Yuengling Reviews

D.G. Yuengling & Son, holder of the title "America's Oldest Brewery™", and currently second to the Boston Beer Co. (Sam Adams) in the "America's Largest Brewery Actually Owned By Americans" category, is a local favorite in these parts. Their flagship product is so popular at local watering holes that customers simply order it by requesting a "Lager." Much like Sam Adams Boston Lager in the New England (and other) states, Yuengling Traditional Lager is the one beer you can count on being on tap in places that typically shun craft beer in favor of the more mainstream BMC offerings, making it a go-to for me and many other beer geeks in the area. While not really considered to be "craft" brewers in the strict sense, Yuengling's portfolio of traditional styles are all well made, local, and affordable. Each year during the holidays they release a "Variety Case" that features one 6 Pack of each of the following: Traditional Lager, Light Lager, Black & Tan, and Lord Chesterfield Ale. An illustration of four dogs at a bar, found on the case, was taken from an original print that was hanging in the brewery. This year I picked up the case to have some "regular" beer on hand for holiday visitors:



Last year, Yuengling re-introduced their Bock Beer as a regional draft-only offering in February. This came on the heels of other "Old Line" brewers reviving their spring seasonals that had died off in the 1950's-1970's (see my Genny Bock review). This year for the first time they released it in 12 oz. bottles, so I decided to buy a case of that as well. Earlier on I had picked up a 6-pack of their Dark-Brewed Porter, as the nights were getting cold and it had been awhile since I had any, so it suddenly dawned on me that I had 6 of the brewery's 8 offerings in my fridge (minus their regular Premium and Light lines). It also made me realize that it had been quite awhile since I did an "Old Man Beer" review in these parts, and with that I decided to set a bottle of each of these aside for reviewing purposes. In this thread over the coming weeks (as time permits), I will review the following:

• Yuengling Traditional Lager: Reviewed 02/01/2010
• Yuengling Light Lager
• Lord Chesterfield Ale
• Yuengling Black & Tan
• Dark-Brewed Porter
• Yuengling Bock Beer

Not quite sure what will be up first or when I'll have a chance to do it, but keep an eye out. Hope you enjoy!

Looking forward to this Mike, maybe I should get going with the reviews again too. I don't think I've done one since the promotion, so I need to get back in the swing of things.

Big fan of Yeungling! Can't get it in MA, but I have a couple buddies down in PA that haul up some stock from time to time.

Look forward to your reviews

Always been one of my favorites. Lager was my go-to brew for some time, and the Black&Tan is really nice.

I could get the lager in TN and loved it. No go out here in CO, though. There is a great selection of tons of beers that kinda makes up for it.

Looking forward to the reviews.

John

The lager is my traditional winter bowling night go-to beer. It's replaced Iron City as the beer that every bar in town has on tap.

massphatness said:

Big fan of Yeungling! Can't get it in MA, but I have a couple buddies down in PA that haul up some stock from time to time.

Look forward to your reviews

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Whenever I head up in that direction, my friends BEG me to bring some up.

I grew up in NJ, so you could order a Lager anywhere and get a Yuengling. When I first came up to Rochester I couldn't find it all. Strangely enough though, when I moved to FL for a year, it was readily available. Luckily we have it up here now too.

OK, let's kick this series off with the beer that most of you are probably at least somewhat familiar with:

Yuengling Traditional Lager



Style: American Amber Lager
ABV: 4.4%
Brewed: Year-round
Location: Pottsville, Pennsylvania

Brewing since 1829, D.G. Yuengling & Son is recognized as America's oldest brewery and holds the record for the longest, continuously operated brewery in the US. Besides its two Pennsylvania facilities, Yuengling also operates a brewery in Tampa, Florida (the former Stroh's brewery). This is the company's flagship beer (accounting for nearly 80% of its production), and what is received if a "lager" is ordered throughout many parts of Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware, especially around Philadelphia. Despite what many people believe, Traditional Lager is not a very old beer. In fact the brewery debuted the beer in 1987, reintroducing a lager they had not made in decades to take advantage of a spike in heavier-style beers. I served this bottle into a 12 oz. Straub pilsner glass (see that review here):

Appearance: Beer is crystal clear and amber in color with a good deal of noticeable active carbonation and a 1-finger head of off-white foam that quickly recedes to a decent sized cap. Nice retention and some fine, soapy lacing that clings to the glass.

Smell: Typical lager yeastiness up front, followed by a crisp, slightly sour mustiness. A grassy, maltiness comes through in the nose as the beer warms. That said, there is a hint of what could possibly become the "morning-after-frat-party" staleness that many of us can probably fondly recall.

Taste/Mouthfeel: A crisp, herbal hopiness perfectly balanced by a slightly toasted, grainy malt base. A light-to-medium bodied beer with a tight, tingly carbonation. Mouthfeel is smooth and slick, with a sweetness that builds on the palate and trends towards cloying, but not necessarily in a bad way. Finish is short, sweet and malty.

Drinkability/Overall Impression: High. How do I know? I've had a ton of this in my day. It was one of the two beers (along with Amstel Light...don't hate on me) that I drank regularly after I weaned myself off crappy college beer and before I discovered craft beer. There's a lot of flavor compared to just about any macro-BMC offering, and I personally think it stacks up quite well against some of the better Amber lagers out there, as well (though I'll be the first to admit that my judgment might be clouded by geography and nostalgia). Simple, sturdy and tasty...everyone should be fortunate enough to have a beer like this available to "switch things up" a bit from our typical high-gravity, palate-crushing fare when such a beer is called for and one would prefer not to support worldwide, mass-producing brewing conglomerates.

Score: 3.55 - A solid "B"

Ok this is all of my own opinion, I would like to get my reviews in on this one. All I do have to say is that Yuengling is the only beer I will drink to the bottom of the glass. Growing up in Jersey there was the usual Bud Coors basically the major label breweries and really wasn't something to write home about. At the age of 21 I moved to Pennsylvania and had my first taste of Yuengling and my taste buds exploded and then about 2003 I moved to Las Vegas and well my beer drinking days basically stopped well since that town never heard of it. Now being in Texas and only a few hours away am gonna have to drive to Oklahoma to get some cases and I cannot wait. On the website they used to have the real original brewing recipe which is the one they use today still after many years, but unfortunately they took it down and it is no longer on it . But I am still looking for the real recipe I would love to make my own at home. To me there is no beer like Yuengling and anything they will or would produce will be crap or taste of it for the matter. And as far as being the second under Sam Adams to me the only reason why they are first is because they have the stock traded open to the public, Yuengling you cant buy any of it (I tried). But seriously this has to be the best tasting beer I have ever tried and trust me I tried alot from diff breweries and nothing compares

This will be fun to see, looking forward to you doing the rest of the sampler.

Growing up in SNJ and living in Philly it's everywhere. I lived in Arizona for a year and man did I miss Yuengling. When I came home for x-mass the first stop was the airport bar to grab a Lager.

My favorite in the bottle is definitely the Black and Tan.

I regularly drink Yuengling Lager and Porter. They've been my "go-to's" for the last few years.

When I used to live in NC I drank yuengling on draft reguarly. Has anyone noticed that it is different out of the bottle? Green bottles arent good for beers that travel long distances and are exposed to light, but everytime I drink one out of the bottle it has the slightest "green bottle" taste.

I think other then coming dangerousily close to BMC with their process, the ingredients that the brewery use make this a good beer however. I'd have this on draft if I didnt live in IL.

Yuengling is, unfortunately, unavailable here. I had a chance to try it on vacation last year, and it's quite good.

It's really odd that it's not available everywhere. We ship a lot of it because people just can't get it.