What beers do you wish would return?

Their American Ale was pretty solid too. Would def buy it again if they brewed it.

 

I didn't have Ballantine XXX until the early 80s, but I thought it was pretty similar to Lord Chesterfield Ale then, although I never had the two side-by-side. Would that have been a fair comparison then?

 

Sam Adam’s Imperial White.

 

Smuttynose Shoals Pale Ale was a great beer. That it was an often overlooked part of the regular line-up was a true statement to their homage to beer history....

 

LAGUNITAS SUCKS
LAGUNITAS BORN YESTERDAY

I cannot emphasize both of these enough.

 

Yeah - there was a difference (mostly on what hops the two brewers were using, and how, at any given time) but, certainly, compared to most other beers, even just "ales", coming out of most US pre-craft breweries they had similar hopping levels, which were well-above the then standard.

Both, sadly, have been dumbed down since that era. I'd go on longer about it, but I already have here oh, and here, too.

Oh, and contrary to current Yuengling PR, Chesterfield Ale dates from right after Repeal, not the early 1800s, and was described as a "Canadian type" ale (Ballantine XXX Ale, reformulated by new owners also after Repeal took it's inspiration from the hoppy but otherwise "lager-like" ales of Canada that had "migrated" over the border during Prohibition).

 

Sierra Nevada summerfest
Sierra Nevada glissade
Sierra Nevada flipside
Stone smoked porter
Sam Adams noble pils

 

Thanks. Red Cap Ale is another one that I would have put in the Ballantine XXX and LCA grouping, although I only had it one time around 1981. I'd put McSorley's in a different grouping since it was more full bodied than these three. (I never really noticed a difference between Ortlieb's and Schimidt's brewed McSorley's).

Yes, Lord Chesterfield Ale dates from the 1930s, although Yuengling was producing ales in the 1800s. "Lord" Ales seem to have been popular after prohibition. Yuengling's cross-town competitor Mount Carbon Brewing had a Lord Salisbury Ale and there was a Lord Camden Ale from NJ, and probably others.

On a side note as a Maryland resident, Charles Calvert, the 5th Lord Baltimore, had a "natural" son, Benedict Calvert, who he sent to live in Maryland in the 1700s. No one knows that identity of Benedict Calvert's mother although there has been conjecture that she was Melusina von der Schulenburg, a natural daughter of King George I. In 1733 Melusina von der Schulenburg married Lord Chesterfield.

 

Oh, yeah, but that's not their claim. It does appear, based on their and distributors'/retailers' ads, that immediately after Repeal into the early 1950s their "Yuengling's Olde Oxford Ale" - later branded "Cream Ale" - was probably a bigger selling beer that Chesterfield.

So I've heard

(OK, Shakespeare wasn't a Lord, but the resemblance to LCA...)

I drank Carling Red Cap a number of times (even used to frequent a small bar that sold only deposit bottles of Budweiser or Red Cap, served out of two sinks full of ice) brewed in MA and MD, and never found it nearly as hoppy as Ballantine or Chesterfield.

Yeah, maybe - hoppier, both in taste and nose, but I'd still put it in ranks of the other two - the 3 were my house ales circa late 1970s.

Ortlieb's brewmaster, Charles Moeller, was even hired by Schmidt's to continue brewing it and a few other Ortlieb beers. Of Schmidt's he once said:

I can't say I ever drank a lot of Schmidt's version, having moved out of state around 1983, and never saw it much after that. I routinely purchased Ballantine and Chesterfield by the closed case in deposit bottles while McSorley's was typically sold by the sixpack in "open" basket type sixpacks and those throw-away green bottles tended to become light struck easily. One of the Phila. brewers canned McSorley's - I guess it was Schmidt - but either it was short-lived package or just not well-distributed.

 

I did drink both Ballantine XXX (General Brg. version) and Lord Chesterfield (LC) in the early 80s. Although I didn't do an tste test, I think your impression is probably correct. They were a lot alike. XXX might have had a more assertive hoppiness, but LC gave me a better overall impression. I preferred LC to XXX at that time, when I had a choice. I did buy the XXX ale returnable quarts for homebrew bottles. In the late 70s I asked the Yaphank beer store owner whether he could get LC. He took monthly round trips to Queens where a small distributor, "Mr. Kulmbacher", stocked Yuengling (LC in cans, Porter bottles, both $1.39 a six). My favorite in the late 70s was McSorley's (Ortlieb), also similar in style, but with a fuller malty flavor. Schmidt Tiger Head was OK (very cheap). When Schmidt acquired McSorley's in the early 80s, I thought it started tasting similar to Tiger Head (JessKidden thinks the Schmidt version was similar the Ortlieb, so don't take my word as gospel).

 

Oops! I was thinking of another PA brewmaster (Neuweiler, Horlacher), Charles Lieberman. Ortlieb & Schmidt's Moeller's first name was Bill - he created the original recipe for Brooklyn Lager (Hindy's book has more info) and for the early Dock Street beers.

 

What about the Stout?

 

Yes. Absolutely.

 

Well here are some beers I miss


Bert Grants Scottish Ale & Porter
SN Tumbler
Miller Red label
Bass Ale (English brewed)
GI Honkers Ale
GI Nut Brown
American Ale by Bud
Newcastle winter ale
Newcastle Brown (English brewed)
Augsburger beer
Lowenbrau
Baderbräu
Bergoff dark larger
Old Tankard

 

Did you get a chance to drink the Pabst 're-brew' of this beer?

https://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/447/213607/

If so, what did you think of this 'version'?

Cheers!

 

That was a lovely beer.

 

You are correct - Yuengling claims that LCA dates to 1829, which isn't true. I didn't know about Olde Oxford Ale. Thanks.

That is an striking resemblance with Shakespeare. I suppose Chesterfield is "The Last of the Lords"


That was a great Moeller quote.

Wasn't the LCA that came in deposit cases in 12oz bottles instead of the 16oz bottles that the Premium came in? The packaging had a very imported look to it. IIRC, it even had its own brown bottle caps with "Lord Chesterfield" on them instead of the generic Yuengling bottle caps that their other beers had.

 

I’m jealous that you and JessKidden can remember what Tiger Head Ale tasted like because I don’t remember much about it. As best I can reconstruct, I only had it once, in 1986, when some friends and I got together in Bethlehem PA and split cases of Tiger Head Ale, Twentieth Century Ale and Adam Scheidt Beer, which were all Schmidt's of Philadelphia products. I don’t think I ever saw any of those three beers any other time even though I lived in South Jersey. If I had known about Tiger Head's distinguished history then, I would’ve paid more attention to what it tasted like. So I suppose I'd like to see Tiger Head brought back just to try it again.

i also never had Bartels, which I regret not trying.

 

FW Double Jack probably...but it is not a strong want. I was never disappointed by a bottle of FW DJ, despite the fact that I could never find one fresh, and yet rated it a 4.75 IIRC. Goes to show how well they really crafted this one. But the problem was it just sat on the shelves back when it was readily available - and for an DIPA that is very bad news.

I'll have fond memories of that beer for sure.

 

Yuengling Beer was sold in 12oz and 16 oz export returnables, and possibly in steinie 12oz returns. I know the porter came in steinies at least until the early 70s. After the mid 70s I lived in NY state and we got dribs and drabs of Yuengling (only one way 12 oz packages, LCA only in cans).