Yuengling: What says you?

I live on the West Coast, but frequently travel to PA for business. It's a good beer to have 3 or 4 of at happy hour.

Better than some, worse than others. But it definitely has its place.

 

it is so over rated and hyped! Indiana folks here about how great it is, then we try it..

 

Finally tried this while in Florida last month. Not spectacular but I would drink it all day before having a BMC.

 

NB First Shift was pretty good, I'd buy that one again.

 

Funny you should say, I spoke to some people originally from Ohio who did that very thing because apparently in either Cincinnati or Cleveland (can't remember where they were from) there used to be a ban on Yuengling because it's a PA brewery and therefore NFL competitors. I think the ban was only lifted a few years ago according to these random folks I met.

 

Is it difficult for you to understand that many of us don't give a shit about reviewing and consider it a waste of time?

Please explain the correlation between reviewing and one's beer experience and also why you feel only pro-Yeungling comments should be posted here.

 

Best thing I can say about Yuengling is that it almost makes BMC tolerable

 

Not necessarily, but those who have been into craft for a number of years usually found their way here sometime ago, as they explored deeper into the world of beer.

 

I was on a fishing trip this year in Michigan, a friend from Penn. brought a few cases. I actually traded 2 cans for 2 lbs of asparagus. I don't particularly like Yuengling but the grilled asparagus was delicious!

 

I'm new here and I haven't any problem with anti yuengling comments, to each his own, but comments like " Claiming it's a good beer casts suspicion on one's experience in the beer world. " goes beyond commenting on the beer and insults the person, not the beer.

 

If Yuengling Traditional Lager was brewed by BMC it would be called crafty. It would be interesting to do a side by side between it and Band of Brewers Third Shift. It does not seem to be cheap where I shop so a buck more for a 6 of Brooklyn Lager is a no brainer.

 

By mid-20th century, Yuengling's market had shrunk to primarily PA. (Remember, too, that in the pre-Prohibition era, their were Yuengling family-owned breweries in NY City and Virginia. In NYC, where they owned two breweries, they were among the largest in 1880's, w/ a barrelage of over 60,000.)

Post Repeal, Yuengling beers are listed as being legal for sale in the 1960s in neighboring NJ, but I never saw them until the late 1970's - and even then, their primary beer in this market at first seemed to be the economy brand "Old German" that they took over when Pottsville's other brewery, Mount Carbon, closed in the mid-70s.

In 1980, Yuengling's (still selling under 100k/bbl a year) market was "concentrated within 200 miles of the brewery" with a "few" markets in MD, NJ, NY and DC. Even Philadelphia (where there were still two local breweries, Schmidt's and Ortlieb) was not yet a big market - "We have some distribution...but only in selected accounts."

[quotes from Yuengling article, Brewers Digest, Feb. 1980]​

By the end of the 1980's, 90% of Yuengling's beer was still sold in PA, with 50% of it sold in the 4 nearest counties (even though distribution had been expanded to much of the northeast, even in most New England states). And that was when their beers were being "master distributed" by Merchant du Vin to distant markets like CA, AZ and CO.

[Yuengling promo publication, 1989.]​

​

[Not really a "reply" to Jack's post, but it got me curious and I went lookin' through the records. ]​

 

Its like Old Style in Chicago. Some people like it. Others it gives the shits (me)

 

Good point. Yuengling Premium is what we drank in college when we could only afford a $12 case of beer. Yuck.

 

Please try to be nice without insulting rodents.

 

Really, that's the important takeaway from this topic. People have their regional favorites, and they don't always make sense. I'm still trying to figure out why people in Baltimore still have a love affair with National Bohemian when it's now brewed in Milwaukee and I don't think it's even the same recipe. That stuff is insufferable, like someone dumped a packet of Splenda into a Coors Original.

 

Agreed. My first Yuengling in a bar was a draft of "1/2 & 1/2", before they made the Black & Tan, it cost 35 cents. It was cheap old-man beer. We only drank it because those types of bars were the only ones that would serve me at that way-pre-21 time. I can't remember the last time I had a Yeungling, nowadays there always seems to be a better option available/

 

It is just another bland beer. I can appreciate the history, but honestly if this was everywhere, most people would not care about it as much. Honestly, I would rather have a Coors Banquet.

 

Yueeeuchy.

 

Well, let's say some people here were claiming Bud Lime-A-Rita was a really good beer and I said exactly the same thing about them. I think most craft beer fans would likewise doubt their beer experience and sophistication. And let's be clear that there's a real difference between saying you like Lime-A-Rita rather than claiming it's an excellent beer. The former is personal taste, the latter claim is ripe for dispute.