Falstaff Brewing Corporation - Pop Culture

Pop Culture

Falstaff Beer is mentioned in the Ray Wiley Hubbard song, "Up Against the Wall Redneck Mother," in Sheryl Crow's song "A Change Would Do You Good," and a commercial song is done by Cream on their "Those Were the Days" four-disc set. In the opening scene of the 1975 film Jaws, Cassidy (Jonathan Filley) is drinking Falstaff beer, and later in the film, Quint (Robert Shaw) can be seen drinking from, and crushing, a 12oz Narragansett Beer can. In the 1991 film, My Own Private Idaho, the visibility of a Falstaff beer bottle in Keanu Reeves' hand (who is presumably derived from the character Hal) in William Richert's (presumably emblematic of Falstaff) entrance to the scene, alludes to the movie's inspiration, in part, gleaned from Shakespeare's Henry IV. The brand is also mentioned in novels by Robert Crais, a writer from Louisiana where Falstaff had a satellite brewery, as being the main character's (Elvis Cole) drink of choice throughout the length of the series. (Although in later books, such as "The Sentry," when Falstaff was presumably harder to find, Elvis switches his taste to the Mexican beer, Negra Modelo. Ironically however the producer of Negra Modelo, Grupo Modelo is currently half owned by St. Louis based brewer Anheuser-Busch a one time competitor to Falstaff, their brewery buildings located only several miles apart in St. Louis.)