Posted on 09/08/2006 3:33:40 PM PDT by toddlintown
Beer historian explores what happened to famous brews like Schlitz, Rainier, Schmidt and National.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) September 8, 2006 -- Using Chicago as a backdrop, leading beer historian Bob Skilnik delves into the reasons why once favorite national and regional beer brands have faded in popularity, some banished to obscurity. BEER: A History of Brewing in Chicago ($24.95, Hardcover, 416 pages, Barricade Books, ISBN 1569803129), proves to be more than a regional history book as it also details the downfall of national breweries like Schlitz and Pabst, to once powerhouse regionals with their flagship brands such as Seattle’s Rainier, Detroit’s Stroh, Baltimore’s National Bohemian and G. Heileman’s Old Style, once anointed as "Chicago’s Beer."
"When it came to gaining favor with the Windy City’s thirsty beer drinkers after the local industry went flat in the 1970s," notes Skilnik, "a lot of out-of-town brands tried -- and a lot of brands died. Chicago’s stature as a financial center, as a hub of advertising agencies, and as a convention and hotel stronghold, however, made it the stage for a number of behind-the-scene maneuverings of brewery takeovers and consolidations which also affected the national beer market, and still does."
As the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times have reported on several recent occasions, when it comes to beer, retro is in, whether the beer served is Miller High Life, "The Champagne of Bottled Beers," Schlitz as "The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous," or young Pabst Blue Ribbon drinkers telling bartenders to "PBR Me!"
(Excerpt) Read more at prweb.com ...
Didn't Lucky Lager have the riddles on the bottle cap?
Primo = barf in a bottle! Hawaii’s contribution to the beer drinking world, bottled formaldehyde.
Fall City, that stuff was a genuine headache generator. Damn, haven't thought about Sterling, Fall City for years.
During my senior week in '72, the Louisville/Nashville Railroad parked 3 refrigerated boxcars of Pabst Blue Ribbon case cans for the local distributor on a spur for several days behind the student parking lot. Bad move.
Only when kids from other high schools started showing up on our lot with pickups did the administration discover the caper and alerted the railroad dicks. Every senior party and every party in general that summer had all the PBR we could drink & puke back out.
Hey Lurker, ever see "Big Ad" for Carlton Draught?
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2677569
It's a hoot.
It was the thought that counted. Great doc.
To what brew are you referring ? I lived on LI ( Eastern ) in the mid 70's !
They might have sponsored the Cubbies, but they were a solidly Minnesota beer. One of the sons of the Hamms family was kidnapped over in St. Paul during the 30's by organized crime. The famous falls in the Hamms revolving beer sign was Kettle Falls in northern Minnesota. Now the old home brewry is falling down in neglect - not even their wells are functioning and open to the public like they used to be as little as 10 years ago (after Stroh bought the joint).
I remember my father complaining that G. Heileman’s Old Style lost its taste after it had been bought by a dxxx cheap xxxxxx accountant.
He also drank Schlitz and Hamms and whatever was on draft at West's Tavern located, naturally, just west of the town where we lived.
We had another name for that beer because of what you got the next day, LOL.
Oh yeah. And for the next poster, I remember working at a grocery store when Schlitz was $1.44 a six pack. And there were cheaper brands available, for those with a death wish. Hamm's was like $1.36, and Grain Belt was $1.09.
Of course, gas was 22.9 a gallon too.
Speaking of regional brands, does anyone know of Falstaff? How about Pfeiffer? Cold Spring? These are the brews that bruise.
My kind of hospital !
fortunately we have a couple or three local brewers here in the Oklahoma City area that are doing well. One is Bricktown Brewery another is Choc beer (Choc I think for Choctaw). Choc beer actually was popular during prohibition from what I've heard.
How about Falstaff? Not Chicago, though. Their first brewery was a few blocks from my house. They gave tours that ended up in a tasting room. Unfortunately, I was not old enough to go by the time they closed it down. It was bought by a Wall Street raider and stripped. The tasting room went first, the brewery a short while later. Their second brewery lingered on a short while longer, but not very long.
After I got out of the service in early 1964, I had a job jumping beer for Stroh's. At the time, it was a local midwestern beer in Detroit and it was excellent beer. They also sold Altes Golden Lager in Motown and it too was as good as it gets in the US. After Stroh's went nationwide, the quality plummeted. It was bought by Coors (I think) and has now disappeared. Too bad. I can't drink Bud. Give me a Stella or a Heinie.
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