Stopped by after work today and while waiting for my case of ML pounders I noticed a sign saying they are closing the end of this month. I went to Nittany Beverage on my 21st birthday in 1982 and will never forget getting carded, handing over my license remarking it was my 21st birthday and getting a free case of beer as a gift. I wonder if PSU is buying, or has bought the property and that's why they're closing?
Nittany Beverage going out of business the end of this month.
- Thread starter dcf4psu
- Start date
Drive right in and take a look around.....while you still can
All these years later, that jingle still sticks in my head.
How does a beer distributor go out of business in State College? Has the well-heeled, out-of-state, latte-and-scone crowd really taken over?
Yep, it popped right into mine too when I saw this thread title. This is a major bummer!
A beer distributor in Centre County going out of business would have been unthinkable in my day.
The PSU angle makes a lot of sense. It the past it seemed the university was pretty gung ho about expanding the west campus. It currently owns a number of properties west of Atherton between Clay Lane and Campus Drive. It doesn't own anything on College Ave. west of Atherton until you get to Buckhout St. where a couple properties on the north side of College Ave. tie into the ones noted above. A number of properties which are key to completing the Clay Lane/Campus Dr. corridor are owned by Joel Myers and something called College West LLC. If the university is buying properties there, it'll be interesting to see what deal (if any) they cut with Myers.
Lived across the alley from them in 1978, after getting discharged from the Army. Sometimes they would knock on our door early in the morning. The truck was there loaded with half kegs and they needed help unloading. Myself and two roommates would get a five-spot and a case of beer for the effort. I can still remember buying cases of Shlitz pounders for $1.99!
Buy up the beer, chips and soda. Buy it by the keg or case or can. 
Ya know, for all these years I thought it was Pile up the beer, chips, and soda.
I thought Nittany Bev was the master distributor for the area at one point. All other smaller distributors had to go thru them(like Pletchers, Beer Belly's, the bottle shops, etc). They don't seem to be the master distributor any more. I wonder if that is what caused their demise. Last time I went in there, they didn't have any Rolling Rock believe it or not, ended up at Hickey's and found some.
Is this the first step towards State College going dry?
This trend has been a long time coming. My grandmother graduated from State High with William (WR) Hickey. As such, I got to know Chris Hickey during my years in State College.
Chris was always candid about what a tough business it was and this being in the 1990s. The State College bar and party scene pales in comparison to the 90s today. There have also been long-term shifts in the broader beverage industry. People are drinking less beer than 30 years ago. And the beer they are drinking sits in a longer tail of micro and craft brewers.
That's a bad recipe for a local distributor. Hickey used to be the big A-B distributor in the area. They had that to lean on. I wonder whether Hickey purchased any of NB's assets or distributor rights in the area.
Chris was always candid about what a tough business it was and this being in the 1990s. The State College bar and party scene pales in comparison to the 90s today. There have also been long-term shifts in the broader beverage industry. People are drinking less beer than 30 years ago. And the beer they are drinking sits in a longer tail of micro and craft brewers.
That's a bad recipe for a local distributor. Hickey used to be the big A-B distributor in the area. They had that to lean on. I wonder whether Hickey purchased any of NB's assets or distributor rights in the area.
Returning to dry. In the early sixties there were no State stores in State College. You had to drive to Bellefonte for a state store. It was allegedly the busiest state store in the Commonwealth.
Then in 1966, the Pennsylvania State General Assembly passed a law, thirty-three years after the repeal of Prohibition, allowing the sale of liquor in public taverns.
Last edited:
Why not? The power brokers on the BoT and their cabal have been trying to sissify Penn State since 1975.
Being in the business, I'm sure that I would have heard of them closing, which I did not. It's rare that a master distributor is put up for sale. I would venture a guess that they are just closing the store part when they sell to the general public and will continue to sell and serve other distributors, bars, and c-stores.
I think it already has. The metamorphosis between now and half a century ago is incredible.
I was walking towards downtown past where the old Days Inn used to be (which is surreal in itself) about 10:00 PM the night of the Rutgers game and you could literally hear a pin drop. The bars were comparatively empty with hardly any lines at all.
Homecoming at our Fraternity House was like some small weekend get together in the middle of the old Summer Term. On Friday night, there might have been six or seven undergrad Brothers at the House, and most were all locked in some side room watching TV.
And the girls???? Where the crap have they all gone??? Most bars now are mostly filled with guys. And in the Fraternities, there’s hardly a girl to be found anymore. Remember things like jammies?? Wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder HOT HOT HOT girls. You could literally just walk in blind off the street, look for the hottest girl in the House not already attached to a guy, ask her to dance, and she was yours for the night.
Like David Lee Roth said. It was just the best freakin time to be alive. I’d hate to be an 18 to.22 year old college kid today. I’d probably still be single.
When my Dad was a student in the 1940's it was dry. Bellefonte was the happening place for booze!!! Beer could be bought in SC.....................but not the hard stuff.
Last edited:
Lived across the street on Patterson from 2000-2003. Had two kegerators in the house, one upstairs for GenPop, one downstairs for VIP’s (and better beer obvi).
They used to give us a dolly and just ask us to bring it back at the end of each semester.
Well Rutgers was during Thanksgiving break so very few students around.I think it already has. The metamorphosis between now and half a century ago is incredible.
I was walking towards downtown past where the old Days Inn used to be (which is surreal in itself) about 10:00 PM the night of the Rutgers game and you could literally hear a pin drop. The bars were comparatively empty with hardly any lines at all.
Homecoming at our Fraternity House was like some small weekend get together in the middle of the old Summer Term. On Friday night, there might have been six or seven undergrad Brothers at the House, and most were all locked in some side room watching TV.
And the girls???? Where the crap have they all gone??? Most bars now are mostly filled with guys. And in the Fraternities, there’s hardly a girl to be found anymore. Remember things like jammies?? Wall to wall, shoulder to shoulder HOT HOT HOT girls. You could literally just walk in blind off the street, look for the hottest girl in the House not already attached to a guy, ask her to dance, and she was yours for the night.
Like David Lee Roth said. It was just the best freakin time to be alive. I’d hate to be an 18 to.22 year old college kid today. I’d probably still be single.
Actually, Rutgers was on the 18th. The last official day of classes. “Thanksgiving Break” didn’t officially start until the 19th which was Sunday.
But I get what you are saying about some kids going home early. That doesn’t explain Homecoming and all the rest of the games over the last few years. Especially since the Covid pandemic. The place has turned into a comparative ghost town on football weekends compared to what it used to be.
I never once saw more than a few of tents in Nittanyville this year for any home games to further the point.
