I was at the LCBO (our provincial sanctioned liquor store), and PBR in a 6 pack of cans was on sale. I bought some, not sure what to expect. It seems to be a polarizing brew: I’ve heard everything from “OMGZ it’s teh best brew everrr LOL!!11!” to “Oh, Antonio, you bought PBR? I had no idea you were such a dirty hipster! Where’s your ironic t-shirt and your non-prescription flat lens glasses?”
So I had a few cans, and it was…ok? I expected that it was going to be something really really good, or really really bad, based on all this buzz and trash talk. It was potable, yet nothing special. It was like drinking a Keith’s or a Budweiser. I’d have one with a burger at a barbecue, but I can’t see what distinguishes it from any of the other cheap-ish macrobrews.
Would one of the Americans on here care to explain what’s the deal with PBR? I even saw Stephen Colbert (fake?) gag on it on his show when he started drinking one! If you love it, why do you love it so? If you hate it, what did it ever do to you, lol?
I drink it all the time, and altought I’m (only) 34, I get accused pf being a hipster by non-friends all the time.
It’s cheap and doesn’t tastelike so much ass as does Miller High Life or the higher-potency ABV as in the various ice house-styles). Simple, cheap, and one can easily drink a lot of it without suffering unduly-necessarily.
Really? I’ve never heard anyone claim it’s a great beer. It’s a typical American macrobrew. Personally, for that class of beer, I far prefer Old Style, but they’re both similar beers. They have that watered down American macrolager flavor, but with a hint of actual beerness lingering somewhere in the background.
Pabst is just a regular ol’ working-collar “lawnmower” beer. Nothing more, nothing less. Somehow, in the late 90s or early 00s, hipsters jumped on it as a “cool” alternative to the more typical American macrolagers (with some justification–it’s a slight step up from Budweiser and Miller in terms of flavor). And it’s cheap. What more can you ask for? (Other than flavor, that is.)
Every college party I’ve been to, the fridge is stocked with A) PBR and B) Coors (which I totally don’t get at all. Coors tastes weak as the english tea my roommate loves so irritatingly much.) PBR is certainly preferably to Coors, but not by much.
Years back, sometime in the mid 90s, a proto-hipster bar on the NW coast started slinging PBR. It had non-existent marketing at the time. A generation who was growing up shunning the products that they were told to love (well, until Apple) latched onto this cheap beer that had no image attached. This spread. Eventually PBR caught on and started sponsoring skater stuff and little punk shows, but mostly the kids spread it by word of mouth. They dug the no-image, yet blue collar ethic. In the same sort of bullshit way they pay homage to it by wearing thift store work shirts with the mechanic’s name patch still sown on - yet never held a job that difficult or shouldered the responsibilities.
Here’s a great NYT article on how Pabst gained a hipster following. Basically, Pabst succeeded because it couldn’t market like the big guys. Instead of appealing to the fratboy/inner 12 year old mentality that beers like Budweiser do, what marketing it had was understated.
I think one of the things that also helped Pabst is its modestly bitter taste. I know tons of people that drink Miller High Life or Coors Light because it doesn’t taste like beer. To them beer is just a conduit for alcohol. Pabst doesn’t taste as watery as that, but it’s not as strong as the acquired taste of most microbrews or the truly rank beers like Schmidt’s. So I think drinking Pabst shows you’re not a “lightweight” without having to stomach truly strong flavors.
I have never had it. Dad drank it when I was really young and so I am thinking it must have been cheap (we were rather poor.) I might try it if I saw it, but I am in no hurry.
PBR is all my dad drank when was growing up. I asked him why he liked it so much a few years ago. He said he didn’t really like it that much. “then why do you always drink it?” I asked.
He drinks a lot of beer - like a case a week (although that has dropped a LOT in the last few years as he took up biking).
Mom does the shopping.
PBR is cheap.
Mom doesn’t drink, so she doesn’t care what it taste like.
Turns out dad likes GOOD beer, microbrews etc… mom just doesn’t buy it. I remember in college my parents came to visit and dad got a beer out of the fridge. Henry Weinhard (another cheap one). He said “Hey! You have the gourmet stuff!”
Damn, you beat me to it.
Anyway, I certainly wouldn’t call it great beer, but it’s the type of nice, refreshing, unoffensive, uncomplicated brew you’d quaff after working outside on a hot day. And given the choice between PBR and Bud Light, I’d take PBR in a second.
When I was in college, PBR was the second-cheapest beer available. The cheapest was Red White & Blue, which IIRC was made by the same company. Um, PBR advertised heavily in Penthouse back then…
Weinhard’s was cheap - about $5 for a 12 pack of bottles. I wouldn’t go so far as to call it excellent, but it was pretty good for the price - certainly drinkable. it was kind of the “top shelf” of cheap beers.
To my dad, it was the greatest of microbrews
I have had the rootbeer, and agree - I would call that excellent.
