Sunday, March 13, 2016

1988 Cincinnati Bengals HuDey Beer


Just a quick post today as it's my wife's birthday weekend and we've got a ton of stuff to do.

Last weekend we were visiting my aunt up in Akron, about 3 hours from where I live. While we were there, for some reason she started rummaging through her liquor cabinet. Along with producing a bottle of Baileys that expired 20 years ago (yes, 20 years ago) there was this, a special "collectors edition" of HuDey beer from 1988 that has never been touched. I immediately snapped a few photos on my phone, loaded them on my laptop, and started researching. 

Judging from what I could find, this was released by the Hudepohl Brewing Company before the 1988 season. As I mentioned in a previous article, Hudepohl was one of the top breweries in Cincinnati, along with Schoenling. This wasn't the first edition of this special beer to be released either. here was a special edition released in 1982 to commemorate the first Bengals team that went to the Super Bowl. Recent eBay sales showed that this wasn't worth much, somewhere in the $6-$8 range but if it was a can from 1982, then perhaps it would have been a bit more.

In and of itself, the can is pretty cool. I like the design on the front, which is pretty reminiscent of the MGM title screen. You know the one, the roaring lion that shows up at the beginning of movies every now and then. The back has the schedule, both regular season and post-season along with a picture of Riverfront Stadium and a Bengals helmet.

Now the big question, did we pop the top on this? That would be a no. No one was brave enough to open it and take a swig of 28-year old beer. That would have been a disaster for sure. I suppose if we really want to try it that bad, we should just wait until the fall when local brewer Christian Moerlein will release it in six-pack bottles.



No comments:

Post a Comment