davesarman
10-13-2006, 10:47 PM
Hello everyone! I used to be a fairly frequent contributor to this forum a year or so back, but job and family changes, etc. have precluded me from viewing & posting as much as I'd like. However, I still manage to check in once and a while. (The last post I had was prior to the Great Taste in Madison, WI in August. Which was fantastic, by the way!)
Anyway, this is something I've been meaning to post here for a year or more and am finally getting around to it tonight.
In 1982, I was a 14 year old 8th grader growing up in the rural plains of eastern South Dakota. I had taken up beer can collecting the previous year and as such had gathered, much to the chagrin of my mother, an impressvie collection of bug filled, rusted out cans of Hamm's, Pabst, Grain Belt, Schlitz, Budwieser, Miller, and at the time the favorite of can collectors (remember the Outdoor Wildlife series of cans? I have the complete set.) Schmidt.
Well, for Christmas 1982, my parents had the insight to send me and my brother who was a sophomore in college to visit my older brother in Washingtoin D.C. The 2 most memorable things from that trip for me was the Maryland-UCLA basketball game (I believe Len Bias was a freshman, and Maryland upset the #1 ranked Bruins in OT.) And the trip to the Brickskellar...
Anyway, I ended up keeping the menu from that trip and I recently stumbled across it on a trip to visti my Mom and Dad. I've scanned in all the pages and thought they would be of interest to the posters here, especially Chaz, since I know he speaks of the Brikskellar often and is in the area.
So, here are the jpegs of the menu, I hope they are of high enough resolution to be read easily (if not let me know and I can email you a higher rez image), and here are my own observations after scanning the menu some 25 years later...
- Menu – as 14 year old South Dakotan in a big city for the first time, I was jazzed about the South Dakota buffalo meat!
- Even then, it’s a pretty good beer bar menu. I’m sure at the time the prices didn’t seem great, but they sure do now.
- If I remember correctly (and I probably don’t) I think I had the Monte Cristo sandwich.
- Bought the Souvenir can set on page 4. Still have it in a box somewhere.
- At that time, I think can collecting was more popular than quality beer appreciation. As such, most of the beer menu was made up of canned beer. My older brothers still razz me about making them drink sh*t beer just so I could get the cans.
- The underlined beers were beer cans that I already had or got that night. Hey – I was 14 years old!
- Remember the old generic black & white beer cans that just said “BEER”? I have about 3 or 4 variations of those.
- Champale….mmmmmmm.
- Most beers seem to be from east coast or Minnesota/Wisconsin. At that time, I think Heilemann/Hamm’s/Schmidt were big brewers of other brands in the Midwest.
- Olympia, which originated in Washington state, is credited from being from WI, while Olympia Gold is credited to MN.
- Imports are bottles only.
- Altenmunster (Germany) listed at $29.50 for a “special” half gallon bottle. Wish I could have seen that.
- There are more imports that are still around than domestic beers.
- Spaten Dopplebock in 1982 was a helluva beer, I bet. I just had one on tap a week ago and was not impressed. Seems to have been watered down.
- “Trappist Ale” for $4.50 (!) from Belgium…did anybody know what Trappist Ales were back then?
- Ballentine IPA in the bottle….if I only knew then what I know now….
- Interesting (albeit basic) explanation of the Lindeman’s Lambics.
- In the Beer Tails section page 10, the drink called “A-B” sounds quite interesting!
- Could you get a “Prohibition Special” anywhere these days?
- Back cover.. "In fact, for you women libbers…” J
- Impressive that in 1982 and the massive offering of bland macrobrews to encourage experimentation, taste, flavors. Because, the mainstream offering at the time was nothing but bland, flavorless beer.
(My apololgies for pasting these images in mulitple posts. Is there a better way to do that? Also I hope the resolution is legible. I see that limit has not been increased in the last couple of years!!!)
Anyway, this is something I've been meaning to post here for a year or more and am finally getting around to it tonight.
In 1982, I was a 14 year old 8th grader growing up in the rural plains of eastern South Dakota. I had taken up beer can collecting the previous year and as such had gathered, much to the chagrin of my mother, an impressvie collection of bug filled, rusted out cans of Hamm's, Pabst, Grain Belt, Schlitz, Budwieser, Miller, and at the time the favorite of can collectors (remember the Outdoor Wildlife series of cans? I have the complete set.) Schmidt.
Well, for Christmas 1982, my parents had the insight to send me and my brother who was a sophomore in college to visit my older brother in Washingtoin D.C. The 2 most memorable things from that trip for me was the Maryland-UCLA basketball game (I believe Len Bias was a freshman, and Maryland upset the #1 ranked Bruins in OT.) And the trip to the Brickskellar...
Anyway, I ended up keeping the menu from that trip and I recently stumbled across it on a trip to visti my Mom and Dad. I've scanned in all the pages and thought they would be of interest to the posters here, especially Chaz, since I know he speaks of the Brikskellar often and is in the area.
So, here are the jpegs of the menu, I hope they are of high enough resolution to be read easily (if not let me know and I can email you a higher rez image), and here are my own observations after scanning the menu some 25 years later...
- Menu – as 14 year old South Dakotan in a big city for the first time, I was jazzed about the South Dakota buffalo meat!
- Even then, it’s a pretty good beer bar menu. I’m sure at the time the prices didn’t seem great, but they sure do now.
- If I remember correctly (and I probably don’t) I think I had the Monte Cristo sandwich.
- Bought the Souvenir can set on page 4. Still have it in a box somewhere.
- At that time, I think can collecting was more popular than quality beer appreciation. As such, most of the beer menu was made up of canned beer. My older brothers still razz me about making them drink sh*t beer just so I could get the cans.
- The underlined beers were beer cans that I already had or got that night. Hey – I was 14 years old!
- Remember the old generic black & white beer cans that just said “BEER”? I have about 3 or 4 variations of those.
- Champale….mmmmmmm.
- Most beers seem to be from east coast or Minnesota/Wisconsin. At that time, I think Heilemann/Hamm’s/Schmidt were big brewers of other brands in the Midwest.
- Olympia, which originated in Washington state, is credited from being from WI, while Olympia Gold is credited to MN.
- Imports are bottles only.
- Altenmunster (Germany) listed at $29.50 for a “special” half gallon bottle. Wish I could have seen that.
- There are more imports that are still around than domestic beers.
- Spaten Dopplebock in 1982 was a helluva beer, I bet. I just had one on tap a week ago and was not impressed. Seems to have been watered down.
- “Trappist Ale” for $4.50 (!) from Belgium…did anybody know what Trappist Ales were back then?
- Ballentine IPA in the bottle….if I only knew then what I know now….
- Interesting (albeit basic) explanation of the Lindeman’s Lambics.
- In the Beer Tails section page 10, the drink called “A-B” sounds quite interesting!
- Could you get a “Prohibition Special” anywhere these days?
- Back cover.. "In fact, for you women libbers…” J
- Impressive that in 1982 and the massive offering of bland macrobrews to encourage experimentation, taste, flavors. Because, the mainstream offering at the time was nothing but bland, flavorless beer.
(My apololgies for pasting these images in mulitple posts. Is there a better way to do that? Also I hope the resolution is legible. I see that limit has not been increased in the last couple of years!!!)