In case you didn’t know, Old Style beer is going to be brewed the way it was up until about 10-15 years ago using a process called “Kraeusening”.
Kräusening is adding active wort or other sugar nutrients to beer that is being bottled. The name is German in origin, though the method is used by brewers in various countries - most notably Belgium. Kräusening encourages the yeast to continue fermentation in the bottle. It helps clean up the flavor of the beer by reducing levels of diacetyl and acetaldehyde.
On occasion I would buy Old Style because it was a cheap thirst quencher but nothing more. Though I’ve often bitched that it had too much corn in it.
Tonight I bought a 12 pack of the new Kräeusened version. I am old enough to remember drinking kraeusened Old Style in the 70’s and 80’s, but I didn’t remember how it tasted.
Important point: I went to a mini mart in West Allis and was able to buy a 4 pack of the non-kraeusened version. This made for a good comparison.
Results:
The kraeusened version is VERY smooth and very easy drinking. Much smoother than the non-kraeusened version. It’s not as sweet as the “non” version. The presence of corn is still there, but nowhere near as much. It also still has the soury bite of corn sweetner that the non version has, but not as much. The carbonation of the kraeusened version is vastly superior too.
Overall the kraeusened version is much better than the non-kraeusened version. It is good. Not great or even very good, just good. (the “non” version was, in my opinion, “fair” for the money. A good brew for pizza or tacos).
But in no way is the new brew worth the extra money it now costs. Old Style no longer qualifies as a cheap beer and I doubt I’ll buy it again as it isn’t good enough for the price they’re asking. If I need a cheap brew I guess it’s going to be Leinenkugel’s Original or PBR. These are lawn mowing beers, of course. Nothing short of Sprecher, Sam Adams, or some imports is worth spending a lot of money on.
Hey, I remember old Old Style! Wow, its been long enough since I drank it that I never encountered it unkräeusened. I didn’t know it had changed, or for that matter had changed back!
Now Special Export (that was from Heileman, too, wasn’t it?) was a brew I missed when I moved west. It wasn’t neither an export nor special, but it had a place in my heart. Or gut, probably.
Interesting. Old Style is my cheap beer of choice around these parts (I prefer it to Miller, Bud, and, hell, even Leinie’s to be honest). Have you ever had LaCrosse Lager? I’ve been told by many it resembles the Old Style of yesterday year, and LaCrosse is fully krausened as well, as far as I know. I’ve had LaCrosse, and it’s plenty good for the price.
I’ve drank a bit of Old Style when in the midwest (probably Minnesota). I remember hauling a bunch of 12 packs out west just for the hell of it. It was very cheap, and that was the primary reason for buying it. What are the prices for the two types? If I was marketing it, I’d sell two versions.
It’s all we drink. In fact, this is my kitchen table. Yes, the husband got bored one day (he does all this stuff free hand so it involves some real time). When husband told me about it changing to this new stuff I was kinda worried, but I tried it last night and damn, if I didn’t like it better! So it’s a GOOD thing.
Price wise I’m lucky - it’s only gone up a dollar from what the 30 packs used to be - and the place I usually buy from is only charging me what the 30’s used to cost since I am there every damn day practically.
Around here the old version cost $5.99 for a 12 pack of cans, 12 pack of bottles $6.99. A 30 pack of cans was $12.99. A 4 pack of cans was $2.09.
These prices were found at Discount Liquors on 60th & Oklahoma in Milwaukee 2 weeks ago.
The Kraeusened version us priced at $8.49 for a 12 pack of cans, $9.99 for a 12 pack of bottles, $16.99 for a 24 pack of cans. They didn’t have 4 packs nor 30 packs of the new stuff.
So that’s a jump in price. At least around here. YMMV
I’ll have to check it out as I am heading up to Wisconsin tonight to go ice fishing for the first time. I still have 3 or 4 cans of the old fully kraeusened stuff I’ve been moving from fridge to fridge over the years.
I’m of the opinion that there’s a beautiful rainbow of beers out there and there’s room in my heart for all of them. Just like boobs.
Heh, I grew up in LaCrosse and while I was in High School we used to go on brewery tours all the time. I much prefer LaCrosse Lager to any version of Old Style.
Interesting side note-the Heileman’s Brewery was located next to the sewage plant. Coincidence? You decide.
That’s new product pricing. The increase in production cost is essentially negligible. Distributors and the Brewery are looking to capitalize on the free press that the change gives them and are seeking to capture the early adopters’ money. As the shine wears off and the sales goals become more aggressive they will drop the price to somewhere between the big 3 and the bargain bin beers. I wager that it’ll settle somewhere around $.50 over the original price, just slightly more than Busch, Natty, Beast and Stroh’s and in line with the trendier bargain brands like PBR and Schlitz.
Well, I was at the Woodmans in Oak Creek today, and they had 4 packs of the new stuff for $2.99, a ninety cent increase.
But like I said in the OP, I only drank this stuff occassionally so it’s nothing I’ll get my undies in a bunch over. Lots of other cheapola beers out there.
I don’t think any wholesalers sell 4-packs of cheap cans. That’s most likely a package assembled by the retailer from broken down 30 packs. The big boys sell 6-pack cans but the majority of retailers buy 24 pack suitcases and package them into 6-packs themselves since 6-pack cases cost about a dollar more wholesale and don’t stack as neatly.
Old Style is one of the few constant memories I have spanning from childhood up until I moved out of the midwest a year ago. I remember living in the northern suburbs of Chicago and my cousin and I would sneak cans out of the fridge in his basement when ever there was a family gathering at his house. It was one of the first beers I drank when I hit high school. In recent years it became my staple beer. You always knew I was at the party if you saw the 30 pk. in the fridge.
I suppose these things can’t last forever. Time to call my friends back in the midwest and see if I can get them to start stockpiling for me. It will always live on as the highest quality cheap beer.
Dude, don’t panic. I grew up in the Northwest 'burbs of Chicago. The new Old Style is the old Old Style. Its the same crap I snuck out in high school, the stuff me and the buds drank when I was 22 in Arlington Heights. You grew up drinking New Coke and liking it! :eek: Give the old stuff a try, it was good enough for the low lifes I hung with, it was good enough to brew that way for 90+ years. It’s good enough for you.
Quit drinking it 35 years ago because it was too sweet. Sorry I missed the stretch when it wasn’t. Will continue to not drink it for the same, now-reinforced, reason. Beer for highschoolers.
Nah, just beer for people who want a little bit lighter beer from time to time. Lawnmowing beers have their place. And, I’ll reiterate, it’s better than Bud, Coors, Miller, etc. Plus, there’s plenty of bars around here where it helps to at least have a favorite of the macros, because they either don’t stock anything else, or if they do, it’s bottles or taps that haven’t been drunk from in ages. There’s a bar nearby that has Sam Adams on tap, but every time I’ve had it, it’s been awful (and I’m someone who really enjoys Sam Adam’s collection of beers–I’d call them my baseline brews.) They just don’t go through the stuff quickly enough. The Old Style, on the other hand, is always dependable.
Old Style is also the beer my father would drink, and, when I was four or five years old, he couldn’t open a can in my presence without me begging for a sip, so I guess my fondness for that beer was formed at a very early age.
