Beers you can't find anymore

When I was a young adult, Wisconsin still had a handful of small brewers -- Huber, Leinenkugel and Point among them. Leinenkugel at the time was swill. I got a splitting headache every time I drank it, which wasn't often.

LaCrosse-based Heileman (flagship brands were Old Style and Special Export) was the fastest-growing brewer in the state at the time, largely because they were on tap in a big share of Chicago taverns (the old Hill Street Blues intro shows squad cars barreling past a bar with an Old Style sign out front). Heileman acquired the Blatz label, once the most popular beer in America, and built a high-tech automated brewery in Milwaukee to produce it.

Heileman's star faded when Stroh acquired it. When Stroh went under, Miller bought Heileman's Milwaukee Blatz brewery and started bottling the "new" Leinenkugel's line. I think they still use the old Chippewa Falls brewery as well, and probably brew it who knows where else. It's Miller, formerly MillerCoors, a division of SABMiller, now part of Anheuser-Busch InBev.

Huber, of Monroe, Wis., hit a home run in the '80s when the company came out with its Augsburger beers. They were all malt and became very popular. Strohs ultimately bought the label during their ill-fated buying spree. The Huber brewery is still bottling, now owned by the Minhas siblings. I believe they export a lot of their beers to Canada -- what I've sampled is not great.

The Stevens Point Brewery is the fifth-oldest continuously operating brewery in the country, according to Wikipedia. They make a decent macro-style lager, Point Special, along with a bunch of craft-style brews that, to this drinker, always seem a bit on the thin side. The brewery's history is great, though, and I'll pick up a Point beer once in awhile in respect to that.

 

Was thinking the same thing not long ago, that hasn't been around in years. That was a pretty popular brand for a long time, meanwhile Molson Dry is still around.

 

Buckhorn was the cheapest beer that could be found during my first years of college. It tasted like I what I imagine the bilge pumped from what might be left in a supertanker hauling beer from Blechistan would. Haven’t seen it in years.

 

I think you can still get Molson Stock with the double blue label some places.

 

I am a huge Stock Ale fan but it has disappeared in the Toronto area in the last six months or so. Not sure what has happened, the Stock Ale underground has reports of a strike at the Toronto plant (news to me) impacting supply, others says it's discontinued. There are a couple of bars in the downtown area that have/had it on draft and it is exquisite.

 

Schlitz lost its cachet in the mid-70s when they reformulated their recipe and (IIRC) shortened the fermentation process through some chemical sleight of hand. It went from one of the most popular brands to one of the most detested. But, the Pabst group revived the brand in recent years, announcing that they were using the recipe Schlitz used before it cheaped out. I've had it, and it's not bad for an American lager. Pabst wisely brought it out in the old Schlitz "Tall Boy" cans.

Around 1980, Schlitz brought out a premium brand called Erlanger. That was one great beer ... very American in style, but rich and flavorful. Coors produced a very good Christmas beer about the same time.

 

Henry's and Olympia were recently discontinued by whichever conglomerate now owned the brands. Too bad, they were decent regional beers; I'd go so far to say as Henry's was pretty good, I sure drank a lot of it. Rainier is still around, but not brewed independently in Seattle. The old Oly and Rainier breweries were adjacent to I-5. Blitz was the Busch equivalent of Henry's, and it was quite popular.

We drank a lot of Stroh's in WNY, an easy import from Detroit. And Utica Club. The UC brewery is still open now they make Saranac and other pretty decent beers. And Molson Golden, which I preferred to Labatt Blue, the big beer in WNY these days.

In college I drank National Boh, turned onto it by a fraternity brother from Maryland. I think it is still around locally in Baltimore.

Schmidt's of Philadelphia and Schmidt of St. Paul were different brands but sometimes confused. We drank a ton of Schmidt in North Nowhere, loved to wildlife-themed cans.

 

Esslinger
Ortliebs
Old Stock
Piels
Schaefer
Ballentine (Beer was awful but Balentine Ale was actually pretty good.)
Rams Head Ale (This one was particularly nasty.)

 

Schaefer is still widely available around New York City, as is Piel's, which remains as terrible as ever.

 

Speaking of John Molson's Honest Brews, I miss being able to get Molson Export (and the comparable Labatt 50/Labatt Canadian Ale) in the states. Two of my absolute favorites in terms of mass produced beers.