Beer historians, looking for old MN beer

[GVH_Dan]

All right, I'm looking for some help here. Yesterday I was on WI public radio doing a craft beer show and some guy called in asking about a beer he used to drink "50-60" years ago in Minnesota. He described it as fairly heavy for the day and high in alcohol. All three of us in the studio stared at each other because we had no clue what he was talking about. I'm hoping one of you will be able to clue me in. The caller couldn't spell it, but let me put down a phonetic spelling and a few variations that I can think of that may jar someone's memory:

Glacks-tight

Glaxtite
Glixsteidt
Glixslide
Glaxslite

Get the idea? It was hard for me to catch exactly what he said and no one called in later with additional info.

I'll take any theories including dementia or drunk.

 

[Revvy]

Have you googled those spelling derivations along with the word "beer?"

That's the first thing I do when doing historical research into a beer, is just type it into google and see what pops up. Often beeriana collectable sites will pop up with labels and bottles and such.

 

[Revvy]

Here, start glancing through this. http://www.historyontheweb.org/minnbrew/mnbrew.html

 

[Revvy]

Here's a list of the Minnesota breweries nothing looks phonetically similar, BUT this is brewery names, not necessarily the beers themselves. http://www.historyontheweb.org/minnbrew/brwlst7.html

 

[Revvy]

Could it be,

http://www.historyontheweb.org/minnbrew/glueks.html

Yup...I'm thinking it's Glueks Stite malt liquor.

 

[Revvy]

It's technically the second Malt Liquor ever produced.

At Gluek Brewing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Alvin Gluek had a similar idea in 1942. The grandson of the brewery's founder, Alvin was happiest in the laboratory, tinkering. And one day, he found a way to brew a beer that would use less malt but have more of a kick. He named his malt liquor Sparkling Stite by Gluek, courting drinkers with champagne aspirations. Envisioned as an upscale product, Sparkling Stite was even promoted with score pads for bridge players.

From http://home.earthlink.net/~ggghostie/maltliquor.html

Here's some info on Alvin Gluek and his breweries http://www.coldspringbrewery.com/comp_history.html

 

[Revvy]

 

[GVH_Dan]

Bingo, that's got to be it. The way he described it, we both asked if it was a malt liquor.

Thanks!

 

[Revvy]

No problem, it was fun. I love playing historical beer detective.

 

[TxBrew]

No problem, it was fun. I love playing historical beer detective.

Good work Gumshoe!

 

[yodalegomaster]

You might want to talk to Doug Hoverson he wrote the "land of amber waters" which is a very good history of Minnesota brewing. It's also a great beer coffee table book for us beer geeks. He is in my local club and might have a login here. If not I can ask him via our club e-mail. He is also currently working on a similar book for Wisconsin right now. (That should be very interesting because Wisconsin has a much larger impact on national brewing history)