Apparently Dr. Robert Cade also created this odd pairing in 1969. Any of you old timers on the site try any of this? "Hop'n Gator Beer was put on the market by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company in 1969. It was developed by Dr. Robert Cade who also invented Gatorade. Hop'n Gator Beer was a mixture of beer and Gatorade with about 25% more alcohol content than standard beers. It may be true that a lot of jocks drink Gatorade and a lot of fans drink beer, but this combination fell on its face." Read more: http://www.bukisa.com/articles/20573_beers-that-fell-flat#ixzz1ygaig47S
Hmm...it's like a gatorade shandy right? Yeah, that don't really sound like something I'd ever go for.
It does make for a perfect avatar for you! I was trying to find more on this, but I think it was retired a long time ago. Looks like it went through a revival after it's retirement, but no obvious staying power.
I had read that this beer had been brought back about 5 - 6 years ago but believe it never caught on again and was discontinued. Never had it but can't be any worse than some of the flavored wine coolers out on the market. Either way, I thank you for my new avatar.
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p4712.m570.l1313&_nkw=hop n gator&_sacat=0 If you REALLY want it, there are a few options there. Also looks like a few stickers and a patch are available...
I just tried some concoction from AB.... bud light lime-a-rita.... Googled Hop'nGator and found this site. I was age 17 in 1969, I couldn't stand the taste of beer, I was working in the beverage dept of a super market, when a beer salesman brought in some samples of "hop-n-gater". I had not given any thought to Hop'Gator for a long long time... Anyhow, I started drinking that strange brew and was reminded of it when I tasted this lime-a-rita from AB. Lucky for me, my tastes have improved over the years.
I guess it won't be long until someone combines Red Bull & Beer [if it hasn't been done already - it seems that the older you get the less you hear about stuff].
The TTB and FDA essentially banned the addition of caffeine in beer (malt beverages) as an adulteration/unsafe food additive back in 2010. As noted in a post above re: AB's "B to the E", there were a number of other FMB's on the market at the time that contained caffeine - Miller's Sparks, along with popular brands like Four Loko and Joose, as well as Rhonda Kallman's Moonshot of Beer Wars fame.
My mom said she liked to drink the back in college in the early 70's. Says summer shandys are Close to it
I'll admit to being old enough that I tried it when it was first released. Seems to me it was a Gatorade flavor with a tartness and carbonation, and totally unexciting.
Back in my more abusive days I used always drink Gatorade for the hangover. Seems like putting the cart before the horse, or the cart inside the horse, or something.
There was an urban legend around that time that mixing alcohol with Gatorade "gets you drunk quicker", so that may have been part of the thinking behind the product. There was a move by a few others brewers at the time to create what today would be called Flavored Malt Beverages - besides Pittsburgh's Hop'n Gator there was also National's Malt Duck and Lone Star's Lime Lager. Those products were marketed in hopes to stem the loss of some of the youth market which brewers felt had gone to the then-popular sweet, "pop" wines like Ripple, Boone's Farm and Bali Hai. Part of that popularity might have been influenced by the general opinion of dope smokers that cheap sweet wine "paired" better with marijuana than beer.
I remember the original Gatorade it was terrible thing to taste. orange with a hint of battery acid and electrolytes, was a lemon lime also? but mixed with beer yuckie.
You sir are a living, breathing, drinking, beer encyclopedia. Thank you again for sharing some of your knowledge.
I just did, for shits and giggles. Equal parts of Gatorade Lemon Lime and Newcastle Summer Ale. Not bad.
well a pilsner or any lager really and lemonade are pretty damn good so I don't see why this wouldnt be good as well. its all about the rattler!
Drank this a couple times in the early '70s as a teenager before developing a taste for beer. Didn't think it was so bad then but it sounds awful now.
You don't have to be an old timer to have tried this. I went to college in Pittsburgh and I remember first trying this stuff at the first frat party I ever went to. I thought it was awesome, but that's cuz I was a dumb college freshman. A few of my buddies and I bought a 24 pack of bottles later that year and played beer pong with it. None of us got even close to drunk. It was like playing beer pong with soda. We tried finding it sophomore year just for old times sake and we couldn't find it. I know Iron City got sued by Gatorade and it ceased production, so maybe that was in 2007? We definitely could get some in '06.
I was hoping that the product was still around? It was offered at Seven/Eleven stores in the Atlanta, GA area back in the late 1960's & early 1970's. The label had a gator sitting in a lounge chair with an umbrella sipping the brew. I really liked it but it was best served really cold. Had a fruity taste to it.
A long time ago they used to make this stuff called Beer I'd be curious how it tastes, anyone ever had this?
i believe Sparks is as close to the idea that has been invented. It's a energy drink malt beverage if my memory serves me right
