MetaChat - What was the beer of your youth?

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23 August 2008

What was the beer of your youth? →[More:]I mean, you know, memory wise, not just what was available. For me, it was Heineken, Mickey's Big Mouth and for some reason, Moosehead.
I remember scoring a case of Heineken and thinking "wow, look at all that beer." It seemed Heineken was really quality beer at the time. Mickey's of course for the extra alcohol and novelty barrel-like container. And Moosehead was like "wow, you got Mooseheads. That's some classy stuff." You forgot about Moosehead, didn't you? This would be '82-'85, something like that.

post by: Hellbient at: 14:52 | 41 comments

Well, I do tend to think of Meisterbrau (aka "Mister Beer") because it was readily available and cheap as hell.

I grew up in Colorado, so was surrounded by Coors. I always hated it (still do), because A) it tastes like shit, and B) Joseph Coors was a right-wing bastard.

After we lived in England as a kid, I remember thinking that Guinness was about the coolest stuff ever, and I envisioned drinking it all the time when I grew up. Now I'm grown up, and I can't remember the last time I had a Guinness.

posted by scody 23 August | 15:01

Whatever was in the keg. Other than that I liked Bud Lite, still do, even though it is crap beer. I was on a Corona Extra kick for a while in my youth. I thought is was slightly exotic and cool. And you got to squeeze a lime in it. Ha. Corona pretty much sucks, too. All my friends bought Bush Light because it was cheap. I never was an Icehouse drinker. For some reason I think Icehouse came out after I was 21 and I thought it was for kids that wanted to get drunk fast and cheap.

Before I had kids, and had a life, my husband and I drank a lot of Sam Adams. We also liked Killian's Red. Do they even make that anymore? Killian's is probably is horrid if you appreciate quality beer. As a very young twenty something I also drank a lot Michelob Lite which I realize now sucks as well. I'll take a Mich Ultra (sucks) over a Mich Lite (gross) any day. I still love Bud Lite and Amstel Light the best. The mass produced water-downed beer goes with my personality.

posted by LoriFLA 23 August | 15:06

Victoria Bitter, and Coopers when someone was flush - always tallies/longnecks (750ml). Beer wasn't really a big drink as a kid because the drunkness:dollar ratio was too high. We went for cheap spirits instead.

posted by goo 23 August | 15:10

Icehouse by the keg and PBR in a can.

posted by muddgirl 23 August | 15:12

Holy crap! I forgot all about Meister Brau!

Honestly, I think the beer of my youth was weed. It was cheaper and easier to obtain. But when we could get someone to buy it for us, we were all about Lucky Lager. I miss those rebus puzzles on the bottlecaps...

posted by syntax 23 August | 15:13

The kids I knew mostly liked hard liquor, but the fratboys-in-waiting made an exception for Miller Genuine Draft, always called MGD. And the burnouts and punks liked the occasional forty-ounce. 'Ice beer' came out when I was in high school, and so that was briefly a big fad.

Since you mention it, though, cases of Mickey's were pretty cheap, and the little bottles, vaguely hand-grenade-shaped, shattered in a very satisfying way when you threw them . And Rolling Rock and Honey Brown occupied the same spot in my circles that Moosehead did among yours.

posted by box 23 August | 15:14

watered down

I also started out with wine coolers before I was a beer drinker. It was a short phase.

posted by LoriFLA 23 August | 15:16

My friend Bo had a dad who, for some reason, had a PALLET of Mickey's malt liquor in a warehouse in Santa Paula. We picked off a twelve pack at a time as long as they lasted. Poor Bo. You can be a huge hunky beer drinkin' oil rig worker, but if everybody knows you used to be a champion roller figure skater, you're still gonna get it.

posted by Ambrosia Voyeur 23 August | 15:23

Anchor Steam. My dad drank it.

posted by small_ruminant 23 August | 15:39

Wine cooler, yeah, there was definitely a short phase of that for me too.
I had totally forgotten about Meister Brau as well.

posted by Hellbient 23 August | 15:44

Busch in 16oz cans. You could get a six pack of pounders for $3.25, we went through a lot of that crap in college.

posted by octothorpe 23 August | 15:52

We always drank vodka mixed with slushies. Or margaritas in soda bottles.

I still like wine coolers.

posted by sperose 23 August | 15:54

I was never much of a beer drinker (or any other kind of drinker). But sometimes if I went to a strip club I'd order a Miller's.

posted by DarkForest 23 August | 15:56

My first week at college, I went to a frat rush and they had Pabst on tap. This was my first real drunk and somehow I ended up in their formal parlor. I spewed on at least two pieces of furniture and all over the carpet. Then I left.

I still can't drink Pabst, but my memory of it is fond.

posted by Ardiril 23 August | 16:27

Heilman's Special Export, for some reason that I can't remember. I believe it was made by the Olympia brewing company. It was cheap and (slightly) better than Bud. I very quickly moved up the beer ladder to ales and stouts by my mid 20's, but I don't remember them being readily available in the late 70's. Now my tastes lean toward good pilsners, but i hardly ever drink beer anymore.

posted by doctor_negative 23 August | 16:28

Speights. Pride of the South.

I still drink it any time I'm in NZ. I was lucky enough to start off on a quality beer. (It tastes like yuengling, pretty much, only a bit maltier).

posted by gaspode 23 August | 16:33

Rolling Rock in 7 oz. pony bottles.

posted by netbros 23 August | 16:42

In high school, Bud. In college, Genesee Cream Ale. "Genny Creams!"

Now? Newcastle and Yuengling.

(I also remember drinking Mickey's "Big Mouth" bottles. They should bring that bottle style back. They felt great in your hand, like a glass, beer-filled hand grenade, as mentioned above. Plus, you could slug one down in three seconds.)

posted by BitterOldPunk 23 August | 16:48

In college, whatever was in the keg. I honestly don't remember if there was a preferred kind, but I do remember that when we got Michelob it was supposedly Special. Oh and we idiotically drank Moosehead in high school - that was some serious skank beer. Oof.

In my 20's working at a crazy architect's office we would crack open Shaefer's every day at 5pm. Mostly because that was free, too.

Later I went through phases of Pacifico, Corona light, Rolling Rock and Busch light. Never got into Miller Light or Bud, really.

I'll still have an occasional Corona Light or Pacifico it it's hot out, and I still like Guinness, Modelo (light and dark), and especially Yuengling if it's cold out.

posted by chewatadistance 23 August | 17:02

At first, the only decent beer was Canadian. BUt just about when I became legal, the microbrew revolution was taking off. Traveling around New England, we drank different beers all the time. Everywhere we went there was something new to try. So I didn't settle into anything until much later.

Although, at my summer camp in South Jersey, it was always Yuengling. Then in Michigan for a summer it was always Liney's Honey Brown. And when I waited tables in an Irish pub, I became a Guinness drinker and stayed on that for a long, long time. At some point the flavor of Guinness started to feel too sweet and mellow for me, and switched over to drinking mostly IPAs and nut browns, which I usually choose now.

posted by Miko 23 August | 17:04

Yeah, if we're talking college, we're talking Rolling Rock, Yuengling, Black Label (anyone remember Black Label? They had great looking cans), and holy shit yes, BOP, Genny!

posted by Hellbient 23 August | 17:07

And now, I still ain't too picky, but it's Sam Adams, Stella, Corona I guess.

posted by Hellbient 23 August | 17:11

Iron City was what dad kept in the garage, but Rolling Rock was $3 a case on sale. 'Course gas was 27 cents a gallon, so that's $50 a case in today's money.

posted by StickyCarpet 23 August | 17:20

When I was in my teens, and growing up in Davis, CA, my father and I would always go to the beer selection at Corti Brothers in Sacramento when we were there, and pick out a single each to try. I had a whole line of oddball bottles on my windowsill. That's how I got to drink Sierra Nevada Pale Ale the first year it came out, and I've been drinking it ever since. In college in my 20's I always figured I'd spend 6 dollars on a 6-pack or 3 on a 12-pack. So it was Sierra Nevada Pale Ale and Anchor Steam and Porter, or it would be Schmidt Sport Packs, or Schaeffer. Sometimes it was Lucky Lager with the rebus in the cap. My friends in college and I were always trying out the cheapo brands, and a lot of the names of the beers aren't coming to me right now (Old Staghorn?). Also, being on the west coast, we drank a lot of Henry Weinhards back in the day.

posted by eekacat 23 August | 17:29

When I was in college, it was Busch, Moosehead, or Molson. All were fairly cheap. Busch was a bonus at the local pizza place. Me and my friend James would go there for an occasional dinner consisting of a "Family Size" stromboli with pepperoni and hot peppers and a six pack of Busch for the whopping total of $10.02. Awesome.

Some people swore by Old Dutch "The Good Beer" which cost as much per case as most beers cost per six pack and was just plain nasty.

At most parties, it was a keg of Red, White and Blue or Gennessee Cream Ale (Genny or Genocide). The rare party that had a keg of Heineken was drained in short order.

If we went to the local tap house, it was pitchers of Old Milwaukee (Old Mud).

posted by plinth 23 August | 17:53

In highschool, it was Bud in a red plastic cup, and very foamy from having been humped a half mile into the woods by a couple of football players.

In college, it was Hank Weinhards, either green or brown, although on the night of the last FROL party, I had a Mickey's Big Mouth in my hand at the moment when the gas main broke and we all nearly died in a huge fireball. Good times.

posted by Triode 23 August | 18:45

Michelob was the first beer I could actually drink without gagging, so I guess it would have to be Michelob.

It didn't take too long, though, before I started really liking British ales.

posted by Doohickie 23 August | 18:50

Bud. Haffenreffer Private Stock Malt Liquor. Usually consumed in tandem with DeKuyper schnapps and cheap weed in the back of a Nova.

posted by jonmc 23 August | 18:52

Great question! Whenever I'm back in Ohio, it's Schoenling Little King's Cream Ale. 7 oz. bottles, generally referred to as "chick beer" because girls were reputed to drink beer too slowly and let it get warm. Also, Rolling Rock but I don't remember why.

posted by theora55 23 August | 19:00

In Cambridge Mass, in the '80s, they were doing some kind of marketing experiment I guess, but this was $2.50 a six pack, and better than the usual affordable student swill.

posted by StickyCarpet 23 August | 19:08

I kept right on moving right through increasing levels of beer snobbery, but the beer I drank so much of the summer after my first year in college was Henry Weinhard's Red. Pretty much moved away from that after that summer, but that was the first beer I drank in quantity.

posted by kodama 23 August | 19:19

Bud Light. But my drink of choice in the early days was 100 proof peppermint schnapps or Jagermeister. I think I'd gag at the SMELL of either one of those now.

posted by BoringPostcards 23 August | 19:59

My cheap beer that I drank the longest, though, was Tecate... (first-ever Mexican beer in a can, i.e. Mexican Budweiser)

posted by BoringPostcards 23 August | 20:01

Piels.

posted by jason's_planet 23 August | 20:46

Busch was what we drank in high school, except I didn't like beer then and so always demanded my bottle of Strawberry Hell, Sometimes we drank Goebels, the Nazi beer, and one time in college my brother gave us a case of Black Label, which thoroughly sucked and all the roommates stood around to ceremonially drink the last can and vow never to touch the stuff again. I never have. Then we all graduated to Rolling Rock. In Baltimore in art school we drank Natty Boh dark draft at the Mt. Royal Tavern for 75 cents a pint. They don't make that anymore.

posted by mygothlaundry 23 August | 21:07

I kept right on moving right through increasing levels of beer snobbery

True that.

posted by box 23 August | 22:29

Busch. I used to say you could taste the inside of the brewery pipes. It did have a very good, industrial, macro-brew flavor.

Beer has gluten in it so I can't drink it any more. I would just about kill for a glass of some of the stuff you guys are dismissing as swill. Especially a nice Killian's Red - nothing like it when you have been out exercising.

(don't get me started on gluten-free "beer.")

posted by ikkyu2 24 August | 21:27

Budweiser, Bud-Light, Busch. We lived in St. Louis, that's all there was.

posted by chillmost 25 August | 07:38

Sam Adams and Amstel, sometimes Guinness. Then Newcastle, Harp, and Murphy's, and now I'm on microbrews.

posted by halonine 26 August | 12:54

My parents didn't drink beer, but they had friends with a dog named Schlitz. I went to college in a semi-dry county (which is so weird, but whatever) and you could get White Mountain Beer Coolers at the drive-thru beverage barn (which is also weird, in a semi-dry county, but whatever).

posted by crush-onastick 28 August | 07:32

Beer.

My oldest memory has to be of some Schlitzy can in the fridge of a Brooklyn tenement.
When dad smoke and drank, he drank crappy beer and smoked shitty cigarettes (Kent). i remember Millers and Heinekens in the fridge as i got older and moved further into suburbia.
i tried some, to the predictable bleh, pretweenaged
It was whatever we could get as teens, mostly Bud products in the Midwest but i just drank what was around. The few times i had Mickey's i have fond memories of; it always showed up somewhere as a novelty and signifier of it. Never liked your green bottled beers. Drank a lot of Rolling Rock for being the cheapest beer in the pricey dive bar. Drank some bad Beast beer from the Union Square A & P. Would drink the Red White and Blue that second day of the party. Coors did not explode in Colorado and these college guys had this affliction for Moosehead. Situational beers.
Somewhere when i got a choice and cared more, i tried the clean Japanese beers and the microbrews, landed in a definite Irish/English groove.

Only in Indiana do i drink of the traditional Bud Light, unthinkingly throwing back the beerwater when the cans get popped.
i'm not a big beer person, but i'm all in favor of the well honed beer buzz.

posted by ethylene 24 September | 18:07

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