One Shining Moment For The Everyman

Some college students have their one shining moment on television or during graduation. Others have theirs under more pedestrian circumstances such as on a beer run on the Illinois-Wisconsin border.

There wasn't much like going to our local college liquor store and finding beer for $6 to $7 a case. There were the legends such as Kingsbury, Huber Bock and Rhinelander (which was as refreshing as Wisconsin's North Woods). There were also losers like the indigestible Sterling. Every once in a while, we would find the random case(s) of some unknown microbrew** such as Brau Meister ... That's right. Brau Meister. Definitely dodgier than Meister Brau. We asked where it came from and the employees had no idea. "They brought it so we're selling it". That would have been it for most thinking people. Fortunately we didn't have that hangup. We were the ones that ignored the Mr. Yuk stickers as kids.

We bought every case they had once we saw Brau Meister was $5 for a case of 24 bottles and drove back to Wisconsin thinking we hit the jackpot. Was it too good to be true? You betcha. Most of the beers had the consistency of quicksand. The silt in each bottle could have beached a small vessel or pilot whale. Did that stop us from drinking it? Of course it didn't.

Why the hell do I reminisce about those times as though they were the salad days? I guess they were in some ways but we only drank that crap because it was all we could afford most times besides the $.99 40oz of Laser. We could also make dorm furniture out of the empty cases. So we had that going for us which was nice.


You're probably wondering why the hell I just took you on that pointless trip down my memory lane. I don't know but what I do know is that a Wisconsin macrobrew is rising from the ashes. Pabst Brewing Co. is bringing back the original Schlitz. This is like going from the new Coke formula back to the original. Actually it's probably more like going from cat piss to monkey piss. OG Schlitz is only in limited release in the Milwaukee area. Hopefully it will open nationally for all the starving high school and college kids so they can live the dream.


** You can't imagine how lightly I use that term.