Michelob returns! (The beer your father drank)

I'm sure I'm not the original observer of this phenomenon, but it seems to me there's just something about your father's beer...probably because it's likely that it's one of the first bottles that you stole/borrowed.

My grandfather's brand was Ballantine, which my father has fond memories of stealing. Still in production but hard to find, I'd occasionally locate it and have my mother purchase a sixer for special occasions, and it never failed to give my father a faraway look. His brand (after several stints with Lowenbrau, Pabst NA, Schaefer, and Budweiser) was Michelob.

When Michelob moved from their iconic curvy bottle to the boring slope-shoulder bottle that every other beer in the world uses, I shed a tear. More than other beers, Michelob IS the bottle...it's really never tasted any different than, say, Budweiser to me, but the bottle just oozed sophistication. Anyway, the bottle's back, and I'm damn happy about it. Apparently the recipe's now the "old" recipe (all malt, no rice), but it tastes about the same to me.

My father drank Hamm's in the little silver keg cans. I swear I saw them at Woodman's in Kenosha for $3.99/12-pack. Truly awful.

Dad's basement fridge was always filled with Meister Brau fresh from the old Peter Hand Brewery on North Av.
After the demise of Meister Brau Heileman's Special Export took up residence in the basement. Special X came in a distinctive shoulderless green bottle with a silver foil wrapped top and had a crisp, hoppy taste.
Nothing like Heileman's current swill.

My mother was a Meister Brau drinker - and I learned, at an early age, to enjoy the year-end Bock. When I switched from cheap sweet wines to beer (a right of passage for young people, or just me?) I became very fond of Special Export, and now I drink Rolling Rock as it's substitute. I did drink Michelob as a premium beer, before the onslaught of microbreweries and other added labels/varieties - and tried it once again a couple of months ago: I don't like it anymore. My beer of choice currently alternates between Rolling Rock, Blue Moon and Pacifico (from Mexico); Blue Moon has a strong pull on my preference. I won’t turn down a bottle of Chimay, however.

All of this talk of beer reminds me of a conversation I had last year with my brother, who spends a fair amount of time investigating what some people will call the "little things" while others will think them "important." And after speaking with him about beer I sensed that most people probably don’t really know how to drink beer - how to pour it to take advantage of it’s full potential.

I prefer draft beer over bottled, but after speaking with my brother it dawned on me that I was probably not treating most bottled beer fairly. I was convinced (something I should already have realized) that beer should be poured from the bottle into the glass - robustly - with gusto, to unlock the goodness in the beverage. I think most people poor from the bottle in a way so as to create the least amount of head or frothing - it's easier that way.

This is a good time for beer drinkers to be living, though - given the wide-variety of options available. Something for everyone.

At one point, Peter Hand made both Meister Brau and Braumeister. I guess they wanted to cover all the bases. Meister Brau was the first beer to use the word "Lite". Miller bought the trademarks for "Meister Brau" and "Lite" from Hand just before it went out of business. I wonder how much they paid? They have certainly gotten a lot of mileage out of it.

As recently as the late 90s I think one could get a case of Meister Brau longnecks at the Paterno store at Milwaukee and Central (and I am sure other places). I think it was $9.99 at the time.

"Hey Mabel, Black Label!" Carling Black Label beer. Dad's choice back in Buffalo in the 50s. If that were for some reason unavailable, "Jenny" aka Genesee. And jeez...Michelob ain't just what my Dad drank (albeit on rare occasion), it's what I drank too in the earlier portion of my misspent yoot'.

Bill wrote:When I switched from cheap sweet wines to beer (a right of passage for young people, or just me?)

Not just you Bill, I also made the youthful transition from Ripple ,Bali Hi,Zapple etc. to beer.
While visiting Panama this past February I ran into an old drinkin' buddy that I thought had died long ago.


Turns out he lost the farm and moved south.

My grandfather and all my uncles drank Falstaff. I can still--55+ yrs later--remember how that lovely bitter hoppiness of Falstaff tasted that first 4th of July night when Uncle Bob slipped me a can to pull at during the fireworks display. A part of my history died with the brand...

Geo

Geo wrote:My grandfather and all my uncles drank Falstaff. I can still--55+ yrs later--remember how that lovely bitter hoppiness of Falstaff tasted that first 4th of July night when Uncle Bob slipped me a can to pull at during the fireworks display. A part of my history died with the brand...

Geo,
Click below for an audio stroll down memory lane:
Falstaff Jingle #1

Sing Out Now, The Time is Here for Cool Refreshing Falstaff.

Dave

Hooo Boy! Kinda made me hyperventilate hearing that! Amazing what sort of a psychic shock it is to confront something like that after a half-century!

Really interesting, too, from a cultural point of view, how the whole pitch, including the music and vocals, capture a particular time, place and context of our American past.

Tnx d4v3, I very very much enjoyed that!

Geo

Geo wrote:Really interesting, too, from a cultural point of view, how the whole pitch, including the music and vocals, capture a particular time, place and context of our American past.

What strikes me most is the gender neutrality of the jingle. You have a duet of a man and woman singing a rather effeminate song (at least by today's standards) about the joys of quaffing a cold frothy beverage. It is a far cry from the testosterone driven techno music beer ads of today. Today, an ad agency would never consider using a melodic female vocal track to sell beer. The 1950s jingle presents Falstaff beer as a family-friendly beverage suitable for gently sipping while listening to "whippoorwills and laughing hills" and "gazing at sunny skies", not something you chug down in massive quantities while listening to the roar of Nascar racers and ogling bikini clad babes.

At some point, the major breweries decided that a single 21-year old male binge drinker is worth a dozen Uncle Bobs or Aunt Robertas. Almost without exception, modern major brewery ads are blatantly targeted at young men (and those who wish they were still young men). Women are hardly ever portrayed as potential customers, but simply as prizes that guys win for drinking certain brands (and we all know how beautiful women gravitate to drunken beer-swilling louts). Such marketing tactics might generate sales, but they have altered the overall perception of the beverage and those who drink it. My mother is in her 80s and still knocks back a few cold ones. I doubt she even knows what Nascar is.

I have some more old Falstaff jingles that were produced to be aired during San Francisco Giants games. They are kind of fun, in a very kitschy way. I will put them on-line when I get a chance.

Dave

They also wouldn't name their beer for the drunkard in a Shakespeare play these days.

Welllllll, I think that somewhat oversimplifies Falstaff's character. The Bard seems to have liked him fairly well: if memory serves, only Hamlet has more lines in the works.

For whatever reason, everyone, in the end, seems to have some affection for the Big Guy; probably this was the leading idea in the naming of the beer. But who knows?

And you're probably right that no contemporary beer would be so-named. Not enough people around these days who'd get the name's reference. :^)

Geo

Mike G wrote:They also wouldn't name their beer for the drunkard in a Shakespeare play these days.

Yeah, I don't think the name would make it past the first focus group. Although in a way, Falstaff was the original mead-swilling slacker.

ENTER THREE ADVERTISING MEN.

J.D.
So let us now to naming our fair brew.
For in the naming shall we set the snare
That playing 'pon the mind of those whose age
Falls past the time of childhood, yet not so old
That with responsibility be garlanded and hung
The furrowed brow of mortgagee and parent;
Rather that still upon their chests
Burns the bright heraldry of sport.
What say ye; what for a name?

C.R.
Up sturdy flagpole did we run some names
And settled us upon a noble monicker
Of one whom all we once knew well.
That man's name was John Falstaff.

J.D.
Do you make merry with me? That youth
In time of revelry and cupid's art
Should think of plump Jack in his cups?

D.H.
Said I it was an ill-starred name, J.D.

C.R.
Twas not the manner in which you spoke back then
When diviners presented results of focused groups
Which proved stout Jack retained even yet
A positive association with 18s to 24s
Which not e'en Redenbacher could call half so strong
Nor Aunt Jemima half so fair.
Still, I am not betrothed to naming it thus.
Let us return to work. Like hounds in flight
At prey shall I put teams to thinking
What name will lead most fruitfully to drinking.

EXEUNT.

¡BRAVO!

Simply Bravo! How did you DO that? Talent such as this should ne'r go unpunished, or so say I!!

:^)

Geo

Holy iambic pentameter, batman!

well...not QUITE...the scancion is a bit off but a fine showing, indeed.

I owe it all to Sister Eustasia.

Well, and Beyond the Fringe, I suppose, for showing how to parody our pal Will...

Mike,

Very funny! But, I think saw a similar post on yelp.com . Seriously, that post belongs in the LTH classics archive with Gus the Goose.

I do wonder what really motivated ol' "Papa" Joe Griesedick to choose that name for America's Premium Beer.

Dave

Mike,

I agree with Dave that that volley needs to be cast in bronze and put in the trophy room at LTH Hall. Really.

And Dave, the funny thing is, "Papa" Griesedick kept his own self-named beer in competition with Falstaff. I remember among the relatives that there was always a friendly put-down rivalry between those who drank the one beer rather than the other.

Another interesting question: where did that iconic logo come from, that shield with the corner hooked out? I've always liked that logo.

Keep it up folks, this is fun!

Geo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Griesedieck Brothers Beer is a historic St. Louis beer brand that has been reintroduced after years of absence. The Griesedieck family once owned three St. Louis area breweries, Griesedieck Brothers Brewery, Griesedieck Western Brewery Co. in Belleville, Illinois (producers of Stag beer and Falstaff Brewing Corp., producer of Falstaff Beer. Family descendants and cousins Ray and Alvin Griesedieck III and Stephen Butler have provided draft beer under the name Griesedieck Brothers Brewery Corp. to three dozen area restaurants since 2002 and plan to supply bottled beer in fall 2006 to bars, restaurants and supermarkets.

Anyone know some more current info? Maybe they will bring back Falstaff too.

d.

Well, aside from that little jingle, it should be noted that the short-lived rock super-group "Cream" also did a commercial for Falstaff. This is no jingle, but it is weird.

Since I started this thread, a version of the teardrop Micheloeb bottle was reintroduced after AB saw sales drop dramatically. It has, however, been retired yet again---I've yet to find an explanation of this, and I'm certainly going to stop buying it. If anyone sees any sixers in the old packaging, let me know. I have a feeling that this time it's gone for good.

Genesee Cream Ale is on tap at the Twisted Spoke. Last time I had a Jenny Cream ale, it was warm and I was underage. Everyone with a Jenny story seems to have had one way before drinking legally.

Even the <a href="http://www.creamale.com/">Genesee website</a> admits "A few of us first experienced Cream Ale sitting on our Dad’s lap. And let's be honest again, for some, it was without our Dad. A whole bunch of us first experienced Cream Ale when Dad left the fridge in the garage unguarded."

The beer itself is so light and smooth as to have almost nothing to it but a slight sweetness. Probably the perfect thing to have as your first beer.

I also recently had a Schlitz - the 60's formula and bottle. I rather enjoyed it - probably one of the best fizzy yellow American Lagers.

Now all they have to do is bring back Schaefer, and I can complete my underage drinking memory triad.

Genesee is available on tap at the Innertown Pub, as well. I think I recall a few cans of that around my house as I was growing up. Nowadays, I find it mild to the point of unpalatability.

Innertown Pub
1935 W Thomas St
Chicago, IL‎
(773) 235-9795‎