Monday’s ad is for Lowenbrau, which is 1976 was billed as “The world’s most exclusive and expensive beer.” Given the recent debate over the packages and prices of beer, it’s pretty funny to see so pedestrian a beer as this in a Champagne ice bucket with gold foil covering the neck and crown. If that was truly the most expensive beer in 1976, then it really says something about how awful the beer scene must have been at that time. And for that matter, is it really wise to declare that you’re the “most expensive” anything?
Inbev pre-AB did that with Stella, “Perfection has its price”. Knowing Stella is called Wife Beater Beer in England and also knowing it wasn’t particularly expensive in Belgium,, I enjoyed the absurdity when seeing the billboard here in the USA where Inbev had always sold it as a super premium product.
I was just beginning to enjoy beer at this time. Thought this was THE beer! The only thing better was the imported version. Also, dude who was importer for brand back then owned a 100+ foot yacht called the Prost . Good times but much better beer times now!
Correct me if I’m wrong, but in 1976 Miller had already owned the rights to make Lowenbrau in the US (& it sucked compared to the German version) you couldn’t get the German version unless you had access to the gray market.
I worked in a grocery store in MD (nearby DC suburb)1971-78 that sold beer; we carried Lowenbrau, & I’m reasonably sure that we were getting the US version as early as late ’75 – when we 1st got it, I tried it & was severely disappointed, having had both the bottled & draft versions of the German stuff.
That ad was pretentious as hell & probably was a lie then about being the most expensive … but then there were only a thimble’s full of beer geeks compared to today’s warehouses full of them.
Miller did import Loewnbray beer from West Germany, beginning in 1974. Two years later they began to quietly brew an American version of Loewenbrau under license in Ft Woth, TX. This beer contained corn grits and two chemical additives and stayed super-premium priced.
AB caught on and began a mission to embarass Miller’s “Old World” beer. Within a year, the beer was DOA in the US market.
AB’s reasoning for all of this was not pure in intent; Miller was killing AB with their Miller Lite brand. AB couldn’t get off the dime until spring of ’82 with the release of Bud Light, profiling it against Miller Lite, so attacking Miller seemed logical to August Busch III until he relented and authorized Bud Light.
Ah, spell-check might have been a good idea.