5 day old Yuengling Lager, Am I Imagining this?

Not out of the realm of possibility, but probably unusual. Enjoy!

 

Probably not imagining it.

Highly hopped beers aren't the only ones that change with 6-7 weeks in the bottle or can.

Freshness does matter.

 

Lagers are better fresh, I don't think you're imagining it.

 

While it's not a lager, every year for several years now I have bought a full case of Troeg's Nugget Nectar. I usually have it in hand about a week after bottling. During the first two weeks it has a bit of "roughness" to the bitterness that I don't particularly care for. At about 2 weeks it hits what I think of as the sweet spot and hangs in that range up to about 6 weeks. After that it slowly loses some of it's "brightness" as the hop bitterness and flavors move into the background.

As a fan of Victory's Prima Pils, which is a lager, I've found much the same type thing, although with a different time span for the sweet spot, etc.

 

At almost 2 months it doesn't surprise me that It'd be different than 5 days. There definitely is a difference on a lot of beers within the first month or 2.

 

I went to grad school in Columbia, MO back in the mid-00s and at the time A-B had some promotion where they were shipping Budweiser to certain bars in town that had been packaged less than 24 hours before. I'm not sure how it could have made it through distribution that quickly, but hey, the born-on date was correct.

 

Back in the day AB did promotions with 'Born Today' Budweiser which was bottled/kegged shortly after midnight and dispatched to distribs to get to accounts. Say what you want, the beer was noticibly better.

Edit: nice job @muck1979

 

They had that in NYC back in the day also. I toured the AB brewery VA once the the tasted much better than usual .

 

I recieved a 24 pack, cans, last fall. It has dropped off quite a bit since then. So, yes, fresh is better for this beer.

I hope that someday I can get Yuengling here in Minnesota.

 

Wait, Yuengling has bottling dates?? When did this start? I don't think I've ever been able to find a date on any Yuengling beer I've had so far.

(Also, how do you decipher "1613931" into May 19, 2016? I figure the 16 at the start is probably the year, so is 139 a Julian date "139th day of this year?" And if so, what's the 31 on the end...?)

 

Yes, but only because I can't get it here, and have to rely on a mule to bring me some from PA. I don't get it often.

 

Yuengling is my gateway beer to the craft beer world, so it holds a special place in my heart.

 

Remember when you could still get Porter, Chesterfield and Premium in returnables? Fresh Yuengling was a good thing.

 

To respond, no, you're not imagining it, fresh is best.

 

The fresher the better