I hadn't realized it, but Michael Shea's Irish Amber has been oficially discontinued by the High Falls Brewing Company.
Hey, Shea's wasn't a great beer, but it did have the virtue of being introduced to the market around the time of my 21st birthday. I was young and financially challenged, and a twelve of Shea's was a decent value for the money. Plus, it was tastier than Killians Red (of course, so is greyhound vomit).
Of course, when Shea's was introduced, craft brews were extremely rare on store shelves. As the craft brewing industry grew, poor Michael Shea's was eclipsed by high-quality reasonably priced pale ales from brewers like F.X. Matt (Saranac), Otter Creek and Magic Hat.In bars, Guinness has been flexing its marketing muscle, throwing up Harp and Smithwicks taps left and right. The poor Rochester brew got squeezed out of its own market.
Maybe this weekend, we'll have a good pseudo-Irish wake for this mediocre pseudo-Irish beer. I'm sure we can still scrounge up one of the few remaining cases.
Or maybe I'll have a Smithwick's instead.
-Mark
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2 comments:
My college friend, whose name was Mike Shea, will be disappointed.
Michael Shea's Irish Amber was an exceptional value, and it's a shame it's no longer brewed. Better than average brew and a very reasonable price; it was proof that American breweries could produce a good beer without charging the prices of Dogfish, Smuttynose, Sam Adams, etc. Now
that Anheuser Busch has bought Rolling Rock, it seems the old choice you have in the Northeast is Yuengling for a decent beer and a decent price. Support the little guys! The Budweiser/Miller monopoly of market share is beginning to look like the Exxon/Mobil and BP/Amoco mergers.
Eventually, that's bad for all of us who love variety in beer.
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