PBR

Pabst Blue Ribbon is making a comeback. This article at CNN says that PBR is popular again with kids of all ages:

"It's really popular with not only the college students but also the working class guy and the Social Security crowd," said Lilias Barisich, whose family has operated the bar since 1954.

The arch-cool kids like it for its obvious anti-pop-culture appeal:

"There's a theory that there's a niche out here for a consumer that's anti-marketing," said Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights.

Betty's owner Lessner said, "People are really sick of the Budweiser-type marketing with naked girls and cars. Pabst is kinda hokey and nostalgic and people like it."

And of course, the price; you can get one for $1.50.

Yet they don't mention the best reason: Dennis Hopper, as Frank Booth in Blue Velvet recommended it heartily: "Heineken? Fuck that shit! Pabst Blue Ribbon!!!"

Still, I'll likely never buy a six pack of PBR for home. If cheap beer is what I need, then I'm always a sucker for extra-pale Rolling Rock, or that other cheap Pennsylvania beer: Yuengling; now that they've put some marketing behind their beer, I can find Yuengling way down south in NC. There's plenty of cheap or nearly-cheap beer with far more character than PBR.

Of course there's a time and a place for ultra-cheap beer with no character: college. In my college days, all we drank was Golden Anniversary, cause you could get it for $8 for 24, or $2.50 for a six. At that price, everything else was a luxury - even The Beast or PBR's cousin, Old Milwaukee. You'd save yourself the price of two packages of ramen noodles - perfect for tamping down that sweetish, churning, warm G.A., at 2AM.