Beers You Used To Drink

[EDF713]

Pearl Light.

Hah! Pearl was my bargain go-to in college, Shiner Bock premium go-to.

I now can't believe I used to love Fat Tire. I can't stand it anymore.

 

[jack13]

My first legal beer on my 21st birthday was a Foster's in the big stupid can. I also used to drink Heineken and Newcastle brown ale which aren't terrible, but I can't get back all the time I wasted drinking Ice House in college. Gag me with a base malt!!

Then I picked up some Sierra Nevada pale ale, which was my entry point into craft beers.

Ha! I too recall drinking an occasional SN Pale Ale among the likes of Fosters and Newkie brown, both of which in themselves were a step above the usual trash.

Ice House. Yeah.

 

[jack13]

First Tier:
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale
Sam Adams (Boston Lager of course since that was the only one)
Samuel Smiths

Second Tier:
Honey Brown
Killians Irish Red
Newcastle Brown
Fosters
Heineken

Third Tier:
Icehouse
Rolling Rock
Red Dog

Fourth Tier:
Keystone
Busch Lite
Old Mill Dog Pee
The Beast
Piels

I know I'm missing a ton.

 

[jready]

Being a good Texas boy it was Shiner Bock and Celis White both of which seemed sophisticated

 

[MrTimV]

Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite.
Big Rig Gold
Landshark
Beaus Lugtread
Sleeman Clear, Draught and a few others.

I'd still drink a few of those if I had to.

 

[TooManyTacos]

-Bud Light was probably my first beer
-Drank Bud Select for years
-Chugged Coors Light by the gallon 15 years ago
-Used to think Rolling Rock and Red Dog tasted good
-Would get Session Lager at bars because they were $2 a pint
-4Loko (the OG recipe that killed college kids)

 

[madscientist451]

We used to get this pretty cheap:

And this was even cheaper, but I remember it came in large returnable bottles, less than $7 a case.....

Several years later, I remember this stuff giving me lots of "beer gas"....

 

[daveMN]

I used to buy Strohs in college because my roommates wouldn't drink it.

 

[InspectorJon]

Labatt's blue label. 25 cents for a 10 oz pour in the Alberta taverns. We ordered them by the dozen.

 

[Jayjay1976]

Miller Genuine Draft and Miller Lite.
Big Rig Gold
Landshark
Beaus Lugtread
Sleeman Clear, Draught and a few others.

I'd still drink a few of those if I had to.

I LUUURV Beau's Lugtread. I would love to brew a clone of it.

 

[SEndorf]

Fox Deluxe
Old Milwaukee
Blatz
Schlitz
Old Style
Falstaff
Hamms

Many others of my penniless youth before I found what beer could actually taste like........

EDIt: Forgot Special Export. That was for a REALLY special occasion..

 

[bracconiere]

Milwaukee's Best was always my go to beer....even after homebrewing, 4.99 for a twelve pack..for traveling, it was easier then bottling, until i got the idea to just use 1 liter soda bottles....

edit: (now when i see it at the store and it costs $9-10 a twelver, i think thank god beer is easy to make! even when i use store bought malt i can churn out a $2.50 twelve pack)

 

[JimRausch]

Growing up in CT in the 70's, drinking age was 18. So, as a senior in highschool (with a weekend job and spendable $) I used to drive around with a case of Heineken in the back. Used to think that was the absolute best beer in the world. Can't drink that skunk piss now.
Moved on to Michelob Dark, then Lowenbrau Dark. Then during my cheap college days at UCONN it was Heffenreffer, also known as 'the green death'. Went out to Indiana and discovered Strohs, which I really liked at the time.
Sam Adams Boston lager was my 1st 'craft' beer. It was such a eyeopener when it first came out.

 

[user 254557]

Rolling Rock, my friends and I drank so much that the Bar in our little town of about 1500 actually put it on tap

 

[Brew_Dude41]

I got a headache from just seeing the picture of the "brain grenade" up there.
Got wrecked a few too many times off those, seemed to be the worst hangover.

 

[brewgar]

Carling's BLACK LABEL.

Back in the late '70s. Way cheap, but man it was vile.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Shiner Bock... way back when it tasted good. Now it’s crap.

It was always crap - your palate has improved.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

Pete's Wicked Red.
Icehouse.

 

[TheMadKing]

My Beer progression went something like this
-Sips of my moms Redhook ESB as a kid
-Keystone light was my first full beer
-Busch light was known as "Pullman Water" where I went to college
-Coors light was for when I was feeling rich
-Then Blue Moon showed up and I thought that was great (especially since you could get a pitcher for $4.50 at my local Denny's... we used to have chugging contests with them)
-Then Widmer brothers hefeweizen really introduced me to crafty beers
-Redhook and Widmer became my go-to beers
-Then I discovered Deschutes and Sam Adams and really got into craft beer - this was the point where I became known as a beer snob by my college friends. I started brewing about that same time, and tried every beer available in my college town and I haven't looked back!

 

[BruceH]

Red, White, and Blue
Old Style
Schmitt's
Blatz
Old Milwaukee
Budweiser
Michelob

In 1986 the Air Force sent me to Germany for two years. During that time it was:

Whatever the Gasthaus had on tap or:

Bitburger
Kirner Pils
Lowenbrau Weitzen
Lowenbrau Export
Binding
Romer
Pirminator
Etc, Etc.

Came back to the states in 1988 and none of the old beers had any taste. Couldn't find any good beers.

Fast forward to modern times and I can get German and other imported beers at a gas station.

 

[Kharnynb]

Was waiting at the airport bar and found an old friend, Palm Speciale, one of the "top of the shelf" supermarket beers when I was young.

We'd always drink a few before going to bars when I was young, as my friend's dad used to buy it.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Hmm...Nutfield, Catamount, SA Cranberry Lambic, Pete's Wicked, New Castle, Dundee

 

[Immocles]

I was always more of a booze guy, but in order of appearance:
Grain Belt Premium Light. I can't stand this stuff. Didn't really like it all that much back then, but beer is convenient.
Michelob Golden
Busch light. Tons of it. My entire group drank it, and it was dirt cheap at the time.
Went through a pretty good Modelo phase at some point.
Schell's light
Schell's original

Only one I keep around anymore is Schells original. Good stuff. Plus its the in-laws favorite. Still have a few michelobs on my step dad's birthday and death anniversary, too.

 

[grampamark]

In the pre-light beer era, beers brewed in the Northwest were quite popular in ths part of the world. Rainer, Olympia, and Lucky Lager were some of the most common here in Montana.

Rainier was famous for running some really clever TV commercials. This one might be one of the best short commercials, ever.

Production values have certainly improved in 45 years.

 

[SEndorf]

Sheriff Walt Longmeyer only drank Rainier.
Good enough for me.

 

[jack13]

Carling's BLACK LABEL.

Back in the late '70s. Way cheap, but man it was vile.

My grandfather got barred from a cheese store in Ohio for going in there and just hanging out drinking black label. He'd go in, buy one, stand around and drink it and talk to people, then buy another, etc. He never did anything bad, they just felt he was in there too much for never having bought any cheese. That's the family story, anyway.

 

[Nubiwan]

Back in my 20s I regularly went to a British style pub chain in Toronto that served a draft called Toby. This would be 1980 and onwards. I like to think of this as a pre-cursor to the now popular Rickards Red here in Canada, but I could be well off base. Remember it being a darker than lager type Ale. Don't think they sell it anymore.

Outside of that, the pub would serve Carlsberg as their go to lager. Thing is, I hardly cared what the beer was, and thought anyone doing it cos they liked the taste, certainly for the majority of commercial beers (Coors, Canadian, molson, labatts) was talking out their arse. As for proper tasting ****, those who drank stouts, bitters, and milds were generally old farts.

I only really got back into home brewing in the last 3-4 months, and I am now an old fart. I started home brewing back in 1990, but gave it up when I got married, and had kids. So my home brew "affair" lasted only about 6-7 years.

UP till now, my choice of domestic Ale has been Rickards Red. Sometimes a Smithwicks if I am ata pub, and they have it. I really liked 100th Meridian which is served by Mill Street Brewery, which I think is now owned by one of the big brewers. It's an excellent drink. Also drank something called Barking Squirrel which is another darker Amber style. Sadly, my local liquor store stopped selling it. Think it might be a Jack Astors beer. Not sure.

If I am in the US, I usually look to Sam Adams lager, and have been known to dip into some pretty decent IPAs whilst on hols, but can't remember their names.

I haven't touched a domestic bottle (except to move it aside for my home brew in the fridge) since New Years Eve. I've done 4 batches of reds(2), an IPA, and a lager since, and they taste as good as anything I can buy.

 

[Nubiwan]

I'd like to also point out that whenever I tried someone else's home brew - back in the 80's - we often compared it to shoe polish and deemed it only palatable to those that made it. You'd have one, then politely decline, sometimes in favour of a lowly Budweiser.

My own early foray into brewing was rather hit and miss, I have to say, and I think much of that had to do with always fermenting well into the mid to high 70 degree range with my primary. That would have been my ambient room temp. At least, that is my recollection. I also always did a secondary, and fancy that just introduced uneccesary air into the beer. Results were very hit and miss, I have to say.

My latest homebrews (20 years on) have all impressed me, and many thanks go to some top notch advice in this forum.