In honor of Michigan being named the cheapest place to buy beer in the nation, my listeners and I came up with this list of cheap beers you drank when times were tough.

But let's face it, times are ALWAYS tough. And while many of these brews no longer exist, they live on in our deep, dank memories. Bad, bad memories.

10. Falstaff -- Named after a Shakespeare character who hung out in dive bars (yes, there have ALWAYS been dive bars), this swill was not only inexpensive, it seemed to be everywhere.

9. Buckhorn -- Six dollars a case, it doubled as a laxative. It went down hard, came up harder. One caller said he mixed it with MD 20/20. That was NOT a good idea. And neither was this song someone wrote about it.

8. Meister Brau -- It had to be good because it's German for Master Brew. Nope. It was rumored to be what was left in the bottom of the kegs after they brewed Miller.

7. Schaefer and Pfeiffer -- They have similar spellings, so we'll group these two nasties together. I remember I bought a case of Schaefer in a pinch, and then got a raise and could afford better beer. That Schaefer was still in the fridge two years later. It tasted the same. At one time, Louis Armstrong was their commercial spokesperson. 'What A Wonderful World' indeed!

6. Generic Beer -- Yup. Just a white can with a simple block letters 'BEER' on the side. The generic food craze lasted about ten years in the mid '80s. Locally, BEER was brewed by Schlitz, another go-to cheap brew.

5. Goebel's -- This beer always seemed to be on sale at Kroger's when I was a kid. It was like they couldn't get rid of it no matter how hard they tried. In an effort to make it special, they printed the word 'luxury' on the can. Still no one bought it. Here's a poem about Goebel's:

4. Red, White and Blue -- 'An honest beer at an honest price' the commercials lauded in the mid-80s when the beer had a moment in the sun. In the end, the beer may have been honest, but it tasted like lies. There's a movement online to bring it back. Why?

3. Old Milwaukee -- Or as we referred to it, 'Old Swill'. Always inexpensive, always in stock. What more do you need? And it's still around. Six years ago, they hired Will Ferrell to do commercials for it.

2. Hamm's -- From the land of sky blue waters came this readily available beer. I remember their TV commercials, presented as if bears singing native songs and making beer out of a fresh lake would make it taste good, but as one listener weighed in 'It got you drunk.'

1. Milwaukee's Best -- The cheapest beer ever. Still just 12.99 for 30 cans. You always have enough for the Best. My favorite can is this one, which puts the word "Best' in quotations, as if everyone knows it's a lie.

Let's sing about cheap beer before we go, shall we?

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