Natural ice in the old days

[Bert Kemp]

A Beer thread? Who puts ice in beer?

[ray hampton]

A Beer thread? Who puts ice in beer?

you will IF YOU want to water the beer down

[Val Kosmider]

As a child we had an "ice box". We bought ice from a guy who harvested it from a local lake.

I don't recall ever having an "ice cold drink"; nor did we have "ice cream" either.

For those of you who are concerned about the "health" of putting natural ice in drinks...it was a different time and the lakes and the streams which fed them were very drinkable.

"Were..."

[Stephen Tashiro]

.it was a different time and the lakes and the streams which fed them were very drinkable.

"Were..."

People still might have avoided putting ice directly in drinks for sanitary reasons. I foujnd an interesting talk by John C. Sparks in 1914 about planing the ice to remove comtamination from men and horses. http://books.google.com/books?id=BZc...nation&f=false

[John Lohmann]

This is how I learned about ice boxesice.jpg

[Phil Thien]

Never had any natty or pabst products and was satisfied to rely on others' descriptions.

I'd take a Pabst or Schlitz over many of the craft beers I've tried (many of which are just weird).

Milwaukee's Best, not so much.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

I'd take a Pabst or Schlitz over many of the craft beers I've tried (many of which are just weird).

Milwaukee's Best, not so much.

Thought I was the only one who thought like this, I agree Phil!

[Brian Elfert]

I'd take a Pabst or Schlitz over many of the craft beers I've tried (many of which are just weird).

The Minnesota State Fair is currently going on. Here is a description from the Star Tribune of the Smores beer:

Two specialty beers are worth checking out. A deep porter, with chocolate and coffee grace notes, is the backbone for the amusing S’more Beer (⋆⋆⋆, $4.75 and $8) at Giggles’ Campfire Grill. Not that anyone needed it, but owner Tim “Giggles” Weiss reaffirms his sense of humor by serving it in a glass rimmed in chocolate and crushed graham crackers. And yes, it’s garnished with mini-marshmallows.

[David Weaver]

I'd take a Pabst or Schlitz over many of the craft beers I've tried (many of which are just weird).

Milwaukee's Best, not so much.

I'd skip them all...but I agree with your sentiment. Any time a beer has to have a catchy name, a gimmick or a picture of something completely unrelated on the label, I'm out.

[Rich Engelhardt]

Any time a beer has to have a catchy name, a gimmick or a picture of something completely unrelated on the label, I'm out.

I dunnooo......a local bowling alley used to have $.25 Friday nights.
You paid a $5.00 cover charge to get in, then each game cost $.25 - hot dogs were $.25 - and Natty Light was $.25 for a glass or $1.25 for a pitcher.
For $10.00 you could get a belly full of hot dogs, bowl till your arm fell off and get falling down loaded!

That was a gimmick I could get into .

Sadly - they quit the beer part of it, for obvious reasons. Way to many people took advantage of the ten spot thing and they had too many brawls.

[Steve Rozmiarek]

Smores beer? Oh boy, everything is wrong with that. One that makes my stomach churn every time I see the ads is Leinenkugel's Summer Shandy.

Val mentioned the water being more pure in times of yore, I suspect not. Ever been around horses? Everything was done by horse power, so I'm guessing that lots of things had a distinct horsey flavor. Bunch of other things like the removal of human umm, byproducts used to use the water ways too, as did some very nasty chemicals that they didn't understand the ramifications of, like mercury.

[Dan Hunkele]

But back then people didn't live long enough for the chemicals to kill them.

[David Weaver]

I dunnooo......a local bowling alley used to have $.25 Friday nights.
You paid a $5.00 cover charge to get in, then each game cost $.25 - hot dogs were $.25 - and Natty Light was $.25 for a glass or $1.25 for a pitcher.
For $10.00 you could get a belly full of hot dogs, bowl till your arm fell off and get falling down loaded!

That was a gimmick I could get into .

Sadly - they quit the beer part of it, for obvious reasons. Way to many people took advantage of the ten spot thing and they had too many brawls.

Well, I mean gimmick in the beer, not in how an establishment peddles it. Our local bowling alley has a $9 bowl all you want for free cover Karaoke night each friday, but they sell the beer at regular price. They have a different model I'd guess they'd say they're breaking even on the bowling, but probably not even doing that as someone has to pay the guy who hauls in the karaoke stuff. It's in a part of town where some of the local residents have mohawks and a lot of unusual piercings, so the karaoke show can be worth the cost of admission.

Anyway, by gimmick, I mean having a beer that has some girl upside down with a dog on her feet and an umbrella and a name that makes no sense to try to make it out to be cool. Or beers with all kinds of fruits or chocolate flavors in them. It's like coffee...I drink beer to drink a good beer, not to win a beer naming contest or look at labels that look like an indie music record cover and pay twice or three times as much for something that's not quite as good as our standard around here (which is yuengling lager).

[Phil Thien]

Anyway, by gimmick, I mean having a beer that has some girl upside down with a dog on her feet and an umbrella and a name that makes no sense to try to make it out to be cool. Or beers with all kinds of fruits or chocolate flavors in them. It's like coffee...I drink beer to drink a good beer, not to win a beer naming contest or look at labels that look like an indie music record cover and pay twice or three times as much for something that's not quite as good as our standard around here (which is yuengling lager).

The explosion of craft beers (and for that matter the wine isles of your local grocery store) is a symptom of many people insisting they're not alcoholics but rather aficionados.

[Charles McKinley]

In another life my favorite beer was "free" followed closely by "cold." Glad I lived through that stage.