Photo courtesy of 10 Barrel Brewing Co.
Last year, a 34-year-old Redditor said that he was able to use his Blockbuster Video card as his ID when he bought beer because, in his mind, the fact that he even had one of those meant that he was well over 21. “I used it at a grocery store,” he wrote. “[The cashier] laughed and said ‘You’re old enough. Damn.’”
But The Last Blockbuster has a shorter shelf-life than, um, the last Blockbuster. It will be released on September 21 during a block party in Bend, and it will also have a limited run at the six 10 Barrel pubs, in East Bend, West Bend and Portland, Oregon; Boise, Idaho; Denver; and San Diego.According to The Bulletin, Bend’s Blockbuster still offers new memberships and has a $30 monthly plan that allows members to have as many two-at-a-time rentals as they can handle. “We see the importance of being here,” store manager Sandi Harding said in March. “We’re definitely relevant.”She said that she still gets requests from “people who want her to print out a Blockbuster card and mail it to them.” Of course she does: you can use those things to buy booze. Maybe even a black ale named for that video store we all used to love. Pass the Red Vines?
If he still has that card, he needs to take that shit full-circle and go to the last remaining Blockbuster in America to buy a bottle of its limited-edition beer. The Highlander of Blockbusters is in Bend, Oregon, and it has recently joined forces with the local beermakers at 10 Barrel Brewing Co. to release a one-off beer. (Yeah, Bend really is the only Blockbuster left. Even the one in Anchorage, Alaska that John Oliver gave Russell Crowe’s Cinderella Man jockstrap to has rented its final rom-com. Both the Anchorage and the Fairbanks locations closed in July.)
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The beer, which is called The Last Blockbuster, has that familiar blue-and-yellow torn-ticket logo, and a flavor that will make you consider drunk-dialing that cashier named either Hendo or Heath who let you rent R-rated horror flicks when you were still in middle school. (Don’t do it. He’s well into his 40s and still talks in an impassioned monotone about “The Ocarina of Time”)."The Last Blockbuster beer pairs perfectly with buttery theater popcorn and your favorite movie-sized chocolate with a light body, smooth finish and hints of nostalgia," Chris Cox, the co-founder of 10 Barrel Brewing, told Business Insider.