Beer fads that have passed

[seatazzz]

It's a fad that hasn't faded yet, but I remember when the craze was "light" or "diet" beer.. I think I read somewhere once that the big brewers hit on it as a marketing ploy aimed at women, since at the time (and even now), women did the majority of the grocery shopping, and also because it was believed women didn't like the taste of the "real" beers.

 

[JonM]

Phillip van Munching's "Beer Blast" tells the story of the development of light beer, including the cutthroat battle over the right to use the word "Lite" which Miller obviously won.

An old memory popped into my head - back in the days of Ice and Draft and whatever beers, a friend tried to say "Bud Ice Draft Light" after quite a few and it came out "Butt Ass Dright Laft." That name stuck.

 

[seatazzz]

Phillip van Munching's "Beer Blast" tells the story of the development of light beer, including the cutthroat battle over the right to use the word "Lite" which Miller obviously won.

An old memory popped into my head - back in the days of Ice and Draft and whatever beers, a friend tried to say "Bud Ice Draft Light" after quite a few and it came out "Butt Ass Dright Laft." That name stuck.

*deleted because I don't want to offend Yooper. She's too nice.

 

[vgmohag]

No one has mentioned bud dry. Why ask why?

 

[schatzke]

try Bud Dry

 

[Toejam792]

Genny Cream Ale was popular around wny for a while a couple decades ago. I picked up a 12 pack recently, having never tried it, and I can say it was pretty good.

 

[mcgimpkins]

Genny Cream Ale was popular around wny for a while a couple decades ago. I picked up a 12 pack recently, having never tried it, and I can say it was pretty good.

Really? Haven't had it in +15 years but I remember gagging on the stuff. Maybe they finally chased the sunk out of the brewery.

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I think the latest fad where i live anyway is anything wheat, or mixed with wheat, I know people like them but im allergic so if im out of home brew I go strait for the light beers, now that a fad that will never die

 

[jcav]

Anyone remember back 30 years ago in the mid 80's when they came out with Michelob Dark? They really pushed that beer with all the advertisements. It was malty and pretty good back then before all the craft beer was available. Then later no one cared and they stopped brewing it.

John

 

[JonM]

15 or so years ago, before craft brewing REALLY took off, PBR somehow became super popular among the hipster crowd. Why? Because they didn't market and were seen as not being a corporate stooge type beer.

Naturally, everyone who sells stuff wanted to do the same thing, i.e., quadruple your sales by literally doing nothing.

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/22/magazine/the-marketing-of-no-marketing.html

I almost missed it because PBR was still persona non grata around here. The announced in the late 90s that they didn't have the money to honor brewery workers' pensions and people rightly flipped. Milwaukee County refused to sell Pabst, so you could no longer get PBR at Bucks or Brewers games or at any county parks, liquor stores wouldn't accept Pabst returnable bottles anymore, and plenty of stores stopped carrying it.

Miller jumped in and covered the pensions and, apparently fences have been mended because I got a PBR at Miller Park recently.

 

[ericbw]

PBR is just good, basic beer the way God intended.

Pabst had some Busby Berkeley style musical commercials. "PBR me ASAP!"

But there are lots of blue collar beers that don't market. Old Style. Rainer. Narragansett. The difference might be that they were regional and never got widespread distribution. PBR had distribution even when they were less popular.

 

[Brownalemikie]

Me thinks the days of commercial beers such as Bud are nearing the end. I just can't make myself choke them down anymore......it's like drinking charged water or Alka Seltzer. Most of my friends brew their own or buy craft beer. Hence, the fad for commercial beer is passing. JMO

 

[BreezyBrew]

Black IPA

 

[schatzke]

I remember just after my 21st birthday buying glasses of PBR at a dive bar downtown for 75 cents. About 16 years ago. Now I'm feelin old

 

[ericbw]

We used to get mini pitchers of PBR for a dollar. Drank it like a mug.

 

[JonM]

So this episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm came out right around the time that the alcopops started becoming really popular - Mike's Hard Lemonade, this hard lemonade, that hard lemonade, etc. So among my buddies and me, any fermented malt beverage with natural lemon flavor was a "lemon bulls**t."

(Linked for obvious naughty words.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-4yZT8sT5Q

 

[z-bob]

So this episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm came out right around the time that the alcopops started becoming really popular - Mike's Hard Lemonade, this hard lemonade, that hard lemonade, etc. So among my buddies and me, any fermented malt beverage with natural lemon flavor was a "lemon bulls**t."

(Linked for obvious naughty words.)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-4yZT8sT5Q

LOL, the barista (baristo?) knew what he wanted and had no problem with it

 

[rlmiller10]

Yeah, but at least an oktoberfest is good beer, even a winter ale. I think the pumpkin thing is just a really big, far reaching fad. Pumpkins should be reserved for pies and carving.

And blowing up. They are fun to blow up.

 

[tiredofbuyingbeer]

PBR is still pretty big in hipster circles in Philly and Atlanta. In Philly, there's this ubiquitous bar combo, a citywide, where they give you well bourbon and a PBR for the price of, well, a well bourbon. (Some places use nicer bourbon.) The bar near me doesn't open the can for you, so you can take the PBR home if you want.

 

[trav77]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1495593347.037510.jpg

This was a thing for awhile and particularly hilarious because where I grew up this drink was called a "Gatineau ****" (Labatt and Smirnoff ice). Apparently their marketing department didn't think that had much of a ring to it.

 

[JonM]

When I was in school, the Union had this stuff called B.B. Lemon. It was super syrupy and nasty on its own, but the idea was you'd get a pitcher of that and a pitcher of Lite and pour them 1/2 and 1/2 together in a glass for a radler like thing that was prett darn good.

 

[Revvy]

Anyway, here's my fad submission for the group - Belgian table beer! That's right, I'm digging into the history books! The Belgian Trappist Monesteries used to brew a low alcohol (~3%) beer to serve to broad audiences. Those days are long gone, but the fads that came after - dubbels, tripples, and quads - are here to stay!

Just popped up on my FACEBOOK memories... 2013 was the season for homebrewing/craft brewing of the Table Beers...

 

[Revvy]

I predict the next little brewing "fad" bubble will be everything "NE" style... Just like how everything became "Imperial" for a bit. Brewers will be applying the same techniques they do to get NE IPAS to other styles... Like NE Irish Reds, NE Stouts.... We'll see.

 

[JonM]

Last summer I jostled a nearly empty keg of Yooper's Fizzy Yellow Beer and stirred up all the sediment. Voila, a NE style cream ale!

 

[SGTSparty]

I remember just after my 21st birthday buying glasses of PBR at a dive bar downtown for 75 cents. About 16 years ago. Now I'm feelin old

So I grew up a Yooper, and everyone drank PBR non-ironically. I graduated high school w/ 2 or 3 kids w/ PBR tattoos (graduated in 03). I think its a fine beer for what it is, and its my go to cheap beer. Cut to 2010, I visit my now wife in Detroit on R&R from Iraq. I'm not from Detroit, I'm not cool, I didn't know what a hipster was. We sit down at a bar, ask what they have on tap and say "Oh, PBR, I'll have that" She rolls her eyes at me and calls me a hipster, which I didn't get. Then I just about lose my sh!t when they charge me 4.50 for a glass.

Thankfully the bloom has come off that particular rose and you can now get tall boys at a burger bar by me for like 2 bucks, should you want to.

 

[Sbe2]

Pumpkin beers? A local grocery store has had cases of Pumking on clearance for a while now. They'll probably have it till it's in season again. Let's all get over pumpkin beer already.

Before Southern Tier was bought by Constellation Group, I always looked forward to Pumking. Now, it just doesn't taste the same, maybe my palate has changed, or was unrefined at the time, idk. I might have to find the Pumking thread on HBT now

 

[B-Hoppy]

Remember this?

Sure, it was the foundation for all the alcopops, Mike's, Zima, those hard sodas, etc., but what an abomination.

Yep, the Ice beers - Icehouse, Lite Ice (I had a bar mirror of that in my dorm room) Bud Ice, Leinie's Ice, etc.

Remember when everything was a draft? Miller Genuine Draft, Bud Draft (or was it Bud Ice Draft?)

Or Dry? Bud Dry, Michelob Dry, etc.

Great! Back in '91-'92 I brewed for a small extract pub & we used Briess extract and ended up meeting a gal who was their head chemist at the Oregon Brewers Fest in the early 90's. She told me that one thing that came from the first attempts at making lite beer in the 70's was clear beer. They wanted to see what happened if they doubled up the charcoal in the filter and the end result was that they filtered out all the color, ha! I'm sure this is where stuff like Zima and the like came from.

 

[Murphys_Law]

Killian's Red.

That was very popular "back in the day" but never could stomach the stuff. I was a MGD kinda guy then!

 

[Eamster]

How about energy beers or were they ever much of a thing? In come B^e rView attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1495637239.586791.jpg

 

[Barley_Bob]

Just popped up on my FACEBOOK memories... 2013 was the season for homebrewing/craft brewing of the Table Beers...

Well, I'll be damned.

...

I don't know what else to say to that.