scared us. When you were drinking classy, it was St. Pauli's Girl (strictly because the accompanying picture of the comely beer maiden) or Heineken.

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Is beer still being produced under the "Blatz" name? Blatz used to be a national brand (the first of the Milwaukee brewers to go national, in fact). There's a long, strange-ish chronology of Blatz HERE. It's unclear, though, if any beer is still being sold under the name; if so, it would appear that it's being brewed by Miller under contract to Pabst, which has owned the Blatz name two different times.

Blatz was the sponsor of the Amos 'n' Andy television show; I don't know about the radio show.

"I'm from Milwaukee and I oughtta know

It's Blatz, Blatz, Blatz, Blatz wherever you go!

Blatz is the name you will always hear.

Blatz is Milwaukee's finest beer!"

They don't write 'em like that any more.

I had Blatz in a can this summer at a bar in Michigan, but that doesn't necessarily mean they they still brew it - it could've been sitting around for years.

When I was in college in Boston, the standard cheap crappy beer of choice was Narragansett, generally known as Gansett. There was a bar/restaurant up in Allston much frequented by BU yahoos known by the endearing name The El Phoenix Room. It was ostensibly a Mexican restaurant ( hence the "El"), but mostly people went there because they had $0.05 drafts (every night!). I actually don't remember what they had on tap, but it was probably Gansett. The food was terrible.

Never had Narragansett, but when I was in Boston we drank Brubaker (which I think had a "patriot" on the label); often at Our House or MaryAnns - places not too far from the now-extinct El Phoenix Room, I believe.

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Milwaukee's Best, "The Beast", was the cheapo stuff when I was in college here in DC at GW in the 80s, but I don't think it was regional. Cheaper than soda, most of the time. An enterprising fraternity at the University of Florida emptied the soda machine, and replaced the selection with Beast...

I also remember Keystone Light (a Coors product, slogan something like "bottled beer in a can"), but I think that one also was national.

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Here's a crappy beer story for you.

Way back in about 1989, I was drafted to plan and execute the company picnic. One day my boss walks into the lab and we start talking beer. With a tiny budget, I was sweating over what to buy. Doesn't matter so long as there's plenty of it, was his response. Get seven cases of Milwaukee's Best.

This devolved into an argument over whether it was even humanly possible to tell the difference between Budweiser and Miller. I said yes, he said no. He said that if he poured ten samples I wouldn't be able to distinguish which was which. I bet him I could.

That bet became the big entertainment at the picnic.

The mutually agreed-upon conditions were as follows: ten samples of beer, with no fewer than two and no more than eight being of one type (so, not necessarily five of each). Samples to be determined by random number generator, and poured by co-workers. Further, I had to get at least eight of them right - we agreed that the test would not be statistically significant below that threshold.

On wager were two six-packs: he brought his favorite, I brought mine. (I think one of them was a Samuel Smith's product.)

The time came, the whole damn plant crowded around to cheer me on (Bossman was not very popular).

The result? I was able to tell. Eight times. I got two wrong.

What I never admitted to the boss, though, was that after the first three I was guessing. 'Cause after a few swigs it just don't matter any more.

Same is true for Coke and Pepsi, btw. :) Your taste buds get blown out after a few sips. Well, mine do, anyway.

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Shiner Bock, of course.

Yummmm, Shiner. Much more a fan of the Bock than the Heffe, but I'll take either. Can it be called regional still though? I started drinking it around 6-7 years ago when I was in Texas for a week where it's pretty much everywhere (or was in San Antonio). However, it's in a large number of grocery stores even here in DC as well as points in between Texas and DC. Haven't really looked for it too much outside of that region though so not sure how wide-spread it is.

But yeah, not crappy at all.

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Would that be the twin cities of Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire Wisconsin? I sure hope you are not trying to attribute a fine Wisconsin brew to the city that hosts the nasty and vile Vikings. OK, calling it fine might be a stretch, but definately drinkable.

Point taken; I know Leinie is from Wisconsin, but:

  • I haven't spent as much time in northern WI as in MN
  • what else are you gonna drink in MN?

(and dang...the midwest is far more territorial than I thought!)

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Point taken; I know Leinie is from Wisconsin, but:
  • I haven't spent as much time in northern WI as in MN
  • what else are you gonna drink in MN?

(and dang...the midwest is far more territorial than I thought!)

Since I am from Wisconsin the answer is easy, if I had to spend anytime in Minnesota my drink of choice would be arsenic. :)
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Ok, the crappiest beer we've every tried and to this date, the only beer my husband could not finish, was a smoked beer we tried up at Blob's Park. One person at the table made comment "It smells like Bacon!" and it did.

Must have been DeGroen's Rauchbock-- that was good stuff! Definitely an acquired taste, though.

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Point taken; I know Leinie is from Wisconsin, but:
And now you mention Point beer from Stevens Point, WI, another cheap but likeable brew. You're all over the central Wisconsin map, Dave!

And speaking of Leinie's, this from yesterday's Post article on beer at RFK:

"RFK even offered a brand that I've seen nowhere else in Washington: Home Run Ale , dispensed at the former Foggy Bottom bar on the ground level behind home plate. This sweet, grainy, copper-colored ale was selling at $5.50 for a 16-ounce cup, a buck less than the other craft beer selections. Home Run Ale comes from Leinenkugel's 10th Street Brewery in Milwaukee, where it's officially known as "Special Ale." The brewery sells it to accounts across its 26-state marketing area, which can then slap their own moniker on the tap marker to create their own house brand."

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And now you mention Point beer from Stevens Point, WI, another cheap but likeable brew. You're all over the central Wisconsin map, Dave!
Point is much better than it used to be. Even back to when my father was young, it was the cheap beer of choice for him and his friends. Other than the light version, it is definately a better beer than it was when I was younger. But we used to drink Heileman's Special Export, which strangly was never exported out of the upper midwest.
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Back in college, the locally-brewed cheap beer of choice was Stoney's. Brewed in Smithton, PA (before the brewery closed in 2001 and Pittsburgh Brewing started producing it), it was $1/bottle at the bar.

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I once picked up a case of Straub Beer, from St. Mary's PA. A typical example of the style.

frontbottles.gif

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when I was living in san fran 94, sharing a 1 bedroom apt w/ 7 other irish students, the tipple of choice was Meister Brau....$4.99 for a 12 pack of cans :)

I enjoy this stuff traveling abroad too: Tusker in Kenya, Kingfisher in India, Beliken in Belize, Cristal in Peru, Nile Special in Uganda, Angkor in Cambodia... and on and on. Every tropical, developing nation has its own yellow beer that is cheap, not tasty--but not offensive--and drunk regularly.

Stella (not that Stella) and Saqqara in Egypt......after a long day at the office an ice cold Stella went down a treat

boozer13.jpg

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when I was living in san fran 94, sharing a 1 bedroom apt w/ 7 other irish students, the tipple of choice was Meister Brau....$4.99 for a 12 pack of cans :)
Once while home for the summer during college I was in a bodega on the UES - a guy walks in, grabs three 12'ers of Miester Brau, looks at me and said "Hey Man, no budget, no beer". I still laugh thinking about that - and the fact that I immediately dropped whatever 12'er I had and picked up the 'Brau.
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Yummmm, Shiner. Much more a fan of the Bock than the Heffe, but I'll take either. Can it be called regional still though? I started drinking it around 6-7 years ago when I was in Texas for a week where it's pretty much everywhere (or was in San Antonio). However, it's in a large number of grocery stores even here in DC as well as points in between Texas and DC. Haven't really looked for it too much outside of that region though so not sure how wide-spread it is.

But yeah, not crappy at all.

We had the Heffe on tap for a bit last summer. Our cheap beer of choice in college was Natty Ice. You really had to figure in alchohol content vs. dollar spent. It was definitely the most drunk you could get off of the pennies you found under the couch cushions. At least until we discovered steel reserve.

I have enough crappy beer stories from my college rugby days that still make me gag a bit. The cheapest beer we ever had was when we played Temple. They took us to some liquor store near the team house (I was scanning the sidewalk for chalk outlines) and we bought a bunch of cases of this beer with an Indian Head on the can. A couple of my teammates were wondering aloud how much they were per beer and it seems the temple guys had figured it out already because one of them said .29 cents almost immediately.

The worst was Hamms on our way down to Florida. I do have to qualify that though because I haven't really tried it as the manufacturer intended. They were room temperature and we had no way to cool them down but it was spring break and we wanted to get drunk quick so we just started drinking them anyways.

Well someone's logic was in the right place, because it was suggested that since they were so horrible to drink anyways we might as well dump a shot of vodka (cheap plastic Tenley Brand 100 proof) in each one so at least we would get drunk faster. It tasted awful. However a couple of those and you were good to go. Granted you were also fighting nauseau but eventually it turned into an extremely crazy night.

The last, which is so bad I didn't even think it fit in the category of worst beer, is the time we were having a post game drink up at (I think) the John Hopkins rugby house and ran out of beer. The party was still young and someone was sent to the store but we all knew it was going to be 30-45 minutes until they returned. The only alternative? The 3/4 of a keg left over from a party about a month ago that had been sitting in the backyard (this was sometime in September mind you). There were some naysayers but most of us agreed to give it a go and some idiot had suggested it might even be better because it had "aged". It had the consistency and taste of clarified butter that had some skunked stale beer dumped into it. Not pleasant. Yet sadly we still almost kicked the thing before the beer run got back.

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Would that be the twin cities of Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire Wisconsin? I sure hope you are not trying to attribute a fine Wisconsin brew to the city that hosts the nasty and vile Vikings. OK, calling it fine might be a stretch, but definately drinkable.
Since when are Eau Claire and Chippewa (pronounced Chip Wa) Falls (where Lineys come from) considered twin cities.
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Big Bear Malt Liquor $1.55 a 40, two of those was a good night of drinking

Our Yammy Board* in college was sponsored by Busch Lite Draft (which came in a can)

We use to go to a bar that had Genny Cream Ale for 25 cents a glass...it use to be served in the those little plastic diner OJ cups

*Yammy Board was our year long tally on who in our dorm puked the most.

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Re: Iron City

Ted's Montana Grill has it on the menu.

Rustico had it on tap last time I was there. There's definitely something to be said for these beers, if only for the nostalgia making them enjoyable. Hard to get nostalgic about miller lite. Me, I get nostalgic about the first time I had Aventinus, or my first Old Rasputin.

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"My beer is Rheingold, the dry beer. Think of Rheingold whenever you buy beer. It’s refreshing, not sweet. It’s the extra dry treat. Won’t you try extra dry Rheingold beer?"

We're back. And on the mound now for the Mets, Tug McGraw, who's looking to put down Willie McCovey.

Rheingold, btw, was not crappy beer. Even it's brief rebirth in the early 1990's was thirst-quenching, cheap, and I was happy to mow the lawn on a six pack. :)

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mmmm, i love me some regional beer, especially at ballgames. natty-boh, old style, iron city, oly (although, i don't think they make that anymore), rainier, pearl, lone star. . if you go a step up, you have shiner, henry weinhardts. . .

growing up, we used to have lucky lager. . .came 12 to a cardboard box. . .even found a place that was still selling blatz. in college, we found sportz (cheesy sporting picture on the box and all).

however, i think there needs to be some distinctions made between local and crappy nationwide beer, such as. . .milwaukee's best can be found nationwide, but, can you find, say natty-boh outside of the baltimore city limits? does it really matter? i mean, there is nationwide derision for natural light, but what if natural light was only available in a portion of the u.s., does that give it instant cred?

there are those unique, minor named beers that you can still find in the corners of your local safeway like schaefer or black label (oooh, that one night at chief ike's. . .). they are indeed crappy beer, but are they regional crappy beer?

oh, and whoever brought up keystone. . .it's america's least bitter beer!!!

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mmmm, i love me some regional beer, especially at ballgames. natty-boh, old style, iron city, oly (although, i don't think they make that anymore), rainier, pearl, lone star. . if you go a step up, you have shiner, henry weinhardts. . .
I'm glad someone finally mentioned Rainier (AKA The Green Death), which is now brewed by Pabst, I believe. My favorite Rainier Ale varietal is the 24 oz. can- best consumed rather quickly, so as to avoid even a hint of warming. Old style can be great, but only when consumed in a total dive in Chicago where the bartender is so drunk that he asks you crank call his friends and subsequently moons all of his patrons. :)
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Big Bear Malt Liquor $1.55 a 40, two of those was a good night of drinking

$1.55? We used to get Magnum malt liquor for $0.99/bottle. The local store used to see us coming and even offered us a case discount on occasion :) . With tax I think it was $10.83. Good lord that stuff was nasty.

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Re: Iron City

Rustico had it on tap last time I was there.

It's a tap that won't go away...right next to the Miller Lite actually. It's one of our happy hour drafts (sells for next to nothing, go figure). There's also the option of the beer buckets - which seems absolutely appropriate for this thread:

Workingman’s Lunchbox

Five beers that made America famous!

Coors Original, Schlitz, Schaefer, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Miller High Life

Frat Party

Busch, Natural Light, Milwaukee’s Best, Coors Light, Keystone Light

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It's not a frat party without Yuengling. :)
Only when they're trying to class it up that night. IMVHO, high life's the way to go if you're playing beirut, because the ping pong balls sometimes bounce off of the chunky foam. :lol:
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I remember Knickerbocker - $0.99/six-pack downm in the tidewater area of Virginia in the mid '80's.

I also remember Blatz - $1.99/six-pack in the late '80's. I bought it at Giant. Some friend of mine thought it tasted like Heineken (!!!) Obviously, I cut him off for overindulgence.

Does anyone have any fond memories of Carling Black Label? :)

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I remember Knickerbocker - $0.99/six-pack downm in the tidewater area of Virginia in the mid '80's.

I also remember Blatz - $1.99/six-pack in the late '80's. I bought it at Giant. Some friend of mine thought it tasted like Heineken (!!!) Obviously, I cut him off for overindulgence.

Does anyone have any fond memories of Carling Black Label? :)

I have memories of Carling Black Label, but they are not fond.
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I have memories of Carling Black Label, but they are not fond.
That's the smile of the week.

When I first went to Town Hall in College Park, Md. you could get a 16 oz. Black Label, in a returnable bottle, for 65 cents. After five of those, every girl in the place looked like Mabel :) .

Kevin

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