I’m remembering Black Label (Hey, Mabel!) which was a Carling brand, I think.
PBR has also been underwriting some of NPR’s online music programming, so there’s some deliberate outreach to hipsters.
Robin
Is/wasn’t Heineken supposed to be premium? Now it seems like what guys who drink Bud Light buy to impress girls.
Lowenbrau
Man, I still treat Rolling Rock like my high school girlfriend.
“From the glass-lined tanks of OLD LATROBE, we tender this premium beer…”
Except it’s brewed in New Jersey. The glass-lined tanks, they sit idle. 
Of course, it’s crucial to distinguish between Genesee Beer (pure panther piss) and Genesee Cream Ale (really quite nice).
You can probably also include all those “Red” beers that came out in the mid-90s - Red Wolf, Red Dog, Killian’s Irish Red. They piqued a lot of people’s curiosity when they were introduced. I think they still make Killian’s Red, but I can’t remember the last time I saw either of the other two.
'K, I guess I was too focused on the buzz and not enough on the buck.
“What beers do you have?”
“We have Bud, Bud Light, Miller, etc.”
“Imports?”
“Heineken and Corona!”
siiiiiigh “I’ll have a Diet Coke.”
That makes me weep every time. “They make Anchor Steam less than two miles away, you jackasses!”
Tuborg used to be considered a very high-end brew around here back in the 90’s. Now it’s just an ordinary beer.
Still good, though.
They do (it’s brewed by Coors, which is a client of mine). Not as big as it was during the 90s, but still a respectable seller for them.
I think a lot of the “premium” that got attached to one-time hard-to-find beers like Coors was largely due to the mystique…if you can’t get it here, it must be good, right? When I was in college in Wisconsin in the 80s, Illinois folks would go apeshit for Point Beer (from Stevens Point, and generally unavailable in Illinois), but those of us who could get it regularly weren’t impressed.
Point has done a mini-Leinie’s, in that they’ve spiffed up their image and introduced new beer styles, including a White Beer (wheat style). I don’t think they’re quite as good as Leinie’s but they’re definitely not swill.
I think a lot of it is down to American’s changing taste in beer. Prior to the mid 90’s when it was tough to find any beer that didn’t taste like water, anything that wasn’t Bud Lite was considered premium. Ergo, you had garbage like Heineken, Rolling Rock, or Red Strip considered quality beers. Then, as all the micro-brews became popular and we got more exposed to decent imports, people realized that Stella or Heineken or Corona were really just the Bud Lite of other countries and their reputation took the subsequent hit.
Lowenbrau
Or, as we call it, “canoe beer”, from the old joke, “why is American beer like sex in a canoe?”
Ah, Tuborg! I miss it terribly! It used to be available at the big “beverage warehouses” here in the US, but I haven’t seen it in a long time. Anyone know if it’s still available here?
Newcastle Brown Ale used to be a special treat; now it’s served in just about every bar here. Not that that’s a bad thing, mind you, but it seems to fit the qualifications of the OP.
And Warsteiner’s is pretty much available in most big beer stores for almost the same price as Bud in the local supermarket. I can spend less than $20 for a case and be the hit of any party.
And remember when Sam Adams was a big deal? Now, not so much, but still one of the best domestics around.
Yeah, Heineken was considered premium. At least, I used to pay a premium price for it on the rare occasions that I bought beer.
To this day, every time I make the car trip from Chicago to D.C., I bring back a 30-pack of Old Style just to impress the friends.
Sure, it’s awful beer, but you can’t get it on the East Coast, so it has “mystique.” Plus, it makes all the ex-pat Cubs fans happy when I offer them a fully-krausened cold one.