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“Back in the day,” people only had a few beer brands to choose from in the era when a few local breweries were becoming larger regional ones and many smaller ones were going away. U.S. beer was almost completely homogenized down to a style that we now call American lager or American Pilsner. Here’s a closer look at a few regional favorite beers of yesteryear from around the country, followed by clone recipes so you can make them at home.
This beer has had many different variants. This clone recipe is close to the current version, which is a cloudy, unfiltered wheat/barley beer with some funky ale flavors, 4.0% alcohol, lots of fruitiness from a warm fermented Hefeweizen yeast. Choc is bottle conditioned, and not filtered prior to bottling, so it can have large amounts of sedimentation at the bottom of the bottle. There is also a bit of lemony flavor to Choc, typical of a wheat beer.
Dixie is an American Pilsner style beer, with adjunct levels a bit lower than most of “Grandpa’s beers.” This extra maltiness gives a bit more robust flavor to it, and a slightly darker color. Its yeast flavor leans more toward the Pilsner style, but uses American hops so that their characteristic citrus flavor comes through.
Olympia has a very clean flavor, a little malt flavor, a little corn flavor and a little rice flavor, with just a bit of citrus from American hops. There is debate whether the “new” version brewed in California is as good as the original version brewed in Olympia, WA. Afterall, supposedly: “It’s the water.”
After Prohibition, U.S. beer was almost completely homogenized down to a style that we now call American lager or American Pilsner. But if you ask Grandpa about his favorite beer, the talk about hardship fades away and his eyes grow soft misty.
Hamm’s is crisp, refreshing and very light in color and body. It typically has very high carbonation levels that cover any sweetness that might be present. This beer is brewed with a double mash and is diluted upon packaging as all American-style Pilsners are.
Rolling Rock Extra Pale is the United States leader in a beer using an “off-flavor” to differentiate itself from all of the other American pale lagers. Rolling Rock has made a name for itself by brewing a pale lager with a significant amount of DMS (Dimethyl Sulfide) in its flavor profile.
Released each fall after the hop harvest, Nugget Nectar is an imperial amber ale featuring an explosion of pine, resin, and mango hop flavors and aromas.
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