Anyone ever go into a bar back in the 70s and drink "dark" beer?
I'm wondering what kind of beer it is/was? The choice was between regular and dark. Dark lager of some sort?
When out partying with the hoodlums back then, we would order dark. Of course, back then, anything that was different and got you drunk, was good. As I remember, it wasn't too bad, really. Not that many people knew what a good beer was back then.
We all had our own plastic steins that were hung above the bar. It pissed me off when the bouncer would hold a flashlight under my ID, to see if it had been altered... LOL
Anyway, I'm not planning on brewing up any "dark" beer (well, I don't think). You never know.
I still have my plastic stein as a keepsake....
Dark beer, back then, was BMC with caramel color (but not flavor). Some people said it the factories used wood ash for color, but that would have added flavor. I don't remember any difference from the regular stuff, but it was hard to find and that made it special. A little like getting Coors in upstate N.Y., because they didn't ship it east of the Big Muddy.
No kidding? Who would have thunk it. BMC trying to make us think we were drinking something special. It's been thirty years, but I seem to remember it tasting some different from regular draught. Wish I had a glass of it right now...
Don't remember dark beer back then. Best we did was get kegs of Andeker or Michelob in the 70's and thought we were being high class instead of miller, pabst etc.
RAISED FROM THE DEAD!!!
Wasn't Guiness sold in the US in the 1970s? You couldn't get it at a bar or grocery store, but they had it at the larger liquor stores, I think.
Back then,we used to shop at a grocery store called Meyer Goldburg (yeah! Goldburg!lolz). That was when we noticed Stroh's Bock. It wasn't just coloring,it actually had a smooth darker flavor to it. Even Pizza Hut in our area carried it for years. And since I & my buddies were 18 when it came out (legal age at the time),we ordered a few pitures of it. It was really good. Seems to me it was in a yellowish can as well.
Sure wish they still made that one. Good stuff!
I remember the Student Union beer hall at San Jose State had some sort of "Dark Beer" on tap around 1975-78. I don't remember the brand - I stumbled on this thread while trying to find it. It wasn't great beer, but it was a change from the typical Coor's or Spudweiser. The next time I had a "dark beer" on tap in a US bar was in the St. Louis airport "Cheers Bar" where they served Sam Adams. Not really dark, but not exactly a standard US pale lager or pilsner! This was in the late 1980s, as I recall.
This feels like adding margin notes on the Dead Sea Scrolls…but it’s an interesting topic.
The seventies might have been the last time I saw Lowenbrau Dark. I remember trying Guinness Extra Stout in the bottle back then and being repulsed. There was also some Malt Liquor brand that was distinctly darker than everything else, perhaps just amber among the BMC variants.
I was in NYC not too long ago and I happened to walk by a bar called McSorley’s. Looked cool so I went in. Same setup, light or dark only. No other options. It definitely wasn’t just coloring though, and both were good! The sign says established in 1854.
In the very late 70's, I lived in a dorm, and discovered that there was a dark beer in stubby bottles (I think it was Pabst) that tasted okay warm. That was a Godsend because if I had cold beer in my dorm room the upperclassmen would steal it but they left warm beer alone, probably intending to steal it when it was cold. It really wasn't much different than their light-colored lager, except it went down at room temperature better for some reason.
There was also Shiner Bock (they still sell that), which is not a bock beer by any measure but it was pretty good for a cheap beer. Just an American lager with a little caramel color and maybe a tiny bit of black malt added. Now it gets sold as a premium brand which I don't understand at all. I would still buy it if it was cheap enough (about like Busch) but I'm not paying Sierra Nevada-like prices for it.
Post time 2006-6-10 00:50:46
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