Okay, I tend to drink a lot of beer, but I always have something different. One week I’ll drink Pabst Blue Ribbon, the next it will be Bud, the next week Old Style, so on. I very rarely buy the same kind of beer twice in a row.
This week I bought a 15 pack of Stroh. I haven’t had Stroh for quite a while. I do know that “Stroh” is actually out of business, with it’s brands being split up between Pabst and Miller Brewing.
First thing I noticed was, the can no longer taughts the “Fire Brewed” label. There is no mention of this superior brewing method anywhere on the label.
Second thing I noticed was, though it tastes quite good, it doesn’t taste the way I last remembered it to taste. (Remember, it’s been a while since I last had Stroh’s). It’s less bitter, and it doesn’t have that ever so slight caramel flavor that Fire Brewing produces.
So, does Stroh beer taste different, or has it been so long since I had it that my memory is tainted?
As another cheap beer aficionado, I can say that I have noticed a distinct change in the flavor of that beer, but I noticed the change a long time ago, like five years or more ago–just as you describe it. It was shortly after they moved to the blue can, I think.
I wouldn’t trust my memory, though. Stroh’s was one of the first brands to ship in 30-packs. I believe I seriously abused that feature.
Keep heading down this line of thinking, and you’ll realize why it no longer tastes the same: because it isn’t the same.
It is not uncommon in the beer industry for a larger brewer (like Miller Brewing Co.) to buy up smaller but “established” brands that are ceasing production. The larger breweries are not usually buying the particular brewing recipie for each beer, but merely the label and trade dress. See e.g., this story:
The bigger brewery gets the advantage of a small corps of loyal drinkers of Brand X, and with their larger economies of scale, they can produce the beer for less money than the smaller brewer and possibly turn a profit on it where the smaller brewer could not.
However, this probably wouldn’t work if the new brewer had to adopt every particular quirk that the old beer had-- “fire brewing” (whatever that is), special waters from Pennsylvania or Colorado, exotic hops, whatever. Instead, they just fill the cans from the same vat of whatever they’re making as their regular discount beer. Despite what you think, you are no longer drinking the Stroh’s beer formulation that you are accustomed to. You are drinking some form of Miller beer out of a can with the Stroh’s label on it.
On the subject of beer and name reversals, I perhaps should mention Reeb Beer (made in Shanghai, China, of all places) and Regal Lager made in Kingston, Ontario.
But if you want something stronger but still reversable, try some Bols Liqueur.
I think you’re missing the importance of cheap beer. Was it Schaefer whose slogan was, “the beer to have when you’re having more than one?”
Sure, I’ll take a couple fresh drafts of Long Trail IPA at the bottom of the slopes of Killington, and praise the day I was born. But when the Safeway beer supplier considers Beck’s to be something exotic and worth a dollar and a half a bottle, a twelve of Miller High Life suits me just fine.
What do you care what I drink? And how does my buying Stroh beer once in a blue moon make me “sick in the head”?
Nurlman, Fire brewing is (was?) a technique where the beer mixture was cooked in a vat over an open flame while the beer was slowly stired and sloshed around the vat. The flames created “hot points” in the copper vat, so when the liquid passed over the hot point the brewing sugars would flirt with caramelization. This created a slightly darker golden colored beer, with a deeper, richer flavor. I’d be willing to bet you’re right that Stroh isn’t made like that anymore.
I will say this: Stroh isn’t exactly “cheap” beer. I’d call it mid-priced. Though it now taste more like cheap beer. (I still like it).
Finally, a subject I can actually contribute too… well, at least a little…
I know this is a deviation from the OP, but I feel the need to add my 2 cents worth. Humor me, I may not be this lucid again for… oh… 6 beers or so.
There is a lot to be said for the so called specialty beers. They offer a much much wider variety of tastes than the somewhat standardized flavor of most American macro-brews. I myself prefer a good belgian white like Blue Moon, which isn’t really all that expensive (about 8 or 9 bones for a sixer).
On the other hand, if you just want to go out and get wasted, it doesn’t much matter. Your not concerned with what beer compliments your meal, just what will get you the best buzz with the least ammount of time and cash. American beers are good for this. Since they tend to be so much lighter than ales, porters, or stouts, you can pound them back a lot quicker. I’m an MGD man for this purpose…
It all depends on why your drinking the beer really, and what your personal taste is. If you don’t like it, don’t drink it. If you think that someone’s mental state can be derived from which beer they drink (not how much), fine, thats your right too. Then again, we have every right to call you a snob and tell you to stick that bottle of Heffe Vizen (sp) where the sun don’t shine…
I didn’t mean to come off like a snob. In fact what anyone drinks is their own business, and I generally don’t care.
It’s just that anyone who drinks a macrobrew (anything from Miller, Coors, or Anheiser-Busch) and then complains that it doesn’t taste very good won’t get any sympathy from me.
OK, so pkbites didn’t know that Miller owned Stroh’s. We’ll let you off this time with a warning. Next time remember to read the fine print on the label.
My granddad worked in the beer industry for fifty years, first for Schaefer (“The one to have when you’re having more than one”), then for Stroh’s, after Stroh’s bought Schaefer, then for Pabst, when they bought Stroh’s. (Stroh’s sold its labels to both Miller and Pabst, but the Lehigh Valley plant where my granddad worked was sold to Pabst.) I do know that brewing procedures changed after each buyout, though he did not mention specifically the lack of fire brewing.
OK, you did. But you didn’t know what it meant to be brewed by Miller.
Another example: one of the brands owned by Stroh’s was Blitz Weinhard in Portland. Their Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve was a resonably good beer with a distinctive flavor.
Since the buyout, Miller has closed and sold the Portland brewery and move production to some plant in Washington state (I think it’s the Oly plant in Tumwater). So now Henry’s is whatever stuff they happen to churn out there. The Portland brewery is now a large hole in the ground with lots of construction equipment around it.
:eek:
I think I can pick up a six-pack of Blue Moon Belgain White for about $5 in my neck of the woods.
Of course, Blue Moon is made by Coors, but we won’t go there…
Any time beer comes up on these boards, a little beer snobbery bubbles up. I don’t encourage that. What I do encourage is a sense of adventure. Every now and then, try a brand you’ve never had before. Sometimes, it’s a waste of money. More often, it’s a gorgeous surprise. I once tried an ale because its label showed a charming dog that resembled my dog; it was delightful. I once tried a beer whose name spoke of creole mystery; it tasted overcooked. You never know. Even the low-priced beers (such as some of the Leinenkugels) offer pleasant surprises.
Some gentlemen who grew up in the Vietnam era turned against one brand or another because the beer they drank in the war had gone bad in a 150-degree warehouse in SE Asia. To those guys, I say, “Give it another try.”
Ok, I know I’m falling into a trap here, but I feel the need to defend myself…
I never said that Blue Moon was a microbrew, I said it was a “specialty” beer. By that I meant that it wasn’t the typical Americanized beer (Bud, Miller, Coors, etc…) I wasn’t aware that it was owned by Coors, but I’ve never really been interested in who owned the company, just how the brew tasted.
Necros, you never should have told me that… now I’m gonna have to find a better beer store!!!
-apologetic smilies for such a meaningless post.
