Stegmaier 1857
Lion Brewery, Inc.

 

 

 

 

Poured out like most pale lagers do, it was clear and yellow looking. White fizzy head on top. The smell of beer was malty and sweet. It had an appealing aroma to it. The taste of the beer was grainy, it had some sweet malts in there too. The aftertaste was slightly bitter. The mouthfeel of the beer is a little watered down but still manages to keep a decent body and carbonation to it. Overall it was a decent beer I found it to be enjoyable. Since it's been retired I probably won't ever have it again.

Poured a medium hazy copper hue with a half finger foamy white head. There was little retention and lacing.

The smell featured a lightly sweet caramel malt with a touch of smokiness.

The taste consisted of an upfront sweet caramel malt with a smattering of noble hop and a slight burnt grain finish.

The mouthfeel was of medium fullness.

Overall an enjoyable lager with a rather complex malt.

Single bottle bought while in PA for the holidays. Bottle looks terrible, like a budweiser product might (different from the picture here on BA). Poured a surprizingly dark amber color with very little head. Understated floral hop and coriander odor. Flowery and fairly heavy for the style and the appearance. Flavors of dandelions and coriander mix will with the light maltiness. Fresh and smooth and actually fairly pleasing. Not too bad.

I enjoyed this beer. There's no corny taste, only malty sweetness and light bitterness from hops. Its a very clean finishing beer that is pleasant and easy to drink. ABV is likely in the 4.5-5.0% range, so putting away 6 or so makes for an enjoyable evening... or a prelude to 6 more of course!

Virtually the same as Gold Medal, except with a slightly amber color and bigger head, doesn't do that much for it, just another adequete all-malt lager from an adequete brewery. The Lion makes decent beer cheap but in PA with all the wonderful craft-breweries it still isn't much of a contender.

This item seemed pretty similar to the Gold Medal in general characteristics except the color tended more toward amber. It poured into a glass with a decent head that didn't last long and there was not much aroma. It has a tangy malt flavor with ok hops and leaves some pleasant after taste. It's a very drankable beer but there are better products out there for not much more in price. It's a nice alternative to the Pottsville items.

The in-laws live in Northeastern PA and wanted to share some beer bounty with me, so I recently tried the 1857. Here are my notes...

Appearance- Nice clean amber color.Rich head that dissipates rather quickly into nice looking foam.

Smell- My beer smelled as if it might be passed its prime. Had a lot of that sweet and sour malt stench Sam Adams gets if you keep it in the basement too long (ie. two weeks). Since I can't be sure of freshness, I have rated the beer average.

Taste - like it smelled. Strong sweet and sour malt, but with an edge of toasted grain. It is pretty cloying and has an unpleasantly sweet aftertaste. Even though I can't gauge the freshness, I have little confidence that this beer will taste better than 2.5. I will give it another shot in the future, so hopefully I am wrong.

Feel- Cloying and oily

Drinkability - As I tasted it - I never want another. However, since I can't be sure that the bad experience was due to improper aging, I will attempt to find it and give it another shot in the future.

Pint at Zeno's. Golden color with a descent head which fades away quickly. Smell is malty with some grassy hops. Taste is a bit of sweet maltiness followed up with a bit of grassy hop bitterness. Nothing fantastic but enjoyable. Mouthfeel is light to medium bodied and well carbonated. Easily drinkable. A friend bought this and I didn't know what it was when I started drinking it. Really this is pretty good for a cheap American beer. Makes me think of times spent drinking Miller Lite, High Life, etc with friends and watching football and movies- I wish they would buy this instead.

This one will surprise you considering the cost. Beer had a small frothy head that quickly disappeared and left a frothy ring around the glass. It was copper/amber in color which was darker than what I expected and also had great lacing that really clung to the glass. The smell was also more outstanding than I expected with a nice floral scent. Taste is crisp and refreshing with flavors of sweet malt. It's kept simple, but works. I like it. Mouthfeel is crisp with virtually no aftertaste. This is a very drinkable beer, especially considering the cost. I may stock this one during the football season.

An amber colored body is capped by a creamy white head that holds fairly well and leaves small spots about the glass. The nose delivers a light malt aroma and some background hops but not much more. It's light bodied with a very delicate spritz on the tongue due to its fine bubbled carbonation. In the flavor it delivers a fairly basic malt balanced by some light hop flavor and mild bitterness along with the typical Lion house-flavor. Finishes quickly with just some mild lingering maltiness and a swirl of hop bitterness/flavor. A decent enough beer that's better than some of the mass produced "straw gold" beers - although I think they might be adding "Porterine" to give this color. Still, a good value.

A simple drinking cheap American lager beer. Lightly golden with a small white head. Aromas are of light fruity/biscuity malts and slightly dry bitter hops in the finish. The taste is slightly hoppy up front and dry as well. The mouthfeel is light and refreshing so the drinkability is great. Nice for the price!

OK, so it's cheap beer. There are plenty of cheap beers out there, and if you are going to drink them, it may as well be this one.

This beer is what it is: an american lager not brewed to be distinctive. it is inoffensive, which I guess is a complement in this catagory. A nice golden color with a good white head, it has a decent flavor, which again is a complement in this catagory. Slightly bitter hops, which doesn't hurt.

Would I drink this again? I'll certainly finish the six pack I bought. Would I buy it again? If its this or Miller, yeah. Would it be high on my list? I think not.

Ever wonder what good cheap beer-argains exist? Found one!!! Stegmaier's good ole 1857 won't drain your ATM card balance with great bang-for-the-buck. Buy flowers for your gal with the savings. Dig this tale of a 12 oz. bottle poured into a clean pint: Clear, light, coppery, stand; virtually no bubbles, with a ¼ inch spread white head that quickly dissipates to a steady cover. Lace continues to slide on down the glass. Looks like dark applejuice.

Crisp, oh so slight honey nose like a pilsner/lager. This is a local offering thus, ergo: fresh bottle. Schwing! Ever whiff a bag of Beefsteak Rye Bread? Well, that's in the glass a little.

Tasting this one was a pleasure to the tongue and wallet. Mild malty hop balance. Leafy adjunct sweetness is present. (my guess is rice.) Ginger ale pops out. Dryness in the aftertaste, that was hiding. I had to call out, "Aftertaste...here boy!." Hints of a Miller High Life, but much better. Lip smackin’ continues.

Bright sparky mouthfeel combo that garners a 3.5 Taste. I am drinking this badboy on down, looking for answers that are elusive. Depending upon your tastes, that is good or bad. It's good to me. Yummy & cheap. My two favorite words next to - well, let's skip that part. (Shoot me a separate email if you really want to know.)Last swigs say that this has dry malt hints with fizzy sips great as a session with your cheap cigar smoking poker buddy brew-crew. Rumor has it they go for $11 a case !!! Get some! (I got my bottle from a traveling juggler who needed a ham sandwich and a size 9 left leather shoe for an even swap.)

Beer is good. Happy beering.

This beer was sampled at their brewery in Wilkes-Barre. Was poured into a plastic sample cup – Oh well, what can you do? This batch was supposedly kegged just the day before. Pale golden color with a massive head of foam that nearly filled the cup. That’s what you get with a new keg I guess – once my sample calmed down and the head subsided, I took a sip and noticed how smooth this beer was. Went down like silk. Nice and grainy crisp, mellow and very easy to drink. There’s just the right amount of hop bitterness and aroma. I remember I bought a case of this beer years ago and enjoyed it then. It’s still a very well bodied and tasty lager.

My dad calls this "Stranglemayer" But he thinks Genny is the best beer ever.
Medium amber in color with moderate foamy head. Fresh tasting with hints of floral hops. Fizzy tasting and dry with moderate hoppiness. Finishes with a very slight malt sweetness. A good all around lager.

This is a very good beer, the label says premium lager which you can usually take with a grain of salt but in this case its right. Medium carbonation & head.