Remember 'Nickel Beer Night'?

I don't know what they do now but back in the day we had a big, really loud rock club , The Flying Dutchman, that we frequented. (They made GREAT whiskey sours from scratch) but occasionally they would have 'Nickel Beer Night'. The nickel beer however, was NOT a deal. I don't know where they got the stuff but it tasted terrible and I felt bad anytime I drank it. I think it must have been Schaefer's gone bad. Schaefer's right out of the cooler was awful enough.

I see Schaefer's has been brewing in NY since 1842 and are still pumping. What I would like to know is who drinks the stuff regularly. I only drank it when I could only afford a $1.69 six pack of beer.

Interesting thing about the Flying Dutchman was that it was a giant warehouse that became a 'psychadelic' club called 'Da Scene' in the 60s. In the 70's it evolved into the Dutchman. They had a multi-colored lighted plexiglass dance floor that flashed all kinds of patterns. Sometimes they would do the oil/water projections onto the walls. Very 'psychadelic'. Anybody that was around the Charleston area in those days would surely remember it.

o/' When I Was Young o/' - Eric Burden

I never had any nickel beer............I did spend a few days once on Wake Island..........and they were apologizing because they had to raise the price of a beer to 10 cents...........but if you took up a collection from whoever was in the bar at closing time.............they would keep the bar open until you had "enough"...........

I remember quarter beers in LaCrosse, WI around 1985. They were probably 8 ounce or so smaller beer glasses but were still only a quarter.

Back in the 70s-80s I worked in a steel mill, where they strategically place bars within 75 yards of the gates. It was like a gift from God when Old Milwaukee came to the area. They sold it for $.50/can, 16 oz. That definitely helped a kid recently out of high school to the road of alcoholism...until the mills shut down...thankfully.

I remember Flying Bridge Lounge in Fort Pierce, FL.
$3 cover and all you can drink for free!
Turkey and Coke and keep them coming!!!!!

Wow, brings back lots of memories of working in mid West in late 70s- 80s and again in early 90s. Lots of good drinking places in MI W of Detroit, those were the days.
Buddy and I ate in Hooters in Daytona today, sign on wall read," Buy 1 beer for the price of 2 and second one is free"...... Have a metal sign I put in display case at shows that says"Free beer Tomorrow".....

We had bars down on the OSU campus that sold buckets of beer, can't recall what they cost but it was cheap enough the college students flocked there.

I remember we drank Cooks beer in the returnable bottles. Came in a waxed flip top case for about 5 or 6 bucks if you had the return bottles. We would go to the local inns where they had ice machines in the hallways and just dump ice in the wax cases and throw em in the trunk. You always new if your buddies had beer because there was water dripping from the trunk area.

Circa 1983 the Sign of the Whale bar on M Street in DC offered ALL YOU CAN DRINK for ladies on Wednesday nights. $10.00. That was EVERYTHING except bottled wine.

Oh, my; lotsa folks went to work late on Thursday…or skipped work altogether. (Did the math. That’s $33.65 in 2026 dollars. Was a helluva deal and would be even now.)

All said, gentlemen found many reasons to be in at “The Whale” on Wednesday.

Those were the days.

Be safe.

I can't even remember the name of the club now, but they had free beer nights that was much the same. Skunk expiring beer that you had to drink a lot of to numb the taste buds. Had another country bar ( just remembered, called In Cahoots) that I would go to sometimes that had any coin beer night, which was whatever you wanted to order (excluding imports). Now that was a deal and I always tipped a buck a beer to the waitress so I wouldn't get too hammered and would get good service.

For a minute there I thought everyone was talking about the game back in 1974 that the Cleveland Indians had to forfeit because of all the drunken fans running wild. But that was 10 cent beer night. I remember listening to that game.

When I was 14 I started to stop by a private Polish club for a couple beers. I was big enough that no one ever questioned my age. I soon learned it was best to stop by before they got busy and buy a round for whom ever was at the bar. For two or three bucks you could sit at the bar till you were hammered since nearly everyone that arrived afterwards did the same thing.

The Big D said:

Circa 1983 the Sign of the Whale bar on M Street in DC offered ALL YOU CAN DRINK for ladies on Wednesday nights. $10.00. That was EVERYTHING except bottled wine.

Oh, my; lotsa folks went to work late on Thursday…or skipped work altogether. (Did the math. That’s $33.65 in 2026 dollars. Was a helluva deal and would be even now.)

All said, gentlemen found many reasons to be in at “The Whale” on Wednesday.

Those were the days.

Be safe.

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That is a good business model. A bar full of women drinking free will full of paying males.

ericherte said:

I remember Flying Bridge Lounge in Fort Pierce, FL.
$3 cover and all you can drink for free!
Turkey and Coke and keep them coming!!!!!

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Musta been the 60's or VERY early 70s.

jakeintexas said:

I remember quarter beers in LaCrosse, WI around 1985. They were probably 8 ounce or so smaller beer glasses but were still only a quarter.

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I know you (and I the nickel stuff) drank them, but did they make your stomach and head hurt???

Oh, a note about the plexiglass floor. It was really iconic. Some friend bought the place and turned it into an electrical fabrication shop. He offered me a piece of the floor and I almost took him up on it. Kinda sorry I didn't but I didn't need a slab of 1" plexiglass lying around. I had too much 'stuff' as it was.

Back when The Gunfighter was Post Commander @ Ft. Bragg we had “Combat Drinking” night, the last Friday before payday, beers were a nickel and mixed drinks were a dime. We worked hard & played hard…

When I got there it was 10 cents, for a glass of Oly, Blitz, Hamms. WOW!

I remember a bar called Delaney's, right outside the Badger Munitions Plant in WI. Not sure if they were 5¢ or not but pretty cheap. Never checked our ID's since we were still in high school. The '60s were a long time ago.

No but I remember $1 pitchers back in college. Natural Light as I recall…

marinevet said:

I never had any nickel beer............I did spend a few days once on Wake Island..........and they were apologizing because they had to raise the price of a beer to 10 cents...........but if you took up a collection from whoever was in the bar at closing time.............they would keep the bar open until you had "enough"...........

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The last time I was on Wake Island all they had was either Olympia or Rainer beer. Don't remember which it was but the beer drinkers were not happy with it. Glad I just drank Crown Royal (brought my own).

I remember two popular bars within walking distance of MSU in the 1970's; Dooley's and Alle-Ey.

One night a week Dooley's had $1 pitchers. On another night, Alle-Ey had 10 cent draft beer and 25 cent hot dogs. I want to say it was Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The drinking age in MI was 18 at the time. I suspect we were responsible for the State changing it back to 21!

When I was way too young to drink 7th grade I Believe it was ... we would get Robin Hood Beer for about $5.97 a case of 24 WARM bottles and put them in the creek that was near the High School to cool them down and head to the Varsity Football games after we had our fill.

Cities

Brings back lots more memories, miss Old Style beer....

llowry61 said:

We had bars down on the OSU campus that sold buckets of beer, can't recall what they cost but it was cheap enough the college students flocked there.

I remember we drank Cooks beer in the returnable bottles. Came in a waxed flip top case for about 5 or 6 bucks if you had the return bottles. We would go to the local inns where they had ice machines in the hallways and just dump ice in the wax cases and throw em in the trunk. You always new if your buddies had beer because there was water dripping from the trunk area.

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I (barely) remember frequenting the bars on OSU campus and as I recall, I kept fed when they came out with wing-dings which were "3rds" quality chicken wings, tiny and only a nickle apiece. The things were hot, very very hot and mixed with the $2.00 buckets of Rolling Rock beer presented unpleasantly the following morning with volcanic diarhea !... Lord, I can STILL smell the awfully restrooms at the Agora.

When Church Street Station was still the place to go in downtown Orlando they had "nickel beer night" on Tuesdays IIRC. A cold mug and it was basically all you could drink because nobody was counting. "Downtown Disney" killed it when they opened in the early 1980's. Recently they are talking about "revitalizing" the area, won't be the same. Joe

Ah nickel beer.
1975 Greenville NC.
One of my buddies and his two friends are opening a bar right in the center of downtown.
Their big problem was seating capacity but the building had 12+ foot ceilings.
I recommended they build seating two floors high around the perimeter of the room and it was approved by the city.
The father of one of the 3 owners was a professor who had worked for the university for 39 years for $1 a year. He had married a coal mine owner's daughter who was rich enough to buy 10 new Cadillacs right before they stopped making them in WW2. He had a house on a golf course, very rare at that time. This was before the AIDS epidemic.
I was making practically no money so we started going to Clayton where they had a salvage auction and buying cars to rebuild to bring money into my shop. Bought a new 76 Ford F 350 Cab and chassis and put a drive on grease ramp on the back and made a car hauler out of it.
I was down there slamming 5 cent beers and left early for home driving down a residential street in a BMW I had rebuilt that I bought for $300. I see a car running up behind me FAST, so fast I thought the idiot was going to wreck my car so I sped up and it was a State trooper and he arrested me for DUI. I insisted on a blood test because at that time I was still sober easily.
Went to court. I drew a picture of his car behind me, so close that all I could see was his windshield in my rear view mirror. The road was full of parked cars bumper to bumper and it was 35 feet wide so the real danger was if two doors opened at the same time and two cars were passing a wreck was impossible to avoid.
The trooper told the judge that I was driving down the wrong side of the road by fifty feet.
My lawyer who used to be the judge told the court that if that was true, I was driving down somebodies front yard and that was outside the troopers jurisdiction!!!!! the whole courtroom busted out in laughter!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I was on the stand I showed the judge my picture, told him the truth, and I also told him that I had just finished the beer and Headed home before most of it had a chance to get in my bloodstream. I also told him at that level of intoxication I could have passed a driving test!!!!!!!!!!

He reduced the charge to wreckless and sarcastically commented to the trooper that he considered the 85 DWI arrests he had made in the last week was "prolific".

After that I started walking to my friends bar and walking home. One night a couple of girls were driving home drunk in a Ford Maverick and they ran off the road and hit a tree just a few feet from me. I ran to a house and got them to call an ambulance for the two girls.

rwsmith said:

I don't know what they do now but back in the day we had a big, really loud rock club , The Flying Dutchman, that we frequented. (They made GREAT whiskey sours from scratch) but occasionally they would have 'Nickel Beer Night'. The nickel beer however, was NOT a deal. I don't know where they got the stuff but it tasted terrible and I felt bad anytime I drank it. I think it must have been Schaefer's gone bad. Schaefer's right out of the cooler was awful enough.

I see Schaefer's has been brewing in NY since 1842 and are still pumping. What I would like to know is who drinks the stuff regularly. I only drank it when I could only afford a $1.69 six pack of beer.

Interesting thing about the Flying Dutchman was that it was a giant warehouse that became a 'psychadelic' club called 'Da Scene' in the 60s. In the 70's it evolved into the Dutchman. They had a multi-colored lighted plexiglass dance floor that flashed all kinds of patterns. Sometimes they would do the oil/water projections onto the walls. Very 'psychadelic'. Anybody that was around the Charleston area in those days would surely remember it.

o/' When I Was Young o/' - Eric Burden

Click to expand...

Well many years back I drank a lot of Schaefers product! I worked for a mechanical contractor that did a lot of work there. There was downtown Albany NY and they had a large brewery! I found the beer to be OK!

We were allowed to drink on the job at no cost as long as we were not intoxicated. You got caught over your limit and you were gone, never to return. That philosophy working well!

Working in the plant you were allowed to buy beer to take home at a much better price that at a gin mill or grocery store! I certainly did my share of drinking.

Then the company made some serious decisions and the brewery was closed and then torn down. Now I rarely drink beer at all!

I remember 15¢ "tappers", probably 7-8 oz. glasses, and $1 pitchers. There was a college bar in a town not far from here that regularly did 35¢ shot-and-a-beer.

Mid-1960s we had 3.2 beer joints, age 18 minimum (or a good phony ID). Most places served draft beer for about 10 cents per, with happy hour pricing at 5 cents. A 2-quart pitcher was usually about 50 cents. Of course, I was working for 50-75 cents per hour, paying $30 per month for rent, so a few beers were a luxury.

A few places offered "keg nights", pay $2 or $3 at the door, everybody drinks until the keg is empty. So about a half-day's pay for a lot of us.

1969-1971 in Vietnam. Canned beer, when available, was $2.40 per case (a dime per can). We had ration cards allowing maximum 4 cases per month. The main problem was getting cold beer. Refrigeration was scarce, non-existent on outlying bases. Ice was a forgotten dream of another world. My salary as a Sergeant E-5 was $248.75 per month, $60 combat pay, $30 overseas pay, and no income tax in the combat zone, so it was still an expense that required my attention to afford.

For several months I had a connection at a USMC airfield maintenance facility where aircraft were serviced. Take 6 or 7 cases of beer, load it in a F4 fighter-bomber going up for a check ride, about a half-hour at 30,000 feet or so, then the Marines kept half and we kept half. So, $2.40 per case plus operating costs of the aircraft (probably $5,000 or so), with many thanks to Mr. Taxpayer!

Downtown ATL, close to the “North Avenue Trade School” was a bar called Grumpys. They would have a special called “Grumpy’s bladder bust.” Beer was a quarter, as I recall, until someone went to the bathroom.

Suffice to say, given all of us young, broke, college guys, the place was not real sanitary after one of these….