Our view: Every city has a cheap beer, even if it is brewed out of town

(The Baltimore Sun, 2/2/2011)

It is no surprise that beer drinkers have a taste for nostalgia, a point that will be reinforced Thursday when National Bohemian, which was once brewed in Baltimore, will once again be served on tap here.

National Brewing Company once ruled the city. John Steadman, the late longtime Baltimore sportswriter, described the Baltimore beer scene of the 1950s and ’60s this way: “If you walked into a bar and ordered a Budweiser, everybody knew you were from out of town.”

In those days, the man who owned National Brewing Company, Jerold Hoffberger, also owned the Baltimore Orioles. A fringe benefit of playing for the Orioles was that two cases of National beer were given to each player at beginning of each home stand. Some players, such as John “Boog” Powell, not only took full advantage of this fringe benefit but also relieved teetotaling teammates of their unwanted cases of National.

Continue reading “Natty Boh: A Taste For Nostalgia” at The Baltimore Sun.

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Nacho Mama’s taps one of the first kegs of Natty Boh in 15 years

By Erik Maza (The Baltimore Sun, 2/3/2011)

On Thursday afternoon the cramped Canton bar Nacho Mama’s was log-jammed.

Inside the bar, which is decorated like a shrine to National Bohemian, there were more people than Mr. Boh logos on the walls. The waitresses had a hard time delivering their regular orders.

It wasn’t a flash-mob. The crowd, evenly split between young and rickety old-timers, was there to toast the tapping of one the first keg of Natty Boh in 15 years.

Last week, Boh owner Pabst Brewing Company announced it would start selling the beer on draft, which since 1996 had only been available in in bottles or in its iconic gold-on-white cans.

To mark the return, it organized eight official keg tapping events throughout the region, starting Thursday here in Fells Point and ending in Columbia on February 16.

Judie Mitchell, a 54-year-old nurse who grew up in Highlandtown when a six-pack of Boh would set her parents back a little over two bucks, said she came to celebrate the beer as much as her childhood.

“Every time I see Mr. Boh it reminds of the times that were. It’s comforting to see this coming back,” she said.

Continue reading “Nacho Mama’s taps one of the first kegs of Natty Boh in 15 years” at The Baltimore Sun.

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Baltimore Sun Photo Gallery: Natty Boh back on draft

Baltimore Sun Photo Gallery: Natty Boh through the years