So after this video was filmed and midway in the editing process, I found out more information about the early days of Hamm’s. There’s quite a bit of ambiguity due to conflicting information online. Suffice to say, there are some inaccuracies in the account I gave of this brewery’s origins in this video for which I apologize. I try my best to be as accurate as possible when talking about the history of a brewery (since it should be one of the areas I can most concretely talk about) and this is an instance where I likely got some things wrong, through some fault of my own but also through the mess of unverified information out there. Some breweries’ history is much more well-documented and cut-and-dry but Hamm’s does not seem to be one of those. Details like the brewery being Pittsburg Excelsior Brewery in actuality, when the local papers just called it Excelsior at some point before it changed hands, and the details surrounding the ownership transferring to Theodore Hamm are something that I didn’t address, didn’t address fully or got wrong. I think the broad strokes are right and everything after that should be accurate but it goes to show the backstory of a beer or brewery can fall victim to wildly varying information and a certain romanticism. It sometimes makes it difficult to sift through all the noise. If I’ve screwed up beyond that in this video, then I hope my earlier apology softens the blow. I try not to be a total idiot just drinking beer and talking bullshit to a camera; I research as much as I can and condense it down as best as I can. Anyway, it likely didn’t bother you but it bothered me, so I hope you enjoy the video and a beer along with it. Cheers and thanks for watching!
I am really glad you made this video and continue to learn about these fine beers! I only wish you could have tasted the "real" beers back in the day! Cause they were excellent!!
Quick update on the state of Pabst: Pabst's contract with MolsonCoors expires this year, and they have been doing a phased pullout from MolsonCoors breweries in 2024, to be completed by the end of Q4 at the very latest. Pabst bought the shut-down Miller brewery in Irwindale California for $150 million in 2020, which is where their brands will be brewed going forward. I believe that they will contract another company to run the brewery instead of running it themselves (not 100% sure on that). Also, the PBR recipe is called S6-4, which is Hamms. They are the exact same beer in 2 different cans. This has been the case since the beginning of the contract with Miller. Most brands in the Pabst portfolio share a recipe with at least 1 other brand, sometimes more. None of them are their original recipes. The fun part is that MolsonCoors owns the S6-4 recipe, so I have no idea what Pabst will be putting in the can in Irwindale. I suppose they can source the same or similar ingredients, but the yeast and water will be different. I wonder if anyone will notice, lol.
With both sides of my family hailing from the Chicago area, Old Style is still what I think of when I think of blue-collar dad beer. It's what my dad would've been drinking in 1972.
Right on. I was drinking it in Park Forest, Illinois, far south suburb of Chicago, back in the early ‘70s. It was “my” beer. Look for the frog. Maybe a dollar a six pack.
All 3 of these beers were great in the old days! 1960s when I was able to drink them. They have changed so much none retain their original tastes! Cheers from this old beer drinker! Pabst was my favorite when brewed last in Georgia!
PBR was one of our go to low budget high school brews along with Old Milwaukee and Genny cream ale. Mickey's wide mouth did job for a few pennies more.
Me being old AND from Chicagoland, Old Style WAS the beer in the 70's-80's. Hamm's/Schlitz was my Dad's beer. PBR was THE downstate beer. UNfortunately, it's impossible for a young guy now to taste test the beers we knew 50 years ago. ALL the ingredients/recipes have changed. Fortunately, MOST of us weren't beer connoisseur's back then We drank whatever was cheap. We only bought imported beer to impress the girls. 🤣🤣
I managed a beer and wine carryout in the 70's and after a while we would have some broken 6 packs, where there would be one bottle or can out of the 6 pack that was broken. We couldn't sell the 6 pack so we just set the rest of them aside. I got the brilliant idea of taking these beers and having a blind taste test of the remaining beers with the other guys who worked there. As I remember we had about 6 different beers, Bud, Miller, Hamms, Blatz, etc. To my surprise, Hamm's was my favorite. Bonus- it's so cheap today. I can get a 30 pack for $14.59 at Meijer's.
Growing up in northern NJ the area around Newark you had Budweiser, Schaefer, Pabst and Knickerbocker, it was the water that made the difference. All gone except for Bud.
Apparently Hamm's had a brewery in San Francisco and can be seen in one of the older Dirty Harry films and I bet they competed aggressive against Steam Anchor. Also, when I was younger my mom and stepdad collected light up beer signs amd sold them at auctions and they had a Hamm's sign with the cartoon bear and I always thought it was awesome.
You're absolutely right on it appearing in one of the Dirty Harry films and it was actually something I recorded for this video but it didn't make it into the final edit.
When you find PBR on tap, it's good. If you find it in a can, well, it's cruel to put it back in the horse, but that doesn't mean you have to drink it.
Back in the old HS days we lived on Old Style it was a pretty good lower cost beer, we cant get it anymore in Ohio but it takes me back to our old drinking on dirt roads days
When I was in college, one of the fraternities caught on fire and firemen came to put out the fire. This fraternity was known for having quantities of bad beer, which the firemen saw in the basement. I remember one of them saying "Did you see that beer? Would YOU drink that stuff?!"
Thnx for your review ! Finally snagged some Hamms here in Wrstern Mass ?( been absent here since the early 80s), and love the flavor , mellowness and lack of bite of this Boomer Beer ! This beer beats all my other faves now including Miller PBR Genny Cream and Gansett !Value $$$ too beats all of them !
Back in my alcoholic days Hamms was the beer we got when we were broke, at around ten bucks a case. It was better than Red, White & Blue, which was about eight bucks, but it was awful, and even a drunk has to have SOME standards. Iron City wasn't drinkable unless you were already drunk on something else, and the hangovers you got from it were legendary. If you got into the Iron City you just knew you weren't gonna make it into work the next day. PBR was about the best cheap beer on the market back then, the favorite of the working class Americans. The saying went, Red neck, White Socks, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer- an American tradition.
My Grandfather was a Hamm's guy and my dad was Old Style. As a teenager in the 70's Old Style was our go to brew because it was cheap. Being in Illinois everyone wanted Coor's. When I was stationed in California, I got to try Coor's and I never saw the interest. But what was funny was people in CA wanted Old Style...the grass is always greener. I do so want one of those revolving Hamm's signs for my home. I remember my dad on trips into town he would stop at his favorite bar and order an Old Style. They had one of those Hamm's signs and I could watch it for hours. That being said, my taste has changed, thanks in large part to my daughter in law who studied in Belgium and got me into the Belgian Ales. I enjoy them a lot. But they are very expensive. So I found a brewer in Quebec; Unibroue. They have a great line (La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistols, Don de Dieu, and Maudite). They are about half the price of Belgian imports, but still pretty pricey. I still prefer my brew either in bottle or draft. Cans remind me of my youth. For the Summer when outside and grilling, I will bring out the Moosehead or LaBatt's. A little lighter when it is warm. But I enjoy your reviews. Maybe I will have to give Hamm's another shot?
They're still alot more palatable than anything Anheuser-Busch related. An ice-cold Old Milwaukee Light on a hot summer day is a memorably delightful cheap beer however. It's actually won some awards. Haven't seen in years unfortunately..
Krausening pronounced Kroy-Zen-ing . Back in the 1980's Old style was said to have seasonal variation in taste with the better tasting stuff in the fall.
Yep, someone else pointed out the mispronunciation as well, which was an oversight on my part. I'm curious if that was pure anecdotal reporting from drinkers or shifts in ingredient availability. No way of really finding that out nowadays, I suspect.
Yah it’s an unknown to me as well I just remember old time beer tasting experts going on about this the old timers would say it was available ingredients. Personally I couldn’t tell a difference; plus how do you remember what a beer tasted like 6 months ago. When craft beers started you could really tell a difference Anchor Steam was one of the first and back then it was said to as good as a German beer.
Back in the day, the 70’s, hamms came in 2.5 gl mini kegs that you could fit into the ice box. Very cool. And some dune buggy builders would use the empty’s as fuel tanks. F the deposit. It’s cooler looking, and cheaper than any other option. Those were the days.
Old Style is my absolute favorite beer. I has a flavor profile that never gets boring or dual. I never had a beer that tastes like Old Style. It has a uniquely sweet flavor but the carbonation and hoppy notes really balances it out. You can drink a 24 case of it and wake up without a hangover or headache. Old Style is a one of a kind of beer.
Old Style is still fairly popular in Chicago, but the Cubs dropped them as a sponser a few years ago. I don't know if Old Style is still served at Wrigley Field.
When Ernie Banks still played shortstop and Jack Brickhouse did the play by play and urged fans to come out to beautiful Wrigley Field, Hamms was the Cubs’ Wrigley Field beer. Heileman Old Style Lager was just one of several regular advertisers on TV & radio. Both had good ad jingles which I still remember to this day.
4:18 I could see that rumor being spread about Schlitz or Old Milwaukee or Stroh's or Old Style or Rainier or Lone Star or National Bohemian, but Hamm's isn't even made by the same brewery as Pabst. It turns out that there is more than one way to make a harrible beer.
While true now, Hamm's was at one point owned by Pabst so it was made by them then. I've seen varying reports online and even in this comments section (someone said they are the same, cited a recipe number, but did not provide their source) about it being "the same beer." No one ever cites a solid source for this claim. Whether that's because one doesn't exist (beer is full of this kind of stuff) or they're full of shit, I can't prove either way. In the absence of real information that shows it, I can only go off my own analysis of the beers. While they are very similar (like many beers in this particular category, and many you named are similar to one another), there's nothing that screams "these are exactly the same beer" to me. My consensus is "very similar yes, but not identical."
As an ilinoi ute in the 70's, 80's, 90's Old Style was my beer, when they were sold in 1996, the taste changed, and it wasn't good. I have heard that they are moving back to their LaCrosse Wisconsin original location and hopefully back to that 70/80's taste
you have a pretty good nose/palate given the depth you went into here. I'm a Chicago boy so probably a little biased but I love me some Old Style. Hamms is great too but whenever I alternate, I always miss Old Style more. It just has a little more character for me personally. Oh and just a heads up, not to be too snobby, but the process of krausening is pronounced "KROY-suh- ning" just for the record, and I too have no idea if they still do it. Anyway, great review. cheers!
Good to know on the pronunciation, I just assumed it was correct hearing people say it that way. Each one of these has been entered and won multiple times in the GABF Cream Ale category in the past. Krausening is a key point in the style so they definitely all did it historically, with Old Style bringing it back in 2009 (which I may or may not have mentioned in the video) and Hamm's and Pabst being a big unknown. It's possible they still do but information like that among the Bud/Coors/Miller/Pabst ilk tends to be harder to find. Cheers! 🍻
If you could get your hands on Stroh’s Beer I would like to see your review. I can buy Hamm’s in Northern Wisconsin a 30 pack goes for $13.49. I also found a 30 Pack of Stroh’s For $15.99 I bought the Stroh’s but it doesn’t say anywhere on the can or the packaging about being Fire Brewed. That was a big deal in their advertising back in their Hay Days. Brings my back to the late 70’s & early 80’s my old Chicago days . Thank God I don’t live there anymore.
Stroh's is on my list, as well as many other regional beers like it, but it is a little more difficult to source than some of the ones I've done or will be doing in the very near future. No promises but keep an eye out. 🍻
I'm probably older than your parents and I never heard of Heilman's Old Style beer. From the design on the can it looks like a Pabst product (yuk) but you explained many breweries played hot potato with Heilman's over the years.
I guess that depends on how old you think I am. Old Style definitely did jump around a lot, as I mentioned in the video. Old Style is currently a Pabst product that is brewed by City Brewery in La Crosse, WI, according to the latest information I could find.
@@thebeeremptor I can see you just fine. My TV works AOK. My sons are almost 40 so that means I'm probably older than your folks. You look about 25 to me.
I recently moved to Duluth Minnesota from California and there are so many specialty breweries here (making great beers but mostly IPAs) so when I go to a party and see folks lugging in 16 ounce Hamm's I know I'm in for a good time. PBR is a fun logo but Hamm's is a fun beer. And bear.
Drank Old Style and nothing else since the mid 70’s. Old Style in the long neck bottle is the smoothest, in the can or on tap at the tavern is hit or miss taste-wise. Chicagoan and Sox fan, wished it was official beer of Comiskey Park.
The few times i had Pabst it gave me a killer headache, they probably put some nasty preservatives in there or there's some fusel alcohol from crappy fermentation practices. Haven't had it after 2014 and won't, but hopefully their new parents are making a better product (doubt it lol). Had Hamm's a few years ago, not terrible, no headache either. I'd probably like Old Style most of the 3 but never tried it. Great review!
I doubt it with Pabst too but lots of these revived regional lagers seem to fall into the hands of people who appreciate it and they try to bring it back to something approximating the original beer. Old Style is definitely one I'd have in my regular rotation as a fridge staple if I could get it regularly. I'll just have to ask my folks to bring some every time they visit. Cheers! 🍻
I was Born and Raised in St. Paul MN so one would imagine that I would like Hamm's the best out of these three. Nope! I actually do not like the taste of Hamm's all that much and prefer Old Style and Pabst.
On the other side of the coin it would be interesting to listen to you describe the bouquet of a weekend binge drinking 1o'clock A.M. Mickey's Big Mouth and Taco Bell Fart dealt to you by one of your old college drinking buddies ! Cheers !😂
😂 There is a frog , sold and drank a lot of Old Style in my day , found the frog many times , maybe if I drink enough of them I will find the hitchhiker
My understanding is it's cheaper and faster, speeds up the brewing process and has been used since the 1970's. It should be noted that it's not "high fructose corn syrup" either, and despite the bad press corn syrup gets in general, it has no impact on the health of beer consumers since the sugars are all distilled out of the beverage during the brewing process.
They’re all bad but that rhymes with dad so it’s good enough for us, we’re sacrificing good taste to buy you better things to grill , now show some respeck
Unfortunately old style I will never be able to try unless I go out of nj but hamms if my favorite and genesee is my second and hamms is ten times better the pbr
Those three are all horrible. Miller is adequate want cheap, Schlitz is being made to it's classic recipe again and is decent as a result. But these three were never worth the price even when free.
So after this video was filmed and midway in the editing process, I found out more information about the early days of Hamm’s. There’s quite a bit of ambiguity due to conflicting information online. Suffice to say, there are some inaccuracies in the account I gave of this brewery’s origins in this video for which I apologize. I try my best to be as accurate as possible when talking about the history of a brewery (since it should be one of the areas I can most concretely talk about) and this is an instance where I likely got some things wrong, through some fault of my own but also through the mess of unverified information out there. Some breweries’ history is much more well-documented and cut-and-dry but Hamm’s does not seem to be one of those.
Details like the brewery being Pittsburg Excelsior Brewery in actuality, when the local papers just called it Excelsior at some point before it changed hands, and the details surrounding the ownership transferring to Theodore Hamm are something that I didn’t address, didn’t address fully or got wrong.
I think the broad strokes are right and everything after that should be accurate but it goes to show the backstory of a beer or brewery can fall victim to wildly varying information and a certain romanticism. It sometimes makes it difficult to sift through all the noise.
If I’ve screwed up beyond that in this video, then I hope my earlier apology softens the blow. I try not to be a total idiot just drinking beer and talking bullshit to a camera; I research as much as I can and condense it down as best as I can.
Anyway, it likely didn’t bother you but it bothered me, so I hope you enjoy the video and a beer along with it.
Cheers and thanks for watching!
I am really glad you made this video and continue to learn about these fine beers! I only wish you could have tasted the "real" beers back in the day! Cause they were excellent!!
If only beer time machines existed...
Very interesting, thank you.
Quick update on the state of Pabst: Pabst's contract with MolsonCoors expires this year, and they have been doing a phased pullout from MolsonCoors breweries in 2024, to be completed by the end of Q4 at the very latest.
Pabst bought the shut-down Miller brewery in Irwindale California for $150 million in 2020, which is where their brands will be brewed going forward. I believe that they will contract another company to run the brewery instead of running it themselves (not 100% sure on that).
Also, the PBR recipe is called S6-4, which is Hamms. They are the exact same beer in 2 different cans. This has been the case since the beginning of the contract with Miller. Most brands in the Pabst portfolio share a recipe with at least 1 other brand, sometimes more. None of them are their original recipes.
The fun part is that MolsonCoors owns the S6-4 recipe, so I have no idea what Pabst will be putting in the can in Irwindale. I suppose they can source the same or similar ingredients, but the yeast and water will be different. I wonder if anyone will notice, lol.
@@Pocket_FoxThank you for this interesting informative news.
Old style beer is being brewed back in La Crosse Wisconsin again and the largest 6 pack is Old Style Beer again just in time for October fest
I saw this news sometime after I posted this video. Good news! The regional lager lives on, and seems to be thriving.
Old Style used to RULE in Chicago.
With both sides of my family hailing from the Chicago area, Old Style is still what I think of when I think of blue-collar dad beer. It's what my dad would've been drinking in 1972.
Right on. I was drinking it in Park Forest, Illinois, far south suburb of Chicago, back in the early ‘70s. It was “my” beer. Look for the frog. Maybe a dollar a six pack.
Hamm's is my go to!
I have had thousands of old styles in my younger days. Good stuff. Hamm's and Pabst are too. Good American legends.
Genny Cream was my beer from '76-'78. I was fancy. And also lots of weed.
Old style was the beer for my dad and his family... I remember in the 90s, they brewed " golden draft."
All 3 of these beers were great in the old days! 1960s when I was able to drink them. They have changed so much none retain their original tastes!
Cheers from this old beer drinker! Pabst was my favorite when brewed last in Georgia!
They say the original hamms was amazing
If wasn't for drinking these beers my chest would be hairless to this very day
Don't waste money on beer brewed with corn syrup.
PBR was one of our go to low budget high school brews along with Old Milwaukee and Genny cream ale. Mickey's wide mouth did job for a few pennies more.
Mickey's Big Mouth was the best.
I remember back in the day PBR being $7.99 a case. Bud/Miller/Coors were $15
I think Hamms' of all the American macros tastes the MOST like actual German Lager.
When I was your age or a bit younger, I drank beer and I LOVED Old Style....it was D-Lish
Old style is the best beer ever!!!!
Me being old AND from Chicagoland, Old Style WAS the beer in the 70's-80's. Hamm's/Schlitz was my Dad's beer. PBR was THE downstate beer. UNfortunately, it's impossible for a young guy now to taste test the beers we knew 50 years ago. ALL the ingredients/recipes have changed. Fortunately, MOST of us weren't beer connoisseur's back then We drank whatever was cheap. We only bought imported beer to impress the girls. 🤣🤣
I forgot about Budweiser. That was a Southside beer. That DID have it's own taste. 🤮🤣
PBR is beer, beer is PBR.
HELL YESSSSSS!!!!!😂😊😅❤❤❤
Keep your hands off my PBR ❤
"Excelsior!" sounds like what you shout as you storm the castle on a quest for the Holy Grail.
I managed a beer and wine carryout in the 70's and after a while we would have some broken 6 packs, where there would be one bottle or can out of the 6 pack that was broken. We couldn't sell the 6 pack so we just set the rest of them aside. I got the brilliant idea of taking these beers and having a blind taste test of the remaining beers with the other guys who worked there. As I remember we had about 6 different beers, Bud, Miller, Hamms, Blatz, etc. To my surprise, Hamm's was my favorite. Bonus- it's so cheap today. I can get a 30 pack for $14.59 at Meijer's.
Growing up in northern NJ the area around Newark you had Budweiser, Schaefer, Pabst and Knickerbocker, it was the water that made the difference. All gone except for Bud.
PBR is hipster beer where I live.
I must be a hip senior
Apparently Hamm's had a brewery in San Francisco and can be seen in one of the older Dirty Harry films and I bet they competed aggressive against Steam Anchor. Also, when I was younger my mom and stepdad collected light up beer signs amd sold them at auctions and they had a Hamm's sign with the cartoon bear and I always thought it was awesome.
You're absolutely right on it appearing in one of the Dirty Harry films and it was actually something I recorded for this video but it didn't make it into the final edit.
Old style all the way, just tryd it in Missouri and I’ll be buying more
I grew up on it, living in Chicago. It is good.
When you find PBR on tap, it's good.
If you find it in a can, well, it's cruel to put it back in the horse, but that doesn't mean you have to drink it.
Back in the old HS days we lived on Old Style it was a pretty good lower cost beer, we cant get it anymore in Ohio but it takes me back to our old drinking on dirt roads days
Still good and cheap here in Illinois.
In my local beer emporium, Hamm's is the cheapest brand -- 30 twelve ounce cans for $14.99. Pabst and Old Style are a couple bucks more.
When I was in college, one of the fraternities caught on fire and firemen came to put out the fire. This fraternity was known for having quantities of bad beer, which the firemen saw in the basement. I remember one of them saying "Did you see that beer? Would YOU drink that stuff?!"
If you to taste them in the 1970s when they use the different water from a different location you found out they really tasted fantastic
Thnx for your review ! Finally snagged some Hamms here in Wrstern Mass ?( been absent here since the early 80s), and love the flavor , mellowness and lack of bite of this Boomer Beer ! This beer beats all my other faves now including Miller PBR Genny Cream and Gansett !Value $$$ too beats all of them !
Stop telling people this, they'll raise the price
Back in my alcoholic days Hamms was the beer we got when we were broke, at around ten bucks a case. It was better than Red, White & Blue, which was about eight bucks, but it was awful, and even a drunk has to have SOME standards. Iron City wasn't drinkable unless you were already drunk on something else, and the hangovers you got from it were legendary. If you got into the Iron City you just knew you weren't gonna make it into work the next day. PBR was about the best cheap beer on the market back then, the favorite of the working class Americans. The saying went, Red neck, White Socks, and Pabst Blue Ribbon beer- an American tradition.
That is a song by Johnny Russell, good tune, I like to think the song is about red necks, White Sox, and PBR.
My Grandfather was a Hamm's guy and my dad was Old Style. As a teenager in the 70's Old Style was our go to brew because it was cheap. Being in Illinois everyone wanted Coor's. When I was stationed in California, I got to try Coor's and I never saw the interest. But what was funny was people in CA wanted Old Style...the grass is always greener. I do so want one of those revolving Hamm's signs for my home. I remember my dad on trips into town he would stop at his favorite bar and order an Old Style. They had one of those Hamm's signs and I could watch it for hours.
That being said, my taste has changed, thanks in large part to my daughter in law who studied in Belgium and got me into the Belgian Ales. I enjoy them a lot. But they are very expensive. So I found a brewer in Quebec; Unibroue. They have a great line (La Fin du Monde, Trois Pistols, Don de Dieu, and Maudite). They are about half the price of Belgian imports, but still pretty pricey.
I still prefer my brew either in bottle or draft. Cans remind me of my youth. For the Summer when outside and grilling, I will bring out the Moosehead or LaBatt's. A little lighter when it is warm. But I enjoy your reviews. Maybe I will have to give Hamm's another shot?
It's hard for me to watch this ....I remember buying Hamm's in Glass Quarts ......I don't think I can live with out the large glass bottles ..😢😢😢
Just imagine a timeline when people actually recycled and got the deposit back on bottles, all those wacky bottles and bottle sizes might still exist.
They're still alot more palatable than anything Anheuser-Busch related. An ice-cold Old Milwaukee Light on a hot summer day is a memorably delightful cheap beer however. It's actually won some awards. Haven't seen in years unfortunately..
I went through several years of drinking 3 30 packs of Hamm's a week. I used to joke about buying stocks. 😂
I'm drinking a Hamms, right now. IMO, it's the best budget beer around. I am from Minnesota, so there might be a bias.
Being from the land of sky blue waters, you might be just a tad biased.
Krausening pronounced Kroy-Zen-ing . Back in the 1980's Old style was said to have seasonal variation in taste with the better tasting stuff in the fall.
Yep, someone else pointed out the mispronunciation as well, which was an oversight on my part.
I'm curious if that was pure anecdotal reporting from drinkers or shifts in ingredient availability. No way of really finding that out nowadays, I suspect.
Yah it’s an unknown to me as well I just remember old time beer tasting experts going on about this the old timers would say it was available ingredients.
Personally I couldn’t tell a difference; plus how do you remember what a beer tasted like 6 months ago.
When craft beers started you could really tell a difference Anchor Steam was one of the first and back then it was said to as good as a German beer.
Back in the day, the 70’s, hamms came in 2.5 gl mini kegs that you could fit into the ice box. Very cool. And some dune buggy builders would use the empty’s as fuel tanks. F the deposit. It’s cooler looking, and cheaper than any other option. Those were the days.
Old Style is my absolute favorite beer. I has a flavor profile that never gets boring or dual. I never had a beer that tastes like Old Style. It has a uniquely sweet flavor but the carbonation and hoppy notes really balances it out. You can drink a 24 case of it and wake up without a hangover or headache. Old Style is a one of a kind of beer.
Old Style is still fairly popular in Chicago, but the Cubs dropped them as a sponser a few years ago. I don't know if Old Style is still served at Wrigley Field.
When Ernie Banks still played shortstop and Jack Brickhouse did the play by play and urged fans to come out to beautiful Wrigley Field, Hamms was the Cubs’ Wrigley Field beer. Heileman Old Style Lager was just one of several regular advertisers on TV & radio. Both had good ad jingles which I still remember to this day.
4:18 I could see that rumor being spread about Schlitz or Old Milwaukee or Stroh's or Old Style or Rainier or Lone Star or National Bohemian, but Hamm's isn't even made by the same brewery as Pabst. It turns out that there is more than one way to make a harrible beer.
While true now, Hamm's was at one point owned by Pabst so it was made by them then. I've seen varying reports online and even in this comments section (someone said they are the same, cited a recipe number, but did not provide their source) about it being "the same beer."
No one ever cites a solid source for this claim. Whether that's because one doesn't exist (beer is full of this kind of stuff) or they're full of shit, I can't prove either way.
In the absence of real information that shows it, I can only go off my own analysis of the beers. While they are very similar (like many beers in this particular category, and many you named are similar to one another), there's nothing that screams "these are exactly the same beer" to me.
My consensus is "very similar yes, but not identical."
Hamm's beer is the best, heck, I've even done a video related to that beer brand.
🇺🇲
Old Style was the most popular beer in the midwest!
"Fully Kreusened"
Kreusening poisioning.
@@davefreeman1499 ...
😂 🍺 ☠️ 🤮
I'm having some Genesee Beer right now and it isn't anything fancy, or unique BUT it suits me just fine.
Look for the frog sitting on a lily pad on the Old Style can
Sadly, it never caught on in Louisiana and is rarely seen, here.
The review meister himself thanks for all the great vids man
You're welcome!@@maintenancezone4451
As an ilinoi ute in the 70's, 80's, 90's Old Style was my beer, when they were sold in 1996, the taste changed, and it wasn't good. I have heard that they are moving back to their LaCrosse Wisconsin original location and hopefully back to that 70/80's taste
You grab one of these out of the cooler, sit down in your lawn chair and enjoy them.
you have a pretty good nose/palate given the depth you went into here. I'm a Chicago boy so probably a little biased but I love me some Old Style. Hamms is great too but whenever I alternate, I always miss Old Style more. It just has a little more character for me personally. Oh and just a heads up, not to be too snobby, but the process of krausening is pronounced "KROY-suh- ning" just for the record, and I too have no idea if they still do it. Anyway, great review. cheers!
Good to know on the pronunciation, I just assumed it was correct hearing people say it that way.
Each one of these has been entered and won multiple times in the GABF Cream Ale category in the past. Krausening is a key point in the style so they definitely all did it historically, with Old Style bringing it back in 2009 (which I may or may not have mentioned in the video) and Hamm's and Pabst being a big unknown. It's possible they still do but information like that among the Bud/Coors/Miller/Pabst ilk tends to be harder to find. Cheers! 🍻
Thanks for the post. Subscribed.
They need to call them hogwash beers
When I was low on cash these beers would do the trick!
drank lot of pbr in my early 20s 12 ox can wrapped in a paper bag
other old names rolling rock , and saw genesee beer think it was so Utah ?
Great informative video subscribed cheers great 👍 stuff
At the Bar- PBR, Alone- Hamm's. With buddides- Old Style.
Thnx for both the history and reviews of these 3 Boomer Beers ! Enjoy your channel !
Nice content! Good analysis!
Hamm's is definitely sweeter and PBR is happier and Old Style has a very clean taste and medium body.
I honestly don’t know how anyone can drink Pabst! I drank it in college sometimes, and the heartburn was ungodly. And the taste was unbearable
Have you found the frog sitting on a lily pad on the Old Style can ?
There is a guy hitchhiking on the can too.
@@fratzogmopars Old Style cans are busy with graphics , I will look for the hitchhiker , thanks
@@davidgrossman5104 He must have got a ride…… It was a joke back in the day, you won’t find one.
Fucking LOVE me some Hamms!!!!!!! 0:37
Hamms is great, bought two 12-packs earlier this week for $6.99 each. Omaha, Nebraska
I wish it was priced that well out here, damn.
@@thebeeremptor Where sir, California?
@@thebeeremptor it's great on the golf course.
Yep, never seen twelves out here but our 24 packs run about $20.
@@thebeeremptor In my area, there are 12's, 30's, of 12 oz cans, and six-packs of tall boys.
It's beer. JUST DRINK IT.
Hamm's uses corn syrup instead of sugar.
My mothe r used to drink Hams it was the only week beer she liked. My brother drinks Papst a decent not weather beer never tried Old Style
If you could get your hands on Stroh’s Beer I would like to see your review. I can buy Hamm’s in Northern Wisconsin a 30 pack goes for $13.49. I also found a 30 Pack of Stroh’s For $15.99
I bought the Stroh’s but it doesn’t say anywhere on the can or the packaging about being Fire Brewed. That was a big deal in their advertising back in their Hay Days.
Brings my back to the late 70’s & early 80’s my old Chicago days . Thank God I don’t live there anymore.
Stroh's is on my list, as well as many other regional beers like it, but it is a little more difficult to source than some of the ones I've done or will be doing in the very near future. No promises but keep an eye out. 🍻
@@thebeeremptor Thank You I would like to hear your research on the fire brewing.
I'm probably older than your parents and I never heard of Heilman's Old Style beer. From the design on the can it looks like a Pabst product (yuk) but you explained many breweries played hot potato with Heilman's over the years.
I guess that depends on how old you think I am.
Old Style definitely did jump around a lot, as I mentioned in the video.
Old Style is currently a Pabst product that is brewed by City Brewery in La Crosse, WI, according to the latest information I could find.
@@thebeeremptor I can see you just fine. My TV works AOK. My sons are almost 40 so that means I'm probably older than your folks. You look about 25 to me.
I'm 32.
@@thebeeremptor well then that means you're my baby girl's age so that means I'm almost definitely older than your parents!
Old styles the goat
I recently moved to Duluth Minnesota from California and there are so many specialty breweries here (making great beers but mostly IPAs) so when I go to a party and see folks lugging in 16 ounce Hamm's I know I'm in for a good time. PBR is a fun logo but Hamm's is a fun beer. And bear.
Drank Old Style and nothing else since the mid 70’s. Old Style in the long neck bottle is the smoothest, in the can or on tap at the tavern is hit or miss taste-wise. Chicagoan and Sox fan, wished it was official beer of Comiskey Park.
The few times i had Pabst it gave me a killer headache, they probably put some nasty preservatives in there or there's some fusel alcohol from crappy fermentation practices. Haven't had it after 2014 and won't, but hopefully their new parents are making a better product (doubt it lol). Had Hamm's a few years ago, not terrible, no headache either. I'd probably like Old Style most of the 3 but never tried it. Great review!
I doubt it with Pabst too but lots of these revived regional lagers seem to fall into the hands of people who appreciate it and they try to bring it back to something approximating the original beer.
Old Style is definitely one I'd have in my regular rotation as a fridge staple if I could get it regularly. I'll just have to ask my folks to bring some every time they visit. Cheers! 🍻
Had Old Style for the first time at Bogarts in Clifton near UC .....very good 👍.......but I need ice beers now .....I cant go back 😮,
Which bar in Long Beach has these 2buck cans? I visit LB periodically.
Baddeley's Pourhouse. Broadway and Redondo. Pretty sure they don't take good care of their draught lines so getting the Pabst cans is the way to go.
I was Born and Raised in St. Paul MN so one would imagine that I would like Hamm's the best out of these three. Nope! I actually do not like the taste of Hamm's all that much and prefer Old Style and Pabst.
1. Hamm's 2. Schlitz 3. Old Style 4. Blatz 5.PBR
Little Beer Expert...😂
On the other side of the coin it would be interesting to listen to you describe the bouquet of a weekend binge drinking 1o'clock A.M. Mickey's Big Mouth and Taco Bell Fart dealt to you by one of your old college drinking buddies ! Cheers !😂
Joe Jost’s had PBR on tap for years.
A cold schooner PBR and some pickled eggs after work, Oh yeah
PBR
is very mild tasting - was HUGE in the mid -late 1970s.
As long as it stays in the USA I don't care.
😂 There is a frog , sold and drank a lot of Old Style in my day , found the frog many times , maybe if I drink enough of them I will find the hitchhiker
Why the hell would anyone put corn syrup in beer?
My understanding is it's cheaper and faster, speeds up the brewing process and has been used since the 1970's. It should be noted that it's not "high fructose corn syrup" either, and despite the bad press corn syrup gets in general, it has no impact on the health of beer consumers since the sugars are all distilled out of the beverage during the brewing process.
I enjoyed all 3!
Don’t need all the scholarly claptrap
Old style comes in a tall as well, why the shorty?
This was from a twelve pack that was purchased for me, so they came as 12 oz cans.
my friend would come over on Sunday mourning with two 89 cent quarts of pabst to go play pick up basket ball down at the park
Nice videos! Subscribed
They’re all bad but that rhymes with dad so it’s good enough for us, we’re sacrificing good taste to buy you better things to grill , now show some respeck
Great video
Unfortunately old style I will never be able to try unless I go out of nj but hamms if my favorite and genesee is my second and hamms is ten times better the pbr
PBR is the most hoppy-est.
Hamms had a great jingle
Long Beach bar that sells Pabst for $2. Gotta be Red Room.
In this instance, it was Baddeley's Pourhouse but I wouldn't be surprised if the Red Room did it too.
Corn syrup is in Pabst? God dammit
Blatz?
Love how these new breweries pale ale makers mostly try to replicate these beers and fail
Are you old enough to drink beer- legally...?
I'm in my thirties, my guy, thanks for the compliment though.
@@thebeeremptor keep that youthful look as long as you can !
Those three are all horrible. Miller is adequate want cheap, Schlitz is being made to it's classic recipe again and is decent as a result. But these three were never worth the price even when free.
How about Schlitz?
Harder for me to get where I live but it is something I plan to do in the future.
Hamms is good so is pabst , old style in Canada is a completely different brand
Black Label ‼️
Beer is Good and GOD is Great
what about Rainier
Harder for me to get where I live but it is something I plan to do in the future.