Red Beer?

[Aden67]

JimmyJ started a thread about beer and what people are putting in it. Growing up in the 1970's in Nebraska...I can always remember my father and his friends having red beers...tomato juice either added to a mug or a pitcher of beer (Bud, PBR, etc.) Not sure if this was just a midwest thing. When I moved to Philly some fifteen years ago, I ordered a red beer and they looked at me like I was crazy.

I am mainly a IPA/DIPA drinker now, but I still enjoy getting a six pack of PBR and having a red beer on a football Saturday or Sunday.

Curious if anyone else drinks red beers.

 

[Arik]

Only red beer I know of are Killian's Irish Red and anything that uses Carmel malted barley. Never heard of tomato juice in beer. I'm from Philly.

Where do you normally go?

 

[Marshwheeling]

In Idaho, if you order a pitcher, they ask you "red or white?" My dad told me that the original Bloody Mary was a beer drink. I know beer is sold this way in other parts of the west as well.

In Mexico, they use Clamato, with chili powder, soy, and lemon, either in a pitcher of beer, or in a big glass with salt on the rim, you add beer to taste. It's called michelada; Budweiser and maybe some other companies have marketed a canned version here. I have never tried one of those, but in Mexico, a couple of jarras of the real thing go down pretty well after a hot day of wrestling a motorbike through the canyons.

I'll mix up a pitcher here every once in a while. It is a pretty good way to add flavor to the bland big-name American beers which completely lack character. I might even be able to choke down a Coors that way. There is a growing number of Mexican restaurants in town where you can get beer served that way.

 

[sophie]

Funny thing you should mention tomato juice in beer. My Dad owned a beer joint from the mid 50's to about '68 and a lot of the customers always enjoyed tomato juice in their beer. It was popular with a lot of people. I never heard it called red beer, although it did make the beer kind of red.

 

[BearBio]

Talk about coincidence! (I had heard about it years ago but forgotten)--we were camping this weekend and a buddy was drinking red beer.

BTW: I assume we are talking about red beer going in==if it's red coming out, stop taking and contact your doctor!

 

[Aden67]

Only red beer I know of are Killian's Irish Red and anything that uses Carmel malted barley. Never heard of tomato juice in beer. I'm from Philly.

Where do you normally go?

It was a bar up past Gilbertsville...I was taking a drive up north on Route 73 and stopped at some bar/restaurant. I had a seat at the bar and ordered a "red beer." The female bartender just gave me a crazy look and asked what I meant. Told her I wanted a beer with some tomato juice. She said she had never heard of that and a few of the locals sitting at the bar chimed in they had never heard of putting tomato juice in beer. One guy who was sitting at a table and was overing the conversation told me he was born in Canada and they called tomato juice in a beer a "red-eye."

I don't drink at bars much...but I do stop in at Capone's in East Norriton and have a beer in the bar once in a while. I usually just get a six pack for home.

 

[pawngal]

Red beer is common in Iowa, don't care for myself tho.

 

[Arik]

I'm not far from that. Willow Grove area

 

[litenlarry]

Recently while in Cancun MX, they offered a can of Sol cerveza that had Clamato juice in it..About 3% alcohol ..Very good tasting with a squeeze of fresh lime..
As far as Red beer is concerned, it was always available at the local taverns that served Draft beer..Some would substitute tomato juice and opt for bloody mary mix..

 

[kthom]

Red beer is good stuff occasionally. If you want to zing it up a bit, use Snappy Tom, which is tomato juice mixed with some green chilie peppers. I particularly like that mixture. As mentioned, you don't need a great beer to make this mixture.

 

[steveno]

red bier is obscene just like green bier for St. Patrick's Day

 

[photocosmo]

A "Red-Eye", red beer, a "Bloody Beer" or the "Poor Man's Bloody Mary"; a cold tap beer with tomato juice in it or on the side (for the ultimate in personalization!) is indeed quite common in the Mid-West. Often said to have great recuperative properties, my opinion is that if you can actually drink it and keep it down you're probably good to go anyway.

 

[OFT II]

I love red beer. When we're fishing the first beer of the day is usually a red beer.

 

[LittleCooner]

Never heard the term "red beer", but have consumed many a beer with tomato juice, usually about 1/2 and 1/2. Works great with a plain run of the mill mass produced beer. Really prefer a micro brew that has a flavor instead of a bland, mild, light, no taste beer. That tomato juice add the flavor.

 

[Arik]

So how much tomato juice do you add and to what type of beer?

 

[walkin jack]

In '63 and '64 I was stationed at Camp Shcwab Okinawa with the 3rd Marine Division. For those of you familiar with "The Rock" it was IIRC 67 miles long and about 4 miles wide at it's narrowest and about 7 miles wide at it's widest. Camp Schwab was the northern most military installation on the island. There was a cozy little village about 1/2 mile down the road called Henoko. Bars. Pawn shops. About what you'd expect.

Anyway the base was small and on a pretty serious grade. Going down hill rather steeply from the gate to the beach at the bottom of the hill. We had 2 enlisted clubs, (the Hilltop club near the gate, and the Surfside club at the bottom of the hill) an officers club and an NCO club.

Not sure what the other clubs had but the two enlisted clubs routinely served only 3 American beers. Shlitz, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Falstaff (affectionately referred to as "fallflat". They served just about all of the Japanese beers.

At one point our supply of American beers was SNAFUed and they got in a huge shipment of a tasty (NOT) little driveway cleaner called San Miguel. Brewed in the Philippines. NAAAASSSSSTYYYYYY! Back a dog off a gut wagon.

It wasn't my idea but some one in my outfit came up with the idea of putting tomato juice in the San Miguel to cut the awful taste. It still wasn't great but it was a whole bunch better and got us through the dry spell until we could get back to normal on our American beer supply.

I would occasionally have that after I got back to the world. And eventually I graduated to using Bloody Mary mix instead of plain old tomato juice. V-8 Hot n Spicy ain't too bad neither. But my favorite is Mr. and Mrs. T's Bloody Mary mix. I keep a bottle on hand for when all I can get is Budwiser.

 

[litenlarry]

Another name for red beer if Budweiser is on tap is a "Bloody Bud"....

 

[TucsonMTB]

While I attended the USD in Vermillion, South Dakota, we were ranked #1 in the Playboy poll of per capita beer consumption at American colleges.

Some of the local bars served "red beer". When you added in bar peanuts, you almost didn't need real food. For us hungry kids, that was very cool.

I should note that only 3.2% alcohol content, American beer was served and it needed all the help it could get.

All the way to Hecks!

 

[Aden67]

So how much tomato juice do you add and to what type of beer?

In my humble opinion, any massed produced American beer will do. I've had red beers with Bud, Coors, PBR, Hams, Schiltz, Old Mill, Bush, etc. If I am in the mood for a red beer, I just buy what is on sale/cheapest. Most recently, buddy and I split a case of Hams. Made a fine red beer.

How much tomato juice is a matter of preference. I will put 17 ounce heavy mugs in the freezer to get them good and frosty. I fill a mug about 1/4 full with tomato juice and then pour the beer in. As some have noted, a bloody mary mix can be used as well. My go to tomato juice is either Sacramento in a can or Campbells.

Red beers were always the norm when we finished up early either duck or pheasant hunting. If we finished up by noon, we would head in to the closet small town and hit the local bar(s). In Nebraska growing up...a small town of 400-1000 people would have at least two or more bars/taverns. Red beers and a good homemade hamburger where the best after a good hunt. God, I miss those days...

 

[Arik]

Gonna have to give it a try