Pre-Packaged Black & Tans?

Yuengling Black and Tan is the best "cheap beer" Ive had. $6 and change for a sixer and 11.99 for a 12 pack. The reason I say that is because you barely taste the Lager which is mediocre with lame corn/adjuncts and the dark roasty malts from the porter are dominate.

 

FYI- in that case it's because Guinness Draught finishes very dry and has the lower specific gravity. That wouldn't be true of all stouts, though. It's the drier beer that floats, regardless of style. Generally speaking, if you had an Imperial stout, it would be on the bottom if the other beer was a Pale Ale.

Hooray for science! A beer drinker's best friend .

 

Using Harp is usually called a half and half. Black and Tans use an ale and Bass is traditionally the most common choice. I think Bass went downhill after switching to brewing in the states and ownership.

You can get as creative as you want, I've used old raspy and torpedo quite a few times, best of both worlds. The Guinness to use is up to you but traditionally it's the draught.

 

I enjoy an IPA mixed with a stout i think that the two flavors complement each other very good.

 

I think Yuengling may have just released a limited run of Black and Tan. I'll ship you some. #whalezbro

 

Try Beelzebub. Great blend of the two styles in that beer!

 

Saranac's is good as others mentioned. I'm pretty sure they were the first to bottle a premixed black & tan. Guessing it's been around for about 20 years.

 

Yuengling's was first brewed in 1986 - it actually pre-dated their flagship Traditional Lager by about a year or so. I can't imagine Saranac's predated it, but don't recall when the Saranac label expanded beyond the original 1888 Lager.

But it is a good question - who was first. IIRC, Matt also brewed a New Amsterdam Black & Tan for the Old New York Brewing Co. - but have no idea when that was first released, either. (Matt owned the label for a years there, after Reich gave up).

They claimed it was a blend of Saranac Irish Stout and their 1888 Lager at the time. Don't remember if the Stout was bottled but Matt used to make a lot of draft-only local beers at the time.

 

Thanks for the info. I didn't know Yuengling's had been around for that long. I'm pretty sure Saranac's couldn't be that old. I'd guess it came out in the very late 80's at the earliest, but probably early 90's. This is based on my memory of what was on the shelves here and what my dad was drinking, but since I was in elementary school at that time my memory could be a little off.

 

Wish this name would go away, along w Irish Car Bombs...anyone w a smTtering of Irish history or blood should know why. As for the beer, the Mississippi Mud isn't bad esp for the price.

 

I don't know - thinking about it now and considering the history of Yuengling's Black & Tan (originally half Lord Chesterfield Ale and half Porter, poured at the tap in local PA bars, then blended at the brewery on request of a local bar and, finally, reformulated as 40% Premium beer and 60% Porter) - it has got to be Yuengling's Black & Tan that was "first" pre-mixed in the modern era.

Of course, there were beers labeled Black & Tan and Half & Half in the US in the pre-Pro era, and there was a large boom in the latter in the late 30s-early 50s, of various blends of lager beer, ale, porter and stout. See Half & Half and Black & Tan

Gotta assume Yuengling's choice of using the "Black & Tan" terminology was, in part, influenced by Guinness' promotions in the US of the era (even if "Tan" implied an ale like the then-Guinness imported Bass), but also was a legal requirement since "Half and Half" by TTB regulation had to be a 50/50 blend, not Yuengling's 60/40.

 

And they still have the Molesterfield (their original name for the Ale/Porter blend) on the draft board! http://northeasttaproom.com/

Note: I have no idea what if it now consists of, I haven't been to that bar in over a decade and it changed owners well before that.

 

Evil Twin - Yin & Yang