Red Beer Is the Midwest’s Morning Beverage of Choice | Eater

"On game mornings outside the stadium that hosts the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers, tailgaters start drinking well before kickoff despite the area technically being dry: coolers of light domestic beer are commonly mixed with tomato juice or bloody mary mix to make “red beer,” a Midwestern cousin of the michelada. Fans at the parking-lot gatherings—buoyed by renewed optimism for the team under a popular new coach—wear red shirts and drink red beer in variable ratios to suit personal taste; some favor it for morning palatability or hangover relief, others as a way to add flavor to flavorless light beers. Though the drink is deeply tied to the tailgate scene here, its origins are unclear and widely debated." - Jahd Khalil