My brother and I used to say that drownin' in beer was like heaven, eh?

February 10, 2013 4:48 PM

"The stubby (or steinie) in many ways embodied all that was solid and stoic in the Canadian character. Think of the two adjectives most appropriately applied to it - "tough" and "squat" - and what it also brings to mind are the great goalies of that era, those stalwart unbreakable warriors who worked between the pipes." - Ian Coutts Brew North.

Of course the stubby will also be familiar to residents of Western New York, and those who partake of Red Stripe, Session, and Olympia as well.

Previously

posted by 1f2frfbf (25 comments total)

Is that where we get the Australian term 'stubby holder' for a foam beer cozy?
posted by Charlemagne In Sweatpants at 4:50 PM on February 10, 2013

Is that where we get the Australian term 'stubby holder' for a foam beer cozy?

You're not going to trick me into googling that.
posted by mhoye at 5:02 PM on February 10, 2013 [15 favorites]

Perhaps it's just because Sessions are what I cut my drinking teeth on, but there is just something so satisfying about drinking a stubby in the middle of summer.

I was so excited when Full Sail changed the bottles to use regular crown-top that I saved a couple cases worth of them. Now every year I brew a Kolsch and bottle it up in the early spring to drink all summer long.

Yay stubbies!
posted by furnace.heart at 5:03 PM on February 10, 2013

They are also ideal for stuffing a mouse into, because, then you could, like, get a whole case of beer, eh.
posted by Pogo_Fuzzybutt at 5:17 PM on February 10, 2013 [5 favorites]

Hmmm Utica Club! (though sadly no longer sold in stubby form)
posted by bottlebrushtree at 5:18 PM on February 10, 2013

Is that where we get the Australian term 'stubby holder' for a foam beer cozy?

I'd say so, the smaller (250ml?) stubbies I've always heard refered to as throwdowns. I'm not sure if this is because they're easy to throw down your throat in one go or because that's what you do with the empty bottle afterwards. Also the sweatsuit type are still known as stubby holders.
posted by onya at 5:41 PM on February 10, 2013

I'm severely disappointed by the lack of McKenzie brothers in this thread after the titular reference, eh? Take off, you hoser.
posted by ElDiabloConQueso at 5:42 PM on February 10, 2013

You might want to look closer, ElDiablo.
posted by 1f2frfbf at 5:48 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Not to derail, but what is the technical name for the foam sleeve one places a can of beer in to keep it cold? I never used them until I came to Japan (where, despite the blazing summer heat that renders a can of beer undrinkable in mere minutes, they are nowhere to be found). Now, I make sure to bring back three or four whenever I go home. My Australian friend calls them stubby holders. My Texan friend calls them coozies. I have absolutely no idea what they were, or are, called in the Midwest (where all things have their one, best, true names applied). Any ideas?
posted by Ghidorah at 6:05 PM on February 10, 2013

Ghidorah, check out this thread.
posted by Fuzzy Monster at 6:18 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

Old Vienna from a stubby. My fondest high school memory.
posted by davebush at 6:27 PM on February 10, 2013

No Labatt Crystal? The picnic tables where the grown-ups of my youth were sitting were covered in them.
posted by The Card Cheat at 6:30 PM on February 10, 2013 [1 favorite]

I buy most of my beer by the Growler these days. There is nothing better than fresh draught beer from a local micro-brew.

But when I do buy bottles it's usually Red Stripe, merely for the stubby. It amazes me that there are no national Canadian breweries using stubby bottles right now. There are lots of custom bottles around, but no stubbies. Molson Canadian pretty much tastes like swill, but I would buy cases of the stuff if they offered it in the stubby again.
posted by i_have_a_computer at 6:42 PM on February 10, 2013

Ghidorah - beer cozies is the term I'm familiar with. Pronounced like a tea cozy. Wikipedia seems to like it with a k.

I've never found a use for one myself, but then, you would not believe how many beers I saw stuck into snow banks walking around my neighborhood today.

(On the other hand, it's Somerville, you'd totally believe it.)
posted by maryr at 6:45 PM on February 10, 2013

Hmmm Utica Club! (though sadly no longer sold in stubby form)

I bet there's a Utica Club tag on the "Ridiculous Food Society of Upstate New York" blog. Oh, yeah, there it is.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 6:56 PM on February 10, 2013

You are free to find yourself another hack, Upstate New York oriented, micro-regional, food weblog to read anytime you want. Thank you very much.

Goddramn right up Upstate. This is definitely my new favorite blog.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 7:01 PM on February 10, 2013

That's not a stubby - this is a stubby.
posted by awfurby at 7:28 PM on February 10, 2013

In any event, anyone else like Stewart's Vichy water? I do. Randomly I will mention Stewart's Vichy and people will look at me like I have two heads.

Oh my god, yes, this stuff is wonderful but everyone thinks I am crazy for drinking it. Here in the midwest you occasionally see some of the Stewart's sodas sold as an upmarket Boylan's-type brand in fancy grocery stores and coffee shops, in classy glass bottles—but, never, alas, the Vichy, which I have only ever seen in the actual Stewart's stores in upstate New York. I wonder if they would take pity on me and ship me some.
posted by enn at 7:33 PM on February 10, 2013

That blog is great and bizarre and so true-to-life and it makes me very happy that my father has not discovered blogging and sticks to haikus on Facebook.
posted by maryr at 7:42 PM on February 10, 2013

In Canada, all the major brewers used the same bottles (with paper labels) so that return/ re-use was very streamlined. I can remember hearing that fact cited as a justification for the distribution monopoly called The Brewer's Retail Outlet (rebranded in the 90s as "The Beer Store"). Now that every brand comes in it's own bottle, I can't think of a single justification for the big brewer's stanglehold.
posted by bonobothegreat at 8:24 PM on February 10, 2013

Nothing particularly Canadian about stubbies. I remember them all over Texas back in the 60's and 70's. They offered glass packaging that was almost as compact, durable, low-weight and stackable as cans. But not quite...
posted by jim in austin at 8:29 PM on February 10, 2013

Here in the midwest you occasionally see some of the Stewart's sodas sold as an upmarket Boylan's-type brand in fancy grocery stores and coffee shops, in classy glass bottles—but, never, alas, the Vichy, which I have only ever seen in the actual Stewart's stores in upstate New York.

Interestingly enough, Stewart's the scoop shop and Stewart's the classy throw-back soda are not connected.

Man, don't get me started on Stewart's. They used to have nickel candy at the registers, mostly individually-wrapped Tootsie Rolls and Reese's peanut butter cups. My dad would bring us out a piece of candy after he went in and paid for gas. We were in the parking lot of Stewart's waiting in the car for my dad when my sister turned the cigarette lighter on and pulled it out to play with. Our parents didn't smoke and we'd never seen anyone use an in-car lighter, so she didn't understand that the orange lit-up part was hot. She stuck her tongue on it.

They also used to have napkins at the dip counter that said "DO NOT OPEN OR READ INTERIOR OF THIS NAPKIN." If you unfolded it, it had some kind of Stewart's ad. I thought this was the world's cleverest marketing scheme.

Man, they had the best ice cream flavors, too. There was one with solid salted caramel chunks for a long time, which my family called "the chunky kind." As in, "Should I get a half-gallon of ice cream for us to eat while we watch the movie?" "YESSSSS!" "What kind?" "The chunky kind!" As kids, we used to eat all the ice cream until there was nothing left but a slurry of melted vanilla and three or four spoonfuls of caramel chunks in our bowl. Slurping all the melted ice cream off a spoonful of those caramel things is one of the purest childhood memories I have. They discontinued it at some point, we think, because none of us can remember the actual name and none of the likely culprits seem to taste right.

There's no pay-at-the-pump at most Stewart's. You pump then pay.
posted by Snarl Furillo at 9:10 PM on February 10, 2013

I've got 8 cases of Labatt stubbies in the basement I used to use for homebrewing before I got my keg. My wife wanted to get rid of them.

That did not happen.
posted by tommasz at 5:31 AM on February 11, 2013

Interestingly enough, Stewart's the scoop shop and Stewart's the classy throw-back soda are not connected.

Huh, the logos are so near-identical that I was sure they were.
posted by enn at 6:09 AM on February 11, 2013

Man, don't get me started on Stewart's.

I don't get to upstate NY as much as I'd like to anymore, so when I do venture up there, I can't pass a Stewie's without popping in for a hard roll with butter and a black cherry milkshake.
posted by snottydick at 6:59 AM on February 11, 2013