He celebrated 'sky blue waters' (Hamms beer guy dies)

Pioneer Press ^ | 11-16-04 | KARL J. KARLSON

[Steve_Seattle]

From "Blue Velvet":

Frank: Hey, neighbor, what's your favorite beer?

Jeffrey: Uh, Heineken.

Frank: Heineken? F*ck that sh*t! Pabst Blue Ribbon!!!

[dfwgator]

Little Kings were a staple of my college years.

[Seajay]

Natty Boh, Arrow 77 [Baltimore-DC]
Piels, Rheingold, Rupert, Esslinger, Ortliebs [NY-NJ-PHL]
and lets not forget IRON CITY!

[hadrian]

In graduate school Seattle late 1970s (in ascending order of price):

- generic BEER (Black letters on white can, aka Generic Beer")

- Schmidt (aka "Animal Beer" - pictures of animals and hunting/fishing scenes on cans)

- Old Milwaukee

- Hamms

- Olympia ("It's the water" which led to, I think, the original Calvin-like cartoon character taking a whiz into Tumwater Falls)

- Rainier (aka "Vitamin R")(whose south Seattle brewery next to I-5 was taken over by I think "Peet's Coffee", who replaced the iconic red neon "R")

[Rider on the Rain]

Champaign Velvet (CV), Goldcrest 51

[dfwgator]

[FNG]

Jax, Buckhorn, and Mickey's wide mouth malt liquor.

[muleskinner]

In the 60's in California, I remember Hamm's, Lucky Lager, and Olympia as the big three. Oly sucked 'cuz they didn't pay attention to how it was shipped. Oly was real good at the brewery in Washington.
Lucky had local breweries all over, but I guess it sucked so bad, fresh or not, it still sucked.
Did Hamm's get bought out?

[LouD]

My wife tells a pretty good story about the church she attended as a girl. It seems they installed a new sound system one week, and during the consecration of the bread and wine, just as the priest raised the chalice, the Hamm's jingle broke in over the PA: "Hamm's, the beer refreshing..."

Who says God doesn't have a sense of humor...

[hadrian]

From Seattle, how could I forget Lucky? The questioning routine went, "Are we out of beer?" - "yeah" - "Then I guess I'll have a Lucky".

[milagro]

I grew up listening to those ads--did you know that Minnesota means "sky blue waters"? And Minnehaha Falls is "laughing waters?" Aren't you all thrilled to know this?

[AggieCPA]

Stag, Meister Brau, Drewry's, Schlitz,.........

[MKM1960]

When I was at a meeting at Lake Geneva, WI in the evening we would make a run to the liquor store, there was a local beer that I believe was call Point beer. It was about the cheapest thing going I believe it was around 2 bucks a six pack at the time and you had to have a church key to open it, no pull tab. It was '65 Impala teal with red and white print. I was cheap and drinkable. Imagine my surprise when 20+ years later it shows up in my local store as micro brew and and now costs about 7 bucks for six bottles. I guess they held on for the renaissance of beer.

[JellyJam]

Grain Belt (it was $5 a case back in the early '80s when I was in college), Little Kings, Robin Hood Ale, Genesee.

[Larry Lucido]

[cfrels]

My grandparents had a tavern and they had Hamms bar lights with a northwoods scene and I think something inside turned and it looked like a sunrise and sunset. I used to look at them for hours, you'd think I'd remember them.

The cartoon commercials were the best!

[tet68]

Here ya go.

Hamm's the beer refreshing...

[Diver Dave]

Rainier

Ahhh, Raaaaaineeeeeer Beeeeeer comercials.

And the old Seattle Rainiers Triple A Baseball team playing in Sick's Stadium.

Rainier also had a brewery in Spokane with a large red neon sign. They moved out long ago, and the YWCA took over the building.

[hadrian]

posted 8/18/2004 7:50 AM

Today's Top News Stories

Bear drinks 36 cans of favorite beer

BAKER LAKE, Wash. (AP) — Rain-eeeeer .... Bear? When state Fish and Wildlife agents recently found a black bear passed out on the lawn of Baker Lake Resort, there were some clues scattered nearby — dozens of empty cans of Rainier Beer. The bear apparently got into campers' coolers and used his claws and teeth to puncture the cans. And not just any cans.

"He drank the Rainier and wouldn't drink the Busch beer," said Lisa Broxson, bookkeeper at the campground and cabins resort east of Mount Baker.

Fish and Wildlife enforcement Sgt. Bill Heinck said the bear did try one can of Busch, but ignored the rest.

"He didn't like that (Busch) and consumed, as near as we can tell, about 36 cans of Rainier."

A wildlife agent tried to chase the bear from the campground but the animal just climbed a tree to sleep it off for another four hours. Agents finally herded the bear away, but it returned the next morning.

Agents then used a large, humane trap to capture it for relocation, baiting the trap with the usual: doughnuts, honey and, in this case, two open cans of Rainier. That did the trick.

"This is a new one on me," Heinck said. "I've known them to get into cans, but nothing like this. And it definitely had a preference."

[WestTexasWend]

Yes, I remember the sunrise/sunset one...and there was another one with fish jumping out of a lake or river. Facinating for a little kid in the early 60s ;)