The one I really really miss, in all honesty, is Watney’s.
I occasionally hear rumors that it’s been revived or come back from [whatever] but I don’t ever see it in the beer stores 
I mean, I can do the same with my favorite local brews as well. But the convo is about Sam Adams, with an aside about other mass market beers that have changed their formula.
That’s why Lowenbrau did so well when Miller started making it under contract in the mid-70’s.
Few folks had a decent European style brew before.
Sounds like my opinion and taste for Red Stripe.
And they still hadn’t.
I was a kid in the 70s, and had to grow up stealing Old Style and Old Chicago at my father’s Knights of Columbus events. When I was in college in the early 80s, I was introduced to Hacker-Pshorr and Tuchor Hefeweizen beers. About the same time, I figured out that drunks really weren’t that funny. Good thing, too, because it costs too damned much to get drunk off of good beer!
I live not far from where it was originally brewed (Latrobe, PA). Back in the day I would drink it to support the brewery. They’ve since moved their operations and I (along with many Latrobe folks) will not touch the stuff.
At one point there were bars in and around Latrobe where you’d get nasty looks if you ordered a beer other than Rolling Rock.
Yep, Lowenbrau was a premium brand! [G. Heileman Brewing](https://G. Heileman Brewing Company) company had a couple of fake imports that were about on par.
Had my first Anchor Steam in 1980, and refuse to drink Sapporo (my favorite Japanese major and I’ve been to their brewery in Sapporo Japan) any more since they torpedo’d the company. Between Anchor Steam and Sierra Nevada with their flagships, porter and stout offerings, it was the great awakening on the West Coast. Sam Adams would not have stood a chance in blind tastes tests vs these two.
“Here’s to good friends, tonight is kinda special, the beer we’ll pour, must say something more somehow, so tonight, tonight, let it be Löwenbräu.”
It really wasn’t bad up into the early 1990s. While it wasn’t actually a German beer, and we could get actual German imports by then, it also wasn’t quite the run-of-the-mill American macrobrew lager either. I recall it being noticeably maltier than most.
But yeah, my FIL and I have had the beer variety conversation. I was grousing one time about how I couldn’t find whatever the specific beer I was looking for, and his gentle rebuke was- “Hey- I’m just glad I have choices at all. When I was younger, all we had were a handful of variations on the same theme - Miller, Budweiser, Lone Star, Falstaff and Pearl.”
I didn’t have quite that long of a relationship with it, but OG Newcastle had made its way into my beer rotation 10 or 15 years ago. When Lagunitas introduced their new, American version of it (and, as you say, I believe it’s only a change for the U.S. market), I was unpleasantly surprised with how different it tasted, and I stopped buying it.
Hehehe, I actually remember Falstaff quite fondly. I’d pick it over the others listed, and Coors.
I was “KegMaster” in the Fraternity, and I lucked into a massive stockpile of Lowenbrau at rock bottom price, and kept them stocked in the old-timey Coke machine that dispensed bottles. I was A Hero, for a brief moment. Got a similar deal on Henry Weinhard’s soon after.
Ah, Good Times!
Two bottles of Sam Adams Boston Lager is a base of a chili recipe that I’ve made many times. It’s never been my favorite to drink but it makes a fine chili liquid.
I’ve had mornings like that.
im not a beer drinker unless you call flavored malt beverages beer … but I remember this list was pretty much the set up in most liquor stores
Coors Bud Miller Pabst sometimes you’d see something like Meister Brau or old style and what we called the “alky” beers like Natty Ice , Keystone ect and then the Mexican beers corona tecate pacifico dos equis sometimes there be one or two more cheap swill ones that was imported for the construction and farm workers
tho in Indiana dads favorite was Strohs …but since he was stationed in Germany for 2 years he knew real beer and said there was no such thing in America until the 90s
A friend of ours plays bass in a local 3 man rock/metal band. They don’t play many dates, but when they play they draw huge crowds.
Pabst Blue Ribbon sponsors them. When we visit him they have stacks of cases of PBR. Can’t drink it fast enough (not do I want to). In exchange they hang banners at their shows.
And here I thought my taste in beers was maturing. Sam is one of my husband’s go to and it was never my favorite. I like dark, heavy beers and dislike light, hoppy ones and recently I’ve found disliking Sam much less.
Even though I like it better, I don’t think they should be going for the lowest common denominator with their flagship beer and agree with a new Lager line would have been better.
I went to college in Indiana, Pennsylvania (not a typo, thank you) and several friends worked at RR, Latrobe brewery in the summer. Funny thing is, I don’t know if I ever drank it during those four years (late 70s). Everything but. Strohs, PBR, Miller High Life, Mickeys Malt and Schmidts ($11 for 1/4 keg!). It became my favorite low priced beer after graduation (40 pack of returnable ponies) but before they sold to A-B. I think it brewed in Newark NJ now and its sill my go-to mass market beer but the taste definitely changed post-sale.
And speaking of Lowenbrau, I remember having my first “real” one in the Bahamas or somewhere and it was great. There used to be one called Suisse Lowenbrau and they made a dark that was awesome.
Finally, does anyone remember Molson Golden Ale? Not the lager, ale. Maybe I’m mis-remembering.
No, you’re remembering correctly. Molson Golden Ale was the cold-filtered equivalent of Molson Export Ale—it was “draft in a bottle” before draft in a bottle became a thing. Brewed in Canada, and pretty much the only Molson beer exported to the US back in the '70s and '80s.
Molson makes, and has made, many different beers and ales, of which Golden was only one. It was, at one time, quite popular in Canada, to the point where it gave rise to a number of humorous commercials (“Can you believe it? Some idiot wants a half bottle of Golden.” “Harrumph!” “Ummm … And this gentleman would like the other half.”). But it seems to have been quietly phased out, sometime in the '90s.
I liked it. The slight bitterness of an Canadian ale, with the edge taken off.
As long as we’re being beer nostalgic…
In the early 90s our go to was Shiner Bock, because I was in Austin. Absolute best beer available at $4 per six pack. The house I lived in went through Rolling Rock and Molson phases, but we always ended up back at Shiner.
Never was a fan of Lone Star, but their giant armadillo ads are still the best beer ads ever.
I hadn’t realized Newcastle changed, and I did have one within the last year. It wasn’t as good as I recalled, but that is mostly because I remember it from the mid-90s, when I was comparing it to things like Shiner.
My premium British drink was always Sam Smith.
Now I just go for whatever micro I don’t recognize, and hope it isn’t some kind of novelty peanut butter or pickle beer.
It was one of my go-to beers in the late '80s and early '90s, in the era before microbrews took off, and there weren’t many good imported options here in the U.S.
My theory - Coke wanted to quietly switch from sugar to high-fructose corn syrup to save money, but the change in taste was impossible to hide and they knew rabid Coke fans would be livid. So, they take away the old coke and offer new coke, which tastes really bad. Then when they switch back to the “original formula” with HFCS, fewer people notice the change in taste because it still tastes similar enough to old Coke and way better than New Coke.
But Coke “Classic” isn’t really classic at all. The Mexican Coke you get in the glass bottle, made with sugar is the true Coke Classic. Thankfully, it’s more available than it used to be. It’s far superior.