In this era of craft and specialty brews, where brewmasters mix in all kind of ingredients to offer to thirsty drinkers, there is still room in the belly for budget beers.
Yet one of them is being shelved.
Hamm’s beer, a budget beer if there ever was one, is rumored to be gone.
Founded in 1856 by German immigrant Theodore Hamm in St. Paul, Minnesota, Hamm’s was at first a regional beer. Eventually, what Hamm called a “America’s classic beer,” it became a favorite of cost-cost-conscious Midwesterners and then for beer drinks across the country who loved the fact that it was sometimes half the price of mainstream beers and as much as a third the price of costly crafts. It became the beer of choice for low-paid newspaper sports journalists who lovingly referred to it as “sportswriters beer.”
At its peak in the 1970s, it had commercials featuring a bear as a mascot and a slogan of “refreshing as the land of sky blue waters,” a reference to the state of Minnesota and its 10,000 lakes.
It then went through a number of owners; it changed hands as many as 18 times. In 1999, it was purchased by Molson Coors. While not nearly as prevalent now as in was in its heyday, there are still occasional sightings of it in bars across America. PubClub.com encoutered it in San Francisco. Ironically, that was not in a dive bar but one that served premium crafts. The bar owners probably had it on the menu as kind of a joke but PubClub eagerly ordered up a cold one.
And for the moment, it can also be found at retailers such as Total Wine. But not for very much longer.
Leave a Reply