Haffenreffer Private Stock (commonly referred to as P-Stock, The Green Death, Head Wrecker, Heffy's, Haffen-Wrecker or The Golden Cap) is a brand of

malt liquor Malt liquor is a type of mass market beer with high alcohol content, most closely associated with North America. Legally, it often includes any alcoholic beverage with 5% or more alcohol by volume made with malted barley. In common usage, it ...

first brewed in 1953 at the

Haffenreffer Brewery The Haffenreffer Brewery, established in 1870, was a former brewer in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts. The first Haffenreffer bottles were plate mold bottles and were produced by Karl Hutter of New York and had the traditional lightning stop tops. Acc ...

Jamaica Plain, Boston Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood of in the City of Boston, Massachusetts, United States. Settled by Puritans seeking farmland to the south, it was originally part of the former Town of Roxbury, now also a part of the City of Boston. The commu ...

. In 1965, production of the brand moved to

Narragansett Brewing Company The Narragansett Brewing Company ( ) is an American brewery founded in Cranston, Rhode Island in 1890. Founders included John H. Fehlberg, Augustus F. Borchandt, Herman G. Possner, George M. Gerhard, Constand A. Moeller, and Jacob Wirth. Narrag ...

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

and then to the Falstaff Brewing Company. It was brewed in

Latrobe, Pennsylvania Latrobe is a city in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in the United States and part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. The city population was 8,338 as of the 2010 census (9,265 in 1990). It is located near Pennsylvania's scenic Chestnut Rid ...

and

Utica, New York Utica () is a Administrative divisions of New York, city in the Mohawk Valley and the county seat of Oneida County, New York, United States. The List of cities in New York, tenth-most-populous city in New York State, its population was 65,283 ...

under license from Haffenreffer & Co. Known for its tagline "The malt liquor with the imported taste", it contained 5.9%

alcohol by volume Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

, and commonly was found in 16 oz cans and 40 oz bottles, it is also available in six packs. Over the years, Private Stock was associated with both celebrities and athletes.

Wilt Chamberlain Wilton Norman Chamberlain (; August 21, 1936 – October 12, 1999) was an American professional basketball player who played as a Center (basketball), center. Standing at tall, he played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for 14 yea ...

promoted Private Stock with the tagline "Nobody does it bigger." One notable aspect of Private Stock packaging is that the undersides of Private Stock bottle caps contained words or

Rebus A rebus () is a puzzle device that combines the use of illustrated pictures with individual letters to depict words or phrases. For example: the word "been" might be depicted by a rebus showing an illustrated bumblebee next to a plus sign (+) ...

puzzles. Private Stock was discontinued in 2013.

Cultural references

The song Juicy by the rapper

Notorious B.I.G. Christopher George Latore Wallace (May 21, 1972 – March 9, 1997), better known by his stage names the Notorious B.I.G., Biggie Smalls, or simply Biggie, was an American rapper. Rooted in East Coast hip hop and particularly gangsta ...

mentions Private Stock in the lyrics. The song Old School by the rapper

Tupac Tupac Amaru Shakur ( ; born Lesane Parish Crooks, June 16, 1971 – September 13, 1996), also known as 2Pac and Makaveli, was an American rapper. He is widely considered one of the most influential rappers of all time. Shakur is among the b ...

mentions Private Stock in the lyric, "You diggy don't stop, sippin on that Private Stock".

References

American beer brands Falstaff Brewing Corporation brands {{Beer-stub