What did Bukowski drink? (1 Viewer)

Hey guys,
I'm new here. Coming up this weekend is March 9th, which is the day Chuck passed 14 years ago. I decided to have a little get-together to remember him and I wanted to serve drinks that Buk himself wrote about a lot. To mind right now I can think of 7 and 7's and it seems like he drank Smirnoff with something, too. Basically, I'm looking for specifics. Any help would be appreciated, thanks!
 
I believe he drank white wine (Riesling?), red wine, vodka 7 and Miller's etc., but not Coors. He wrote somehere that Coors was the worst beer in America...
 
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There's a "famous" scene where he peels the cellophane of of a pint of Cutty Sark after waiting until 6 AM for the liquor store to open after Linda King came by and smashed his other bottle(s), proclaiming "the liquor store will now be open for another 20 hours...". Probably in "Women," if I recall correctly.
 
Coors may be crap, but there is nothing nicer than an ice cold Coors Light in a can on a hot day. I may be an embarassment to beerdrinkers and Americans, but I'm just telling the truth. My dad used to let me drink beer starting at about 11 or 12. He could always talk me into getting served in bars (starting at around 14 or 15, even with my age very obvious, which would be impressive if it was not technically reckless and criminal. Surprisingly I only drink 3 or 4 beers a month and have never had a drinking problem.

We always drank Coors light. I have always had a taste for it. Yes, it is weak....

I know, I know. And apologies to beer afficianados. I promise that I will NOT defend Milwaukees Best. I promise.

Bill
 
I drink Coors Light sometimes, a great light beer.

And Bukowski did not drink alcohol as it was only part of his literary embellishments.

He preferred lemonade or chamolmile tea.
 
Well, here in Canada we're supposed to hate all American beer but it isn't so. Various brands including Coors Light (but not Coors) are actually brewed here too.

I'm with the guys suggesting on a hot day there's nothing better than an ice-cold Silver Bullet!

As for Buk...what's that in the photo on the home page? Miller?
 
Red wine. From the poem "Me and Faulkner"

"I haven't heard one of my favorites, Eric Coates, for some time
but I know that if I keep drinking the good red and listening
that he will be along"

I seem to remember that he went through a white wine phase late in life. German whites as I recall - possibly Reisling. Overall, I'd say he just enjoyed what was available.
 
I seem to remember that he went through a white wine phase late in life. German whites as I recall - possibly Reisling. Overall, I'd say he just enjoyed what was available.

I believe Linda Bukowski turned him onto white rather than red, for health reasons. I don't know if white is better for you than red. Personally, I don't like white wines much.

As to enjoying what was available, Bukowski knew what he liked and stores would order in the wine he wanted.

I suppose he'd pay for it with his American Express Gold card. Or was it Platinum?
 
I believe Linda Bukowski turned him onto white rather than red, for health reasons. I don't know if white is better for you than red. Personally, I don't like white wines much.

Well, if you have a couple of glasses a day, certainly red has more health benefit, as the tannins and all can strip precipitates such as cholesterol from your arteries. But if you drink a bottle or two, white is much easier on the stomach.

I got into reds back in 1987, but after a dozen years or so, a few whites have surfaced: most pinot grigios are nice and crisp, unlike those foul chardonnays. And, of course, champagne is a doubly distilled white, I think. Yummy.

Then again, with food, it's red; no matter what is for dinner.
 
Except for fish. Then it's white wine, I believe...

Philistine! ;)

Pinot noir with fish. One needs to have a robust sauce and/or stuffing with white fish to accompany the light spice of the pinot noir. Otherwise, with simple salmon, trout, tuna, swordfish...pinot noir is perfect.
 
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Norm breaker! ;)

Pinot noir with fish? Ok, I'll remember that...
 
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I'm sure that I remember reading somewhere that "russo's" used to order liebframulch (sp?) (you know that sweet german wine) by the case for buk and actually quit carrying it at all after Buk's death.
 
I believe he drank white wine (Riesling?), red wine, vodka 7 and Miller's etc., but not Coors. He wrote somehere that Coors was the worst beer in America...

About Coors. If Coors -the regular Coors- ever gets warm after it's brewed, it will give you a headache like a knife through your temple. This may be a myth but if you get it in a keg that has been shipped cold no problem.
I will celebrate on his birthday, this weekend -it is Lent- I will mourn and meditate and not drink, out of respect.
 
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Back in the mid-to-late 80s when Buk and I were corresponding, he mentioned that Linda had him off the "hard stuff" and one one occasion he said "I'm on the good stuff now" and mentioned a vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon, California I believe. This past week, I ransacked my desk and found two floppy disks that had some of my files from 1993 and 1994. While much of the one disk was corrupt and I couldn't access the files, I was able to recover the last letter I wrote to Buk, dated August 30th, 1993. I was living in Key West at the time and invited him to visit and told him I'd buy him dinner and a bottle of the good Cab if he was still into that. (This was the letter I referred to in another post, the one I wrote to ask for another signed copy of "then I gave up and started drinking heavily.") And of course, he was sick, so he sent a copy of the booklet to me without his usual chatty letter.

So anyway, a little bit of a rambling post, but yeah. At least in the late 80s he was talking of drinking wine and the one he mentioned in that particular letter was red. Whatever, I will be raising my glass to toast the old boy tomorrow. :-)
 
mwel,
Take it from HarryC13, red wine. In his honor drink the best california cabernet sauvignon you can afford. Nothing but the best for Bukowski and drink some for all of us.
Thank you Mr. Calhoun I'm sure he's smiling down on you right now for setting the record straight.
 
1st
- I pretty sure remember, he stated SEVERAL times, that he disliked being asked for his favorite drinks, as he himself used to change. In some poem (or was it in the 'notes') he mentions a fan who proudly tells him, he's drinking soandso, because Buk had written about it. And his reaction was, he wasn't on that stuff anymore for a long time.
so... this whole point is a little useless.


but to sum all this up:

from his works I seem to remember, that in the early years he was mostly on Port or equally cheap crap (maybe canned heat or something) and Scotch-and-water. You get that mostly from the early stories in 'Erections' as well as 'Barfly'.

in the 70s he seemed to have a time with Vodka7 and Cutty Sark (see 'Women')

In many of his letters and interviews from the late 70s on he often claims Linda has saved him a couple of years of lifetime by making him quit the hard-booze and the beer. In some letters he also mentions which wine he is drinking at the very moment while writing (don't want to look them up now. 'Reach for the sun'!)

in the Bukowski-Tapes (early 80s) he drinks lot of red wine.

like 1fish I recall that Musso's kept sweet German white wine exclusively for him and cancelled them because literally no one other drank it. But the photos in 'Shakespeare' show him drinking a German white wine that was more likely to be semi-dry.

On beer, I think I can recall him naming several brands with no preference at all.


so, yeah, through the whole of his work you'll find pretty much anything except maybe champain, Pernod or Gin.
 
oh, I just remember that Sean Penn interview about Bukowski at his party, which he described as: "It was 'mix-everything-and-die'!"
 
To be like Bukowski, to drink like Bukowski, to live like Bukowski....You can't, don't try.

But, it is fun to hold the bottle of beer upside down to your lips or to drink red wine from a water glass like you have to have it now.
 
or from an empty grape jelly glass!
i'm drinking from the bottle right now.. is there a reason people drink wine from the glass? earnestly
 
As far as beer goes in his later days I remember seeing him drinking Heineken but in his early writing I remember him saying the guy at the liquor store called him, "Mr, Schlitz" because of the amount of that beer he bought from him.

And Post Office was written by him drinking beer & whiskey.
 
In the early 70s Schlitz came in a short neck 16 oz. brown bottle. It was the best deal besides Brew 102-no one in their right mind drank 102. At the tender young age of 16 Schlitz's big shorties were the way to go, except the next day I'd have a feeling like I had ingested some ground glass. Heineken doesn't do that.
 
Good Christ, people talking about Coors...in the 21st century, no less. I suppose it's all in taste, and really doesn't matter much in the end. But honestly, nowadays?, with the incredible range of domestic beers available?

As teens, we could never get Coors unless someone took a trip West and brought it back with them. Now you can buy the stuff everywhere. But not with those two funky holes on top.

But we had worthy substitutes. Narragansett, Rheingold, Knickerbocker, Schlitz, Carling Black Label...excuse me as I hang over the rail and heave...DAWSON LAGER!, Piels, Pabst...

Of course, we/they knew no better. Who had ever heard of a 90 minute IPA?, a Hefeweizen with a chunk of lemon, an Imperial Stout?, whaddya a Commie?

Sure, Buk probably drank anything for most of his run, by the sound of it, he didn't much care. I just don't know if can still sit down with a four dollar case of Pickwick pints...in fact, my rectum begs me not to.
 
In the early 70s Schlitz came in a short neck 16 oz. brown bottle.

And let's not forget Chris Schenkle touting "The Great Taste of Beer" in those squat no-necked brown bottles...

But we had worthy substitutes. Narragansett, Rheingold, Knickerbocker, Schlitz, Carling Black Label...excuse me as I hang over the rail and heave...DAWSON LAGER!, Piels, Pabst...

Worthy substitutes being a relative term, no doubt!
 

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