The Cheap Beer thread

More on the demise of Henry's, a PNW favorite for many years biting the dust.

Henry Weinhard’s Private Reserve, hailed as Oregon’s original craft beer, to be discontinued

 

Funny story. On my first trip to Oregon to visit my sister she takes me to Portland to show me the sights. She says, well this is Powell's - the world's largest bookstore. I've lived in Berkeley, I've seen big bookstore's before - but that odd looking building up ahead with the water tower? So I kept walking and came to a stop at the doors that said "Blitz - Weinhardt Brewing" (Tours hourly). Oh hell yeah. Got cut off from the tasting room within five minutes after guzzling my five samples (8 oz). On the other hand - I didn't realize the brand had only been around since '76. Yes, my high school years were filled with nights where I'd argue which bottling number was "best" - (everyone wanted some "69") Anyway - Henry's is part of the reason I became an Oregonian and I'll always be grateful.

 

Henry's was my go-to beer in the mid-80s. On one Pac-10 Skywriters tour, we were in Eugene and were bussing to Seattle the next day. About four of us were lingering in the hospitality room. The leader -- Jim Muldoon -- said he wanted more beer, the rest of us nodded. He ordered a case, figuring what we didn't drink could go on the bus the next morning. Room service showed up with a case of Henry's -- all the bottles were open. So we drank 'em.

 

Micro Jr. found this tonight at a Bills bar in Denver. A staple of my misspent Western New York youth, when the legal drinking age was 18 unless you were at the Aud or the Rockpile, where they served UC on tap and served just about anyone who looked 16 or older. Brings back a lot of memories.

The cool thing is, it's still brewed in Utica by Matt's, the same company as when I was a kid. So many of the old "classic" beers (Stroh's, National, Blatz, Rainier, Henry's) are now contract-brewed.

 

What kind of finger injury? I had a mallet injury. Took over two months for the tendon to heal.

 

Broken. Six weeks in the splint. Just had ACL surgery in October. Tough stretch for the young man.

 

Dang. Get well soon!

 

Someone has revived the Drewry's brand, a logo I used to see on beer trucks in Chicago in the '60s with an image of a grinning Mountie. It was a Canadian brewer that bought a plant in Indiana after Prohibition ended and was widely served in Chicagoland for many years. The latest version has a corporate HQ in McHenry, Ill., and is contract brewed in Black River Falls, Wis.
I recently had their bock, and it wasn't bad. In fact, I had another one when I was at same venue a week or two later.

 

Narragansett has made a big enough comeback that they now brew it in-house.

It's a step up from PBR and it does the job you want it to do.

 

Hope their bock is better than Shiner Bock. There's a reason a multi-state area knows their product as Shiny Butt.

 

Go for the Gusto, I say. So does Steely Dan.

Schlitz, back to its original formula for at least a decade now, is cheap, but quite good.

That and Grain Belt do it for me. Blatz for community pride in the rare times I see it in a bottle. Blatz has an interesting chocolatey aftertaste.

All IPAs can hang.