Wild fire tainted water ruins beer?

[gweimer]

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[Pilgrim]

that's the lovely thing about beers....tastes differ SO MUCH.

Extensive research is called for by each beer consumer, in the interest of finding truth, justice, and the right balance of malt and hops.

[Dave W]

You have apparently never tried Rhinelander beer.  Or Sam Adams Triple Bock.   

Or Walter's Beer from Eau Claire, Wisc. The name has been revived now by a local brewpub there and is being promoted as a premium beer but the original stuff was really foul.

[Nocturnal]

i must disagree about dos xx. it is easily the worst beer i have ever tasted. your results already vary you contrarians.

Worse than PBR? I don't put Dos xx in the best category at all, but I have tasted MUCH worse. I think among what I consider "mainstream" beer, Coors lite is the worst. Everyone has different tastes tho.  

[gweimer]

Or Walter's Beer from Eau Claire, Wisc. The name has been revived now by a local brewpub there and is being promoted as a premium beer but the original stuff was really foul.

Are you talking about the old Walter's Special?  Back before the days of classy beer, bars used to have one beer on tap.  It was usually Walter's Special where I grew up.  That was the beer that was packaged as Generic Beer back in the late '70s. 

So, let's see how many bad beers come out of Wisconsin - Rhinelander, Point, Walter's, Old Style.  But back then, a six-pack didn't cost $10.

[Dave W]

Yep. Same Walter's.

Rhinelander and Point were pretty bad too. Never cared for Heilemann's Old Style but it was a step above these.

Funny how perceptions change, using the old Walter's name to revive a memory that never was.

Then there's Leinenkugel's. Back in the late 60s their slogan was that it was brewed with water from the Big Eddy Springs (off the Chippewa River). The local joke from the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area was that Big Eddy was the name of the horse that pissed in the spring. And thanks to the Indian pictured on the label, it was also often called Squaw Piss. Then in the early 70s that same beer won some regional and national contests and suddenly there was lots of hometown pride in it.

[Pilgrim]

In the pacific northwest, Olympia was scorned by many Washingtonians - while people from east of the area were taking home cases of it (Coors was the same way - in fact, running Coors to Georgia was the plot line of Smokey and the Bandit).  Olympia was acquired by Pabst in 1983.  It was a sad event.

I remember the REAL bottom-line beer at WSU in the late 60's was Buckhorn.  It came in cans with artwork of a trophy deer on it....and it was actually bought from LoneStar brewing and made by Olympia as their budget line.



My daughters went to San Antonio a couple of years ago for a New Years' vacation.  I told them to get Shiner Bock beer.  They decided to try a "Texas" beer and bought some Lone Star....and after the first bottle, dumped the rest, then went out and bought Shiner Bock.  Dad got that one right.

[gweimer]

Yep. Same Walter's.

Rhinelander and Point were pretty bad too. Never cared for Heilemann's Old Style but it was a step above these.

Funny how perceptions change, using the old Walter's name to revive a memory that never was.

Then there's Leinenkugel's. Back in the late 60s their slogan was that it was brewed with water from the Big Eddy Springs (off the Chippewa River). The local joke from the Eau Claire/Chippewa Falls area was that Big Eddy was the name of the horse that pissed in the spring. And thanks to the Indian pictured on the label, it was also often called Squaw Piss. Then in the early 70s that same beer won some regional and national contests and suddenly there was lots of hometown pride in it.

Rhinelander was the only beer I ever had that tasted like the can.  Leinenkugel's is another Wisconsin staple.  Back in the '70s, if you referred to it as "Leinie's", you got a dirty look and were called out as an out-of-stater.  I like the Leinenkugel Red, but you can have the Summer Shanty.  Augsburger was another Wisconsin beer, and a pretty good one.  That brewery, if I have my facts straight, is where Berghoff Beer is now brewed.

[nofi]

anyone remember blatz beer. the beer tasted as bad as its name.

[gweimer]

anyone remember blatz beer. the beer tasted as bad as its name.

My old room-mate used to have slum parties in the '70s.  Cases of Blatz and White Castle.  There was always beer left.

[Pilgrim]

I tend to regard all "light" beers as the modern-day swill, used mainly by those who like to chug multiple beers without blacking out.  Many of them succeed regardless.  College kids guzzle it in incredible quantities.

[Dave W]

It made you go Blatz after you drank it.

Blatz at one time was a well-regarded beer. I guess you have to be old enough to remember the "I'm from Milwaukee and I ought to know" song. But it was in the toilet within a few years after Pabst bought it.

IIRC Lone Star was bought by Olympia which was bought by Heilemann's which was bought by Stroh's which was bought by Pabst. Or something like that. Yep, it's a real Texas beer all right.  

Speaking of Pabst, how the hell did that ever get to be the hipsters' beer of choice? And is it true that Pabst doesn't even do any of its own brewing anymore? I read somewhere that although they own lots of brands, they farm out the brewing to Miller-Coors.

[Dave W]

Wow, this brings back some very old memories.

[Pilgrim]

Miller-Coors and Bud definitely do brewing for other lines, many of which are either craft lines or smaller labels they have bought up. 

[Lightyear]

My daughters went to San Antonio a couple of years ago for a New Years' vacation.  I told them to get Shiner Bock beer.  They decided to try a "Texas" beer and bought some Lone Star....and after the first bottle, dumped the rest, then went out and bought Shiner Bock.  Dad got that one right.

Funny how things change - when I was young Shiner was "sh*t" - almost as bad a Jax, but then again, nothing was as bad a Jax.  Now Shiner is really good stuff.  My most favorite billboard is for Shiner beer - a nice icy cold long neck laying on it's side with " Shiner beer - our beer runs through thousands of quality Czechs every day!" 

For those not in the know a large portion of the Texas hill country was settled by Germans and Czechs after the civil war - you still hear German spoken often and the AM dial is flooded with polka stations