Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Hamm's Lager

For some bizarre reason Hamm's is not showcased on the Pabst website whatsoever. That, combined with fairly limited distribution, is not a good indication of their faith in this beer. I hope that they do not discontinue Hamm's as it is easily one of my favorite cheapies. Because of their lack of website support, I had to steal this from Ratebeer.com:

'Another classic beer produced by Pabst Brewing Company. From the land of sky blue waters, Hamms is truly the beer refreshing. Hamms has a legacy of quality and tastyness that is unrivaled by any beer known to man. Back in the olden days, Hamms was traded by the Spanish for spices and fine silks from the orient, which were then transported across the seas and traded for more Hamms'

Hamm's has a fairly poor reputation with most beer drinkers, a reputation I think is somewhat undeserved. Yes it is a cheap mass produced lager that doesn't have as much flavor going for it that a micro brew would but we knew that coming in. The thing about Hamm's is that it somehow retained a small sparkle of its character when the recipe was 'tweaked' all those years ago. I think Hamm's blows away its competition in the budget section of your local grocer. When a beer is $3.99 a sixer 'decent to good' is fairly strong praise since most everything else at that price gets 'bad to god awful'.

When I am not in a very discerning mood I fill my fridge up with this watery, slightly hoppy, overly malty mess of a beer. Then I proceed to chug them down before they get to room temperature (warm Hamm's is not a good scene). That's a good day in the life of Matt. I don't know whats up with this being traded for spices or slaves or whatever they said in their advert, I call bullshit on anything like that ever happening.

The dancing bear commercials need to come back plz.

APPARENTLY HAMM'S IS NOT A PABST PRODUCT AND I AM JUST A MORON -Matt (7/19/08)

Musical pairing: Lynyrd Skynyrd- Second Helping (Because it's trashy yet excellent)

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

This is by far my favorite cheap beer. If you are looking to drink for a while this is the beer to do it with.

Matt said...

Man, Hamm's is pretty damn good when you are just kickign back and watching a baseball game.

Erik Huntoon said...

Just an FYI that Hamm's is actually not a Pabst Product. I thought it was for a long time as it seems Pabst owns the market on the classic retro beers. But this one is actually brewed by Miller.. or MillerCoors now I guess. Anyway, here is what they have to say from the millercoors.com site:

"Hamm's, first brewed in 1865, is America's classic premium beer, "Born in the Land of Sky Blue Waters." Miller acquired the brand in 1999. Hamm's is brewed in true family tradition using the purest water and the choicest barley malt, grain and hops. Hamm's has a low to moderate body and bitterness and a low to moderate hoppy aroma. Hamm's is available in select states."

And I will also call bullshit that the Spanish were ever trading Hamm's for 'spices and fine silk'.. although that was good for a laugh.

Matt said...

Doesn't SABMiller own Pabst though? The cheap beer scene is rather confusing it seems ha ha.

Erik Huntoon said...

Pabst is my favorite macro brewer, which is really the only reason I understand their situation.. but here's the dealio. Pabst Brewing does not own a physical brewery at all anymore. Instead they contract brew mainly through Miller breweries. So technically the bulk of Pabst beers are being brewed at the various Miller breweries, but Miller in no ways owns Pabst. It's the one real gripe I have with Pabst since it seems like you should have to have a brewery to really be one. Interesting side note, Sam Adam's started the same way and it wasn't until recent years that they actually bought a brewery of their own.

Matt said...

It doesn't get much more confusing than that.

on-the-rocks said...

Another trip down memory lane, i.e., another beer I haven't seen in years (I don't get out of Atlanta that much).

Actually, National Bohemian, when brewed in Baltimore, was one of my favorite cheap beers.

I miss Blatz, too.