I can remember 2 we would buy in college with the change from under the seat cushions.

1. Fort Schuyler - I think a case of 24 bottles was $2.99. This was 1975. I haven't seen it since I graduated a year later, but then I haven't looked for it either.

2. Canadian Ace - AFAIK, it was only sold in gallon bottles. The price was somewhere in the area of 50 cents. It was a passaround beer best enjoyed outdoors under a shady tree.

Both of these were bad; watery and bitter at the same time. You were guaranteed a headachy hangover in the morning and one of you would be puking sick before the night was over. These were the Ripple and Bali Hai of the beer world in the mid 70's.

3. Haffenreffer Malt Liquor - I think it came from Rhode ISland. It wasn't as cheap as the others, but the alcohol content per dollar made it a cheap buzz because you might split a six pack with someone. Only 16 oz bottles. Known locally as "Green Meanies" or "Green Death". Reputation well deserved. Possible ingredients included skunk pheromones.

Yours?

Watneys Red Barrel.
If you're English and of a certain age you'll understand.

Not from England
Possibly of a certain age
Always was puzzled by references to Watneys in Monty Python episodes

Care to enlighten me?

Watneys was just the name of a brewery here in the UK. It disapeared a while ago though. That takes me back!!

Schaefer Lager (the one beer to drink when you're drinking more than one)

Never felt good after drinking this, but its slogan is perhaps my favorite of all time...I guess this proves that good marketing goes a long way!

Schaefer was one of the beers my father bought in quart bottles when the "boys" came over for poker on Saturday night. His taste ran to better beers when he wasn't supplying it for others. I remember the slogan. My interpretation has always been, "after the first, you won't notice the crappy flavor."

Before I was drinking age, I remember it being used a lot in British comedy sketches. It was the sort of beer English holiday makers travelling on charter flights on package tours to Spanish resorts would demand. Pubs that provided it proved very popular with these visitors. Otherwise they'd complain for the entire trip how they couldn't get hold of it.

That sounds plausible based on what I remember. Eric Idle would go on and on about Watney's bleeding Red Barrel. I think he was complaining about British tourists who wanted to surround themselves with the familiar while on vacation in foreign parts.

Country Club 40s are pretty bad.

I once saw in a supermarket somewhere in Northern Cal a 40oz bottle, white label that literally just said "BEER" with nothing else.

It looked like a movie prop. It cost a whole $1. Wow.....

Keystone or Huber Bock.

Any happoshu in Japan, yuck.

duplicate

Beer Chang in Thailand - I've seldom had a hangover like the one after I got plowed on Chang.

And the Swiss Sch�tzengarten which is the bane of my existence as a student in St. Gallen. Of course, since it's Swiss, Sch�tzengarten is not really cheap, but it is the cheapest beer around here (in a generally expensive country).

Billy Beer. Dreadful...just dreadful.

Sincerely,


William R. Sanders
Customer Service Coordinator
Starwood Preferred Services

[email protected]

I suppose the best word to describe it was ubiquitous.
In an age before people cared about the quality of beer Red Barrel was the drink of choice for millions of peope and it was shite.
Flat,weak and gassy with no head.
Perhaps the most well known beer of the 60s and 70s, the much maligned Watneys Red Barrel, can trace its origins back to the 30s; in fact Watneys claimed 1931. Red Barrel was originally developed as an export beer that could be transported for long distances by sea.

Red Barrel, like all keg bitter, was filtered, to remove the yeast. It was then pasteurised and carbon dioxide was added. The "keg" was linked to a tank of carbon dioxide which effectively forced the beer up from the cellar. There was no need for the traditional long-handled beer pump. Keg was usually served chilled and was fizzy, with froth on the top.

Red Barrel was tentatively trialled at the East Sheen Lawn Tennis Club where Watneys' Master Brewer, Bert Hussey, was a member. He was convinced that once sampled it would be instantly popular. By the early sixties, Watneys were able to claim that it was the country's most popular keg bitter. It was also the first.

Red Barrel today is regarded with distain; in the 60s it was a premium product. Watneys negotiated a contract with BEA for Red Barrel to be supplied to passengers. Given that air travel, especially on scheduled flights, was still a privilege of the few, this must have been quite an achievement for Watneys and must say something about the quality image that the brand then had. Watneys were also able to sell Red Barrel at all bars on the new luxury liner, the QE2.