I am drinking Smoking Loon.....

[Seshmeister]

It's originally Canadian I think - just looked it up.

To be honest I thought it was English, it just shows you how cleverly these big companies market their products.

I don't know about the US but here it's nearly always surprising if you look to see where the stuff is actually brewed. I think a lot of Guiness is made in Africa for example and Jamaican Red Stripe which is even mentioned in the James Bond books from the 1950s isn't usually made there these days.

[chefcraig]

I don't know about the US but here it's nearly always surprising if you look to see where the stuff is actually brewed. I think a lot of Guiness is made in Africa for example and Jamaican Red Stripe which is even mentioned in the James Bond books from the 1950s isn't usually made there these days.

A buddy of mine used to bring over Becks in a clear bottle from the Bahamas. I have no idea where it was originally bottled, but the taste was 100% better than that available stateside in the green bottles.

[Sensible Shoes]

Somebody just told me last weekend that Corona was made exclusively in Germany. I'll have to look this up.

Update - bullshit. Lesson - don't listen to friend when he's drinking

[Nickdfresh]

I believe that shit was made and manufactured (Rochester) up your way Nick. Prolly had many of those Genny parties, eh?

Yup! It was cheap, plentiful in the dad's collective stash, and okay if ice cold...

[Nickdfresh]

Another classic from upstate NY

I can't even find that stuff anymore. Another slightly better than the macrobrew beer...

[Sensible Shoes]

I can't even find that stuff anymore. Another slightly better than the macrobrew beer...

You can't find it because the Utica brewery became Saranac. Still the same place, same equipment, some of the same recipes. They have a UC museum there and awesome brewery tours

[Nickdfresh]

My mistake - Carling was headquartered in Cleveland - and had a distributor in London Ontario. We were just in the middle.

Buffalo's big beer was Iroquois, probably better quality than the current bud/coors/miller crap. I wouldn't know as they went belly-up in the early 70s...

Iroquois Brewery

Iroquois was one of the longest operating brewery in Buffalo, closing in 1971. It started as Jacob Roos Brewery in 1830. Many people in Buffalo were once employed there tell stories of drinking beer on their break; others tell about visiting the Rathskellar to sample some fresh brew. While most other Buffalo breweries were destined to close by the mid-1950's, Iroquois kept growing and taking over many of the other breweries in town. Iroquois became the largest producer after Prohibition. By the 1950's, under the ownership of the Weigel Family

Iroquois became the largest producer after Prohibition. By the 1950's, under the ownership of the Weigel Family Iroquois became the biggest brewer Buffalo had ever known. In 1952 the brewery put out 500,000 barrels of beer and employed 550 men, with a peak output at 607,000 barrels. In the 1950's Iroquois brewery alone sold 40% of all beer drank in Buffalo and produced more beer than all four of their local competitors combined. In March of 1955, Iroquois Beverage Corporation merged with Frankenmuth Brewing Co. of Michigan and became part of the International Breweries Company. This new mega-brewer seemed to be on the way to becoming a national superpower in the brewing industry, but as history tells, it did not. In 1971 the economic pressure of the other midwestern national mega-brewers proved too great, and they shut down for good.

I still have their bottle opener on my key chain...

[Seshmeister]

A buddy of mine used to bring over Becks in a clear bottle from the Bahamas. I have no idea where it was originally bottled, but the taste was 100% better than that available stateside in the green bottles.

Becks should be from Germany where they have strict laws on what goes into the bottle.

I think they are only allowed to use 3 ingredients.

The proper stuff is usually in a green bottle in Europe at least and should be 5% alcohol.

[Sensible Shoes]

It's originally Canadian I think - just looked it up.

To be honest I thought it was English, it just shows you how cleverly these big companies market their products.

I don't know about the US but here it's nearly always surprising if you look to see where the stuff is actually brewed. I think a lot of Guiness is made in Africa for example and Jamaican Red Stripe which is even mentioned in the James Bond books from the 1950s isn't usually made there these days.

This is what comes from reading too fast - they got all of us. The founder came from England to LONDON Ontario - when the place burned down in the late 19th century, the founder died, and they moved the plant to Cleveland, but still called it "The London plant". Thus, your idea that it was English.

And you're right about the marketing - the common story at home was that "Mabel" in the TV commercials was a local high school teacher - that turns out to be false as well - unless Aileen Buckley replaced the other actress who portrayed "Mabel" until 1970.

[Seshmeister]

In the last 10 or 15 years Carling has really sold itself as being English here. They have been sponsors on all the English sports teams.

Maybe the Carling here is actually made in England to a different recipe anyway. Beer brands don't mean much.

Budweiser here is twice as strong as the US stuff. Somehow they still manage to make it taste like water which is quite clever...

[Sensible Shoes]

Here's another long gone brand from the Albany NY area - bought sometime mid century by Shaefer. Beverwyck - I know about this one because some of their advertising from the 1940's featured lithographs to hang in bars featuring an Irish Gentlemen and his Irish Setters.

[Susie Q]

Here's my history lesson of the day. During prohibition in the 1920's, The Amsterdam Brewery did anything to keep open and supply 'medicinal beer'. In the Utica Herald in 1920:

B R E W I N G MEDICINE.
An Amsterdam brewery aims to make illness more endurable by manufacturing real beer for sale on Doctor's prescriptions. Many feeble digestive organs are likely to crave a mild tonic which the Amsterdam people will supply.

[Seshmeister]

Here's my history lesson of the day.

In 1919 women were given the vote in the US.

In 1920 Prohibition was enacted.

[PETE'S BROTHER]

beer can.jpg

we have one of these in the bar......just tryin' ta fit in

[PETE'S BROTHER]

Here's my history lesson of the day.

In 1919 women were given the vote in the US.

In 1920 Prohibition was enacted.

my wife's grandpa was born in 1914, he STILL drives!