The Long, Slow, Torturous Death of Zima (No more Zima "beer)

Slate ^ | November 26, 2008 | Brendan I. Koerner

[PJ-Comix]

There are a million ways to slight a rival's manhood, but to suggest that he enjoys Zima is one of the worst. Zima was the original "malternative"—a family of alcoholic beverages that eventually came to include such abominations as Smirnoff Ice and Bacardi Silver—and it has long been considered the very opposite of macho: a drink that fragile coeds swill while giving each other pedicures.

That stereotype has persisted despite the fact that Zima's brief heyday came nearly 15 years ago. The brand was then hailed as a marketing coup, an ingenious way to sell beer—or rather, a clear, beerlike solution—to consumers who eschewed traditional suds. But virtually overnight, Zima was done in by its medicinal taste and girly-man rep: After selling an astounding 1.3 million barrels in 1994, the year it went national, Zima's sales fell to just 403,000 barrels in 1996.

Many drinkers assume that Zima vanished shortly thereafter and has since existed solely as a punch line. But Zima actually survived for more than another decade, until MillerCoors pulled the plug on Oct. 10. Rarely has such a famously maligned product enjoyed such a lengthy run—a testament to its brewers' Madonna-like knack for reinvention. The Zima that died a quiet death last month bore little resemblance to the malternative that swept the nation during President Clinton's first term.

[UCANSEE2]

Do you know what Helen Keller’s favorite color was?

[major_gaff]

Bud's American Ale is an attempt capture some of the micro-brew market. While 'American Ale' is far superior to anything else Anheiser Busch brews, it is inferior to a good local micro, IMHO....as to Yuengling, they have a brewery in Florida now that makes 'Porter', 'Black and Tan' and 'Yuengling Lager', known simply as 'Lager' in Pennsylvania. This brewery should make Yuengling available up and down the East coast. The original brewery in Pa makes all the Yuengling brands. The two 'Ales' that they brew 'Lord Chesterfield Ale' and 'Porter' are actually brewed with lager yeasts and fermented at lager temperatures, so technically are not ales. Sam Adams is a large scale craft brewery that makes a variety of fine ales...they just bought the old Stroh's brewery here in the Lehigh Valley to give them more capacity.

If you are looking for an American Ale, nationally I would suggest Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale. In the Pennsylvania region, Victory's 'Hop Devil' is excellent as is Dogfishhead's '60 minute IPA'. But basically any local micro pale ale will surpass any AB product for taste and freshness.

[Pilsner]

Lets hope the recipe is destroyed.

[Freedom4US]

Interestingly, it can be argued that Budweiser isn’t technically beer to begin with, as it mostly derived from rice, not barley. That, and people opine “Your horse has diabetes..” yuk yuk. The last 12 I bought had that distinct cardboard note goin’ on. Not a beer snob, but c’mon.

[Riley]

The beer that got foisted on us in Vietnam was Carling Black Label.

Carling!? The beer that singlehandedly thwarted 617 Squadron's Ruhr dams raid??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qKHc-U2FNHk

[OSHA]

Shiner!

:^)

[Doohickey]

Both Yuengling and Sam Adams are lagers....

Look to your local microbrews for good ales and IPAs.

[darkangel82]

Somewhere there exists a really comical photo of him with this hilarious ‘oh sh*t’ look on his face, trying frantically to rid himself of the detested thing without actually throwing it and making a big broken glass mess.

ROFL! Pw3nd.

[RGPII]

Maybe Yuengling tastes better in Pennsylvania than it does in Florida. Let’s hope so.

Beers, Ales are hard to judge alright, I only read this site to get an idea on Beers I might get and Yuengling has their share of positive reviews is all I can say.

[xp38]

I am not a big beer drinker but when I do this is the stuff I get. Not widely available in the US but is to a small degree. I drank some on election night since its name is fitting these days. Below is a writeup on it.

In February 1994, after 18 months of research, Unibroue launched La Fin du Monde (the end of the world). It is a 9 percent alcohol, triple fermentation beer. This type of beer was originally developed by the monks of the Middle Ages to be served on special occasions. La Fin du Monde is a deluxe beer made by triple fermentation and a unique way of straining the yeast. This method produces an unexpectedly subtle flavour. With its champagne-like effervescence, it has a vigourous presence in the mouth, which accentuates its strong personality. Slightly tart, with the balanced flavours of wild spices, malt and hops, it belongs to the class of great Trappist beers and, in this regard, is a North American first. At meals, it can replace white or red wines and enhances the flavour of most dishes. This beer is brewed to honour of the great explorers, who believed they had reached the end of the world when they discovered America.

[Beagle8U]

My son and a buddy from college flew down to texas to go bass fishing a couple years ago.

It didn't take many samples of the local beer, Shiner Bock, to label it as shiner bucket.

[ReneeLynn]

Zima was a good mixer. My s-i-l used to put Jolly Rancher candies in each bottle. I put schnapps in to flavor it. It mixed well with any kind of schnapps or pucker.

[neocon1984]

I am not much of a beer drinker these days. However, there are a couple of local beers that have become more widely sold: “Point Special” (As the ad says, “It’s not just for breakfast any more”.) and “Rolling Rock Extra Pale”.

[muawiyah]

Blatz ~ Strohs ~ Falls City ~

[aruanan]

After selling an astounding 1.3 million barrels in 1994, the year it went national, Zima's sales fell to just 403,000 barrels in 1996.

A reduction of about 66% is a big drop, but not one characterized by "astounding" versus "just".

Yes, I tried it back then. It didn't taste medicinal. Like Barcadi Silver, it didn't taste like much of anything except a lemony-lime way of getting ethanol into one's system.

The big mistake was marketing it as an alternative to beer. There's nothing wrong with beer. Seven-Up (also lemon-lime) has already done the un-thing with cola. It's really not going to work the second time with beer. Besides, the size of the alcoholic drink market that is beer-o-phobic that is also not wine snobbish has got to be really small. Once you get past the novelty phase during which many different people from many different beverage sectors will give it a shot, you're left with the die-hard supporters. If there isn't anything more special than, "Hey, it's not beer!" you're going to tank. Since the relative size of the market for alcohol-free beer and wine is so small, one should just appeal to the fact that whatever the favored alcoholic drink, whatever the gassing about the hints of pear, peach, nectarine, apricot, and oak, most people are buying it for the pleasant effect of the alcohol and just don't want to admit it. So, one may as well be totally up front about this and launch an exotic line of vodka-spiked fruit juices as "a tasty way to get a buzz" and call it "Your Mom's Kind of _______" like:

"Your Mom's Kind of OJ"
"Your Mom's Kind of Passion Fruit"
"Your Mom's Kind of Boisenberry/Mango"
"Your Mom's Kind of Hairless Rambutan/Blue Lilly Pilly"

[NeoConfederate]

Funny story...

Back when Zima came out, I was in the Air Force and had a supervisor who was from Port Authur, TX who loved to drink beer and nothing else. He got this new girlfriend who somehow (lol) managed to con him into becomeing a Zima drinker. It was funny to see this big ol’ Texan go from having a Bud to a Zima in his hand all the time. Natch, he caught quite a bit of heat for this choice and began to talk about how good Zima was and he wasn’t interested in drinking beer anymore.

Not long after that, we were at a party on Lake Moultrie in beautiful South Carolina where we ran out of beer. Thanks to the two of them there was no lack of Zima! My buddy and I grabbed a couple of six packs from them to continue the good times. We both drank 4 of them and started barfing almost on cue. I haven’t had one since. After he broke up with her, he went back to Bud.

Now that I think about it, it’s not that funny a story. But it’s true.

[RGPII]

I am not a big beer drinker but when I do this is the stuff I get. Not widely available in the US but is to a small degree. I drank some on election night since its name is fitting these days. Below is a writeup on it.

I agree, the last time out, I should have bought some of that Blue Moon Belgian White, I like that and I will be on the lookout for this beer or ale you recommend. The joke in college was always "what's the best beer?" "whatever's on special!" as a friend of mine would always blend those cheap buys with lemon juice. But I've always been a bit more discerning in my choices because I was in the fraternity, I Tappa Kegga.

[weezel]

I used to like me some Schlitz. Zima though, I owned a bar when that kinda stuff started showing up and it looked like to me it was made for wusses who “didnt like” the taste of beer.

[Doohickey]

Oh, and I should mention a couple of my favorite ales:

Bear Republic Racer 5. Bear Republic is out of Sonoma County, CA.

Magic Hat #9, out of Burlington, VT.

[Oratam]

Have you tried Sam Adams Irish Red? It’s a rather good version of the stuff. There’s a small Connecticut brewer, Thomas Hooker, that makes a really tasty Irish Red ale. It’s very had to find even in NY/NJ.