re: Around when did Stella Artois first become widely available in the US?

I want to say I remember drinking it around the early 2000s?

First time I saw it at bars was probably early 2000’s. First time I remember seeing a six pack at a gas station was on my way home to watch the 2006 LSU Arkansas game.

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Stella Artois went all-out marketing to bars in NYC in the early 2000s.

I used to DJ at a lot of bars here and remember when all of the sudden every tap, free bar pint glass, happy hour special etc was Stella.

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I was bartending in Hell's Kitchen in the mid 90's and it was heavy on the new brands that had been popular in Europe for years. It was all over every hot place in the East Village, the Flatiron, and the newly hot again Mid Town. Corona was still raging strong with every pretentious twat asking for the lime and Cosmos were being flung like crazy. Like every other major trend then, it took about 10 years to reach the rest of America.

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When I visited Belgium in 2007 the old men at the cafes were drinking this. It was their BMC beer.

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When I lived there the more popular beer by far was Maes Pils or Piedboeuf.

And similarly in The Netherlands Amstel was more popular than Heineken.

It really boiled down to who had the better marketing campaign to take their brews international which propelled them to be better known.

“was all the rage in NYC, they said. I thought it tasted like Bud Light.”

No wonder NYC is so gay.

Like the 80s

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Stella on tap was always that beer available at a place that traditionally didn't serve beer.

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Pretty much this. That and Heineken. Only time I ever drink those two

For years, in the UK, Stella was known as "Wife Beater Beer"

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Stella Artois is known as wife beater because the beer was associated with heavy drinking and domestic violence. This is because it had an alcohol percentage of 5.2% (which was higher than average) and was widely available in the United Kingdom at discounted prices, which increased the likelihood of alcohol abuse.

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When ABI introduced it in the U.S., they worked hard to market Stella as a Premium Beer. Many bars would pour it in a special "Stella Goblet" to push the idea. The power of marketing...

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I had a six pack at my oldest sons 5th birthday, circa 2005.

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That’s AT LEAST the amount most of us do at a five year-old’s birthday party.

“College men from LSU
Went in dumb, come out dumb too
Hustling around Atlanta in their alligator shoes
Getting drunk every weekend at the barbecues”