On the heels of the death of diet guru Robert Atkins, let us bow our heads a moment in respect of other bizarre things dietetic.
Though I was too young to appreciate them for what they were at the time, I very clearly remember that my grandmother had the complete set of Mid-70s Weight Watchers Cards. My brother and I used to paw through the collection when bored while visiting her house. I think that in my mind, this was her parallel of our collecting baseball or Star Wars cards. From the site:
These cards mystify me. None of them have calorie or nutrition information of any kind, and in some instances it’s hard to tell what’s dietetic about the recipes at all, except that they’re unspeakably grim. And yet also, completely insane. They appear to be from a much kookier era of Weight Watchers.
While you’re in the mode, don’t miss James’ Gallery of Regrettable Food. Oh, and these reviews of 20 cheap beers is, um, mouth watering.
Ok, the beer review was funny, but what’s up with including Yuengling? That two bit punk, I can understand including Rolling Rock (another PA beer); but Yuengling? Its a respectable lager. I like it better than Sam Adams, which in my opinion is over-rated.
Huhnf. Never tried it, myself, but now intend to. Other opinions welcome.
hmmmm….. mr zoom and i were discussing the quintessential american beer the other day. well, … what we think it should be (definitely not bud, coors, miller).
chris thinks Sierra Nevada Pale. I, on the other hand, offered up sam adams. I like sam adams better, though i don’t think either of them fall into the category of microbrew (according to chrios, who keeps up on htis, microbrews brew under 100K barrels per year. i guess sam adams, sierra, and red hook are, um, minibrews??).
but then i realized that it’s JUST like coffee. america’s coffee is now (by default) starbucks. doesn’t mean every crossroads in america has one (yet), but damn, when stuck with either a starbucks a mile up the road in in wabosh Kansas, or dennys anext door, i’ll walk the mile for the starbucks even though i lambaste their coffee whenever i can (not to mention their corporate sensibilities).
similarly, when in an airport bar, yes i’d rather they had hand pumped drake’s, but damn, when the alternatives are MGD and Bud Ice, that sierra or sam adams really hits the spot.
my point? i don’t know. short term memory loss does that to you. time for another beer. no, wait – make it a whiskey! just found a really tasty $15 bourbon at TJ. can’t remember the name, but bourbon lovers rejoice – it’s on par w/ knob creek for $5 less.
ok, the first three para’s were my ObBC…
Yuengling is a Pennsylvania regional brewer, so if you find it here in CA (not likely) it will have that not-so-fresh feeling. Get a sixer next time you’re in Philly!
My memory failed me too, micro is defined as 15,000 barrels annually or less (that’s about half a million gallons at 31 gal/barrel).
Sierra Nevada brews 300,000 barrels (about 10 million gallons) each year.. (as of 1997)
Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) brews 100 million barrels annually.
An old page from the net tells me that total production of all USA breweries in 1994 was around 200 million barrels.
I keep vague records, but my home brewery is capable of perhaps 5 barrels/year.
My #1 reason for thinking of Sierra as the classic American Pale Ale is that the yeast they use is variously called “American Ale” or “1056” or just “SNPA”, and is used in more beers than you can count. Also, they leave the yeast alive in the bottle, and Sam Adams doesn’t. And, Sierra’s a real brewery based up in Chico, where Sam Adams is a virtual company that handles their production by contract with regional breweries.
baald, I’ll have to go with chris on this one – I prefer Sierra Nevada over Sam Adams, but only by a slim margin – feels more bodied and authentic to me. But I’ve never tried them side by side.
You will of course need to lay that new whiskey upon me.