Beers of our Fathers

All those classic beers of the 60s and 70s that dear old dad used to knock back after mowing the lawn in his black socks are making a comeback. Pabst Blue Ribbon and Schlitz have been reportedly flying off the shelves though Schlitz has yet to appear in San Diego. So… what’s the deal?

Article here suggests it is a backlash in a sense to the popularity of craft and micro brews and what some may see as some beer snobbery, an attitude one would not normally associate with beer. Another theory advanced by the article is a yearning for simpler times in this era of uncertainty. We don’t know about that… seems things couldn’t get much more uncertain in this country than the 60s and 70s but waves of nostalgia tend to wash away more unpleasant aspects of the memory bank.

We’ll throw in a healthy dose of ironic-chic as a factor. You know that kid with the black horn rim glasses, jet-black hair, pierced ears, Chuck Taylor high tops and cuffed jeans at the coffee shop….wearing a Led Zeppelin t-shirt? Yeah, saw him throwin’ down a Hamm’s the other night at the pub. Go figure.

And one more: Buy American! Don’t think for a moment that All-American icon Budweiser being bought-out by the Euros at InBev doesn’t have some cultural repercussions. It may have been a crappy American beer. But it was our crappy American beer, dammit!.