Friday’s ad is for Heineken’s Extra Stout, from maybe the early 1960s. I did come across a label for Heineken Extra Stout from 1961, but little else about the beer. Given Heineken’s image today, it certainly seems odd that they would have brewed a dark beer, but why not.
HI there,
they also did an old brown ( Oud Bruin ?) I tasted it about 20 years ago, as far as I can recall it was a low ABV sweet malty beer.
Back in the early 80’s, I came across Heineken Dark in a few bars/restaurants – it was slightly sweet low ABV. Haven’t seen it in years – do they still make it?
Heineken Dark (sometimes labeled “Special Dark” and, in kegs there was also a “Dutch Dark”) has been available in the US for several decades (at least from the 1970’s on) and this page from a grocery store shows it is still available, in Heineken’s newer long neck bottles – brown glass, in this case.
http://grocery.harristeeter.com/pd/Heineken/Special-Dark-Lager/72-fl-oz/072890000125/
It probably comes and goes or just not available in some regions. Most sources put it’s abv at 5.1-5.2%.
In 1994, according to Beer Blast (Van Munching), they launched Heineken Tarwebok (6.5% abv, a wheat bock) as an early entry into the “macro-craft” segment and was still being exported to the US into this decade.
I remember the Dark well, and remember we sold it at BevMo when I was there 15 years ago, and I vaguely recall the Tarwebok, but maybe I’m remembering from the book “Beer Blast,” too, which I read a number of years ago. But Stout, that was new to me. As always, thanks for the info.