Olde English - MN Reprezent!

When people think of Olde English 800 Malt Liquor they immediately associate it with the 90’s and rappers Snoop Dogg, Dr Dre & Eazy -E.
And when most beer snobs hear the name they would associate it with a beer they think is terrible and one they would never buy haha.

Most people wouldn’t give the beer any extra thought, but since my goal here is to do research on beers that are past their prime and beers that nobody likes anymore, I’m going to let you know some of the facts about Olde English Malt Liquor!

The first part of the story is what most people don’t even know about and that it actually started in Duluth Minnesota! Yes it’s true, the beer that is popular in 40 ounce bottles and is featured in 90% of gangsta related movies from the 1990’s is a Minnesota classic!

It was started by the People’s Brewing Company of Duluth which was located at 4230 West Second Street back in 1948, and was originally named Ruff’s Stout. Now you may be thinking “I thought Olde English was a Malt Liquor?” And with that you are correct. Back then they were actually referring to the strength of the beer and not the dark style we all know and love today.

Ok so before we go any further, what exactly is a malt liquor anyways? Well it’s a strong lager or ale in which sugar, corn or other adjuncts are added to the malted barley to boost the total amount of fermentable sugars in the wort which normally becomes a beer that is 5% ABV or higher.

Olde English Ruff’s Stout soon became known as Olde English 600 and was ironically more popular in Oregon than it was in Minnesota. Coincidentally, the brand was soon acquired by Bohemian Breweries in Spokane, Washington because of it’s popularity in that region. The Blitz- Weinhard Brewery then purchased the brand where it was re-branded into Olde English 800, I’m ASSuming it was to signify the ABV but I could be wrong.

Currently there are various ABV’s for Olde E which is just kinda weird if you ask me but the High Gravity version is 8% where as the East Coast and Midwest version is 5.9% and the Texas version is only 4.2%…I guess not everything is big in Texas…ZING !

The Blitz-Weinhard company was eventually sold to Pabst and then after that, the beer ended up in its current residency which is part of Miller’s catalog or MolsonCoors/Miller or whatever the hell it’s called this week, it’s hard to keep up.

So in the late 80’s, a coalition of 22 public interest groups involved in minority issues criticized the marketing of Olde English for what they characterized as an "emphasis on black and Hispanic consumers” or what was also classified as the "urban contemporary market".

This of course is where we get to talk about Snoop and the crew. So let’s start out by talking about the price. Most malt liquor beers are pretty reasonably priced and not reaching the astronomical craft beer prices we see today and or will see in the future…gulp.
The rap scene of the 90’s embraced this with full honors and everyone was in on the malt liquor game. Eazy-E wrote a song called “8 Ball” which was referring to the Old English brand and he even took time to also pour some of that mutha fuckin shit out on the cover of his “It's On (Dr. Dre) 187umKilla” album, dayumm. ( I dont blame him though).

Also I remember Olde English being mentioned in the Janet Jackson/Tupac/Regina King movie “Poetic Justice”. They go into some random liquor store and either Janet or Regina’s character asks for “Old E” and the other one replies” Girl you know they dont have Old E outside of the hood.”

Soon almost all brands of malt liquor were making their way into the rap scene in videos and movies with honorable mentions, St Ides, Colt 45, Mickey’s and even Schlitz Malt Liquor had it’s day in the sun.

I decided if I was to write an article about this beer, I had to go out and get some for myself. I ended up getting a 42 oz ! Yes you read that right, they dont f%$k around just 40 ounces anymore. It was in a plastic bottle which was slightly disappointing because I wanted to get an old school glass 40, know what Im sayin?

I checked my untappd and it looks like I bought a 22oz glass bottle before so I’ll post that one up for show…again 22oz!

So funny…really I think dumb stuff like this is entertaining.

But anyways the beer itself was surprisingly clean. It seemed like the Co2 levels were bumpin because it just keep flowing. It had the expected corn flavor with a caramel type hop bite? In all reality I wasn’t expecting to be blown away by this stuff but it was oddly almost acceptable. Also note it has a cold blue indicator thing on the label aka Coors, I don’t think it ever changed color after sitting in room temperature.

Its funny because the beer has such a low rating everywhere I’m surprised its even still being made.

Really though, do you ever wonder who actually drinks beers that everyone bags on with super low scores? It’s weird cuz they keep pumping them out year after year. Speaking of which I think Schmidt Beer another Minnesota classic (not to be confused with Schmidt’s of Philadelphia…but I think were merged into one beer actually??) finally got set out to pasture a month or two ago….pasture not pasteurize....ok dumb joke.

So there you have it, Olde English Malt Liquor, a nationally famous beer brand that started out in little ol Duluth Minnesota in the 1940’s ….40’s? OHH …. a beer that changed owner hands so many times than you can shake a stick at, has been featured in Hollywood movies and is still available at any store you can imagine. Crazy huh?

Pictures - MNHS, Breweriana.com, Who’s House-Snoop’s House and My Kitchen