What Was Your Superbowl Beer?

[JAB]

After several Double IPAs were turned down because they may not play well to all attendees, we opted for Ommegang Rare Vos for the kegerator. Great color, head and flavor. A really well made beer which is what I've come to expect from Ommegang.

You?

[CDouglas]

Heavy Seas Small Craft Warning, Natty Boh (tradition), capped off with a Brewer's Art Resurrection for the win.

[ratgirlagogo]

The last of the Sierra Nevada Celebration and then Lagunitas IPA. But we were watching the Puppy Bowl.

[brentk]

I cannot believe that none of you were drinking Blackout Stout!

[pedalfaster]

I wonder if anyone has sent a link to this thread to Budweiser?

[Tripeler]

I think Budweiser has a staff of people who monitor all beer-related things on the Internet. Of course, one wonders if they care about a group as small as this one.

[boingo2000]

We had a wide variety, but my go-to was Abita Amber, in honor of the location of the Super Bowl this year (and the desire to stick with something session-able). I would have gone with Turbodog, but my nearby Bevmo didn't have any.

[Spatlese]

Lagunitas Sucks from the kegerator, plus an assortment of bottles brought by the various guests, including BC Cherry Rye, Lolita, BA 4 Calling Birds, Melange 3, Perennial Fantastic Voyage, and Hangar 24 Chandelle. Definitely helps when everyone in attendance is a beer geek.

[RB Hound]

I had Alesmith Bloody Valentine and Alesmith weasel poop Speedway Stout.

[ola]

Anchor Steam from San Francisco

[Chinon00]

For protracted drinking I went w/ Victory Donnybrook Stout (3.7% abv) at my local pub. Had many pints.

[The Professor]

Homebrewed ESB for me, at cool cellar temperature, served from the keg.

[niquejim]

A homebrewed Ordinary Biter, Pale Ale, Cream Ale, Oatmeal Stout and IPA...then repeat

[The Professor]

Nice!

[crowdingthepan]

I did homebrew, too! 3.3% Mild from a keg.

[nickdanger]

Natty Boh, of course

[JonParker]

I'm a Bawlmer boy temporarily living in Oklahoma. I would have loved a 12 pack of Natty Boh.

[nickdanger]

Sometimes you gotta go back in time. I'm a microbrew "craft" fan, but give me a Natty Boh, Rheingold, Rolling Rock bottle or can for certain occasions. I know they aren't what they were. Who, or what, is?

[Chinon00]

What "was" Natty Boh?

[JessKidden]

Not was, but "is" - http://nationalbohemian.com/

Once the flagship beer of the National Brewing Co., of Baltimore- in the 50's they had 37% of the Maryland beer market (vs. only 22% for Gunther (who?) the other big local brewery).

Now just one more heritage brand owned and marketed by Pabst, brewed at a MillerCoor facility.

[Chinon00]

Did Natty Boh taste different then than it does now?

[The Professor]

It certainly did...as did many other legacy brands that are still around. Natty, Ballantine, Schaefer, Pabst, Rheingold (and the list can go on and on)...none of these are made according to their original formulas. And a few of them were very good and distinctive beers in their day.

Even the dreaded Budweiser is a different beer than it was as little as 30 years ago

[Chinon00]

Ok I'm 43 and recall having a few sips of bud as a teen. It to me at least is the same beer that it is today.

[Jim Dorsch]

Look at the section on this beer in Fred Eckhardt's book, The Essentials of Beer Style.

[JessKidden]

Even Anheuser-Busch brewmasters admitted that's not true - see the Wall St. Journal article from 2006:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB11460...

[Chinon00]

Ok I'll grant that but was Bud ever a beer that could say compete character wise w/ a Sly Fox or Victory Helles for example?

[JessKidden]

Well, my point was only that AB's Budweiser has changed significantly in recent decades, but it is safe to say that it was probably once closer to those modern US craft pils and helles than it is today.

Certainly pre-Prohibition era AB Budweiser was modeled on Bohemian/pilsner beers, and was frequently judged against German lager and Czech beers like Pilsner Urquell in the popular Exhibitions of the day. As late as the 1970's, P.U. still had a B.U. rate in the 40's, so it's not hard to assume pre-Pro Bud might have been nearer to that than today's 10-11 ibu's.

Not much to go on, since AB's archives are pretty hard to access, but AB in 1915 (with yearly barrelage of around 1.5m) claimed to have the largest stock of Saazer hops in the world, and purchased 3/4 of a million pounds a year from European growers (or about 15% of all the hops imported at the time, to brew about 2.5% of the beer in the US).

Likewise, although AB always brewed Budweiser with rice as an adjunct, the ratio has probably increased greatly since the late 19th century (when AB still brewed a number of all-malt lagers, as well as their bottled flagship). Ogle claims the early ratio was 8 lbs of rice to 5 bushels of malt (@ approx. 35 lb/bushel). Similarly, an early Pabst adjunct beer in the 1870's was made with only 1/17th of the grain being rice.

[Insidious Rex]

It tasted like crap in the early 80s when we used to buy it for about $5 a case and drink them all on the furniture loading dock where I worked when I was a teen. Would loved to have tried the old "good" variety. I wonder when it went down hill exactly? But either way, Natty Boh has a cult following that makes its swill status irrelevant. And for anyone from Baltimore Mr. Boh's smiling one eyed face is simply part of the city landscape (literally...). So it certainly makes sense to make that the feature beer (at least a single ceremonial one then you could move onto Heavy Seas or Brewers Art stuff).

[Jim Dorsch]

Back in the '70s I knew nothing about craft beer, of course, and I usually drank Stroh's out of the can. I never liked the taste after it warmed up. Go figure.

[Whisper]

Being that the Super Bowl began very early on a Monday morning (I'm in Europe at the moment) I only had one beer. A Westmalle Dubbel, and it was delicious.

[DirtyJerzey]

Troegs Nugget Nectar

[JAB]

That one's on my wish list.

[causeimhungry]

Kilkenny

[petek]

Sam Adams Boston Lager..

[Slightly Grey]

Surly Darkness

[LStaff]

Victory Helios
Southern Tier Eurotrash Pils x2
Lagunitas Sucks x3

[steveprez]

Stone Levitation Ale

[Jim Dorsch]

Levitation is a great one for the Super Bowl, full flavor and modest alcohol.

[steveprez]

Agree! The lower alcohol makes it possible to get through a 3+ hour game (and a 35 minute power outage delay!) without needing a nap. :)

[chimay5]

Happy Camper ( Santa Fe ) IPA.

[JonParker]

Sierra Nevada Torpedo.

[linguafood]

Yuengling. Two bottles.