QuikTrip has rereleased its long-dead beer, Quittin’ Time, for popular consumption amongst you and all of your 70’s-branded, sepia-filter friends. This beer existed back in the 70’s and 80’s, but disappeared for reasons we don’t have time to get into. We’re drinking beers here!
The story of Quittin’ Time goes that Wyatt Phillips, QT’s VP of Marketing, heard from now-QT-CEO Chester Cadieux the phrase, “It’s quittin’ time,” and immediately knew that the proprietary beer that they had been working on would use that as its name.
Is that an apocryphal story? Yeah, probably. That’s fine. I don’t need to know exactly why a beer is named something!
When it comes to beer, I need to know two things: Is it cold? And can I crush it?
I’m happy to announce that QuikTrip’s latest marketing ploy is, indeed, highly crushable and highly cold. When we found out that QT was rereleasing the beer, The Pickup office collectively perked up. As longtime Tulsans, we are suckers for QuikTrip-branded anything. But while my sober officemates soberly abstained (due to their sobriety), I bravely took up the mantle of The Pickup’s Most Prominent And In Fact Only Beer Taster. I do not take this responsibility lightly. Or, at least, I take it as lightly as a light, enjoyable beer, which Quittin’ Time verifiably is.
It’s as light as a run through a field of wheat, my taste buds slapping against the sheaves. It’s got a surprisingly amount of grit and body for a light beer. (I think? I don’t really know anything about beer.) The 4.3 ABV on the label belies a striking amount of flavor; I find myself wanting to drink more of it as opposed to less.
The beer transported me right into Dazed and Confused. I see Matthew McConaughey waiting outside a gas station for someone to drive him to an Aerosmith show. Hanging from his off-hand is a sixer of Quittin’ Time. My colleague Zack bravely risked his sobriety for the content, swishing a mouthful of the beer before spitting it out. He didn’t swallow it. He’d be a lot cooler if he did.
Quittin’ Time is better than, say, Coor’s or Coor’s Light. It’s better than Miller High Life. I’m happy to shill for it as a Marshall Brewing Company, and thus a Tulsa, product. It’s got a better head than the average tech bro. It’s somehow kind. It’s a beer you could sit down and have a beer with.
Quick gripe: If you want to have a six-pack of QuikTrip’s new beer Quittin’ Time, you’ll need to get past QuikTrip’s new alcohol security system. I had to swipe my ID inside a kiosk that looked like it belonged in an airport, choose which fridge I wanted to open, and then I had 30 seconds to go over to that specific fridge and grab my six-pack. And then I had to give the cashier my ID when I bought the beer at the register. I nearly declared my own personal Quittin’ Time on getting that beer, since it was such a hassle to get.
Good thing it’s a decent beer. I had one before seeing the Bob Dylan Center’s “Shelter from the Storm” tribute show at Cain’s, where I drank some of Bob Dylan’s whiskey wearing my new Pickup hat. Fuck, I became a brand ambassador without realizing it.
