Pottsville/Pottstown - 56 miles Apart

I'm sure if you're coming back the reason is to say "Hey, this doofus doesn't know the difference between Pottstown, Pa. and Pottsville, Pa.!" Other than that, I must thank a reader for actually pointing out the fact that in today's original post I had John R.Brooke being from the same town where Yuengling Brewery is. When in fact the two are about an hour apart.

@burghbeersnob @yuengling_beer Dude, Yuengling is from PottsVILLE.
— Nate Stimmel (@OneDropSoup) March 5, 2013

@burghbeersnob It's ok. Both cities are in eastern PA, so you were close (ish).
— Yuengling Brewery(@Yuengling_Beer) March 5, 2013

I guess it's easy to screw the two up? Kudos to the commonwealth for having two eerily similar town names. Maybe I was caught up in the excitement that I almost had a big historical connection. Hey, Wikipedia is editable.

It's either that or this incident stems from the time last September when my girlfriend and I were on our way  to someones wedding in the eastern side of the commonwealth. I was deathly sick with some form of strep throat. Almost to the point where I had to give up driving for the day. During my sickly delusions I remember going under a highway exit sign for either Pottsville or Pottstown. As of right now, I can honestly say I have no idea which. I was very ill.

I do remember my first inclination was that I was close to the brewery or at least I was in delusional sick land. Hilariously, I still don't know which town I was closest to. Irony is a beautiful part of life. A good thing is that I don't have to feel bad about missing out on visiting Yuengling because there's a 50 percent chance I was nowhere near it.

I'm still not devoid of ideas! John F. Reynolds was from Lancaster. Lancaster Brewing Company should have first priority on that, but Yuengling could get away with that as well. Last I checked, Lancaster doesn't have a brew in its lineup named for Reynolds. There's only one Lancaster in Pennsylvania! Geez I need a Black and Tan.

Beer Review: Yuengling Oktoberfest

Serving Type: Bottle

ABV: 5.4 percent

Appearance: Yuengling Oktoberfest pours a deep amber, which isn't typical of most Oktoberfests I've had the past few years. It reminds me of the amber color that Yuengling Traditional Lager has. It also features the bubbly white head we love with Yuengling's flagship beer. Already, we can see homage paid to one of the great beers of Pennsylvania. The only qualm I have is that you can somewhat see through the beer (If you look closely I have this in a Coors Light pint glass (Apologies, but it was a long day prior to drinking this) I prefer a darker color in this style.

Smell: This beer's aroma consisted of strong roasted grain. This is something I've come to adore in the Traditional Lager as well. Notes of sweet caramel dance in your nostrils too.

Taste: The caramel is sweet and spicy on the front of the tongue. The strong roasted grain helps out with a smooth finish. The grain taste is very similar to the Traditional Lager taste when it's consumed from the bottle. It's very close to a strong roast in a cup of coffee. It's slight, but you notice that it's there. (Yuengling on draft tastes different to me). I didn't get a good amount of hop character on the back of the tongue when drinking this one. The flavor was just a tad weaker than I prefer.

Overall Rating: 

Overall, not a bad beer. I'm happy I have a case of this. I love that Yuengling decided to brew an Oktoberfest. Looked everywhere for it last year in pubs, but couldn't get a drop. I like that this beer is similar to the flagship, but would have preferred it set itself apart. The flavors need to come together a little bit more.

Monday Rant: Let Yuengling Be

When I first became interested in beer, Yuengling Traditional Lager was that first beer other than the Natural Light and Coors Light you could find in the pubs around your college campus that you drank and reminded yourself that it's a damn good beer.

The bottle has a classic look to it. I don't see many with that green tint anymore. The beautiful brown liquid that houses itself inside that bottle is even better once it hits your tongue. Making it that much better was the fact that this product was made in Pennsylvania. There was always a sense of pride when it came up in conversation. Having family and friends just down the road in West Virginia, I witnessed some of the rejoicing when Yuengling was finally sold in that state.

Dick Yuengling caused a few ripples a few weeks ago when he said that Pennsylvania wasn't the best business climate in the world. He could be right for all we know. I'm not typing this to argue whether or not Pennsylvania (even a spot closer to Pittsburgh) is the best spot for Yuengling to expand. I'm just writing this to bring up the point that Yuengling has earned his and his brewery's right to do whatever he sees fit for his company.

Come on. Yuengling has provided the country with a nationally-recognized product. That beer bottle is pretty much a trademark, isn't it?

Yuengling has done enough. That brewery has done just about everything and more for Pennsylvania. If this supposed expansion occurs in another state, so be it. That's how the cookie crumbles. Yes, it could hurt jobs somewhat in this state, but I don't feel that it's Yuengling's obligation anymore. The brewery can do what it so chooses. I'm still going to be proud the next time I open a bottle of it. It will always be Pennsylvania's beer.

Monday Rant: Pumpkin Ales and Oktoberfests - Stock Up

I've already sounded off about the earliness of the fall seasonal beers being on the shelves at this point in the summer. It's pretty much a broken system. Brewers are making the product and distributors can't afford to sit on the supply or simply don't have the space in storage. I get it. I'm over it.

I still love my pumpkin ales and Oktoberfest beers. So, as I took a stroll through a local distributor towards the end of last week I came across the establishment's entire wall of seasonal brews.

There were plenty of pumpkin ales and Oktoberfest beers. Enough to last a lifetime. It was at this moment that I decided to make my first purchases of the fall season. After all, it'll most likely all be gone within the next month or so.

I picked up a case of each Saranac's Pumpkin Ale and Great Lakes' Oktoberfest. I really wanted to try the Saranac last fall, but couldn't find any. I've always heard good things about Great Lakes' Oktoberfest. It came down to that and Penn Brewery's Oktoberfest. I figured I'd be having plenty when I'm actually at Penn's Oktoberfest celebration in September.

My dad also pitched in and acquired a case of Yuengling's Oktoberfest (yet another I couldn't find last year) and decided to invest $90 in a case of the infamous Southern Tier Pumking. We've already indulged in the almighty Puca and tucked away the rest of the bottles until it gets a little closer to October.

Since pay day is this week, I'm planning on purchasing yet another case of pumpkin ale before everyone else buys it all up. Maybe some Shipyard Pumpkinhead or Brooklyn Post Road Pumpkin Ale? Have to stock up now!

Who is Beer Snob Sr.?

I've mentioned Beer Snob Sr. in numerous posts on this blog and on my Twitter feed. Due to some confusion of a few readers thinking that I'm referring to my father, I think that today's post is kind of needed. Beer Snob Sr. is a co-worker of mine and is a close friend. My relationship with him is somewhat responsible for the naming of this blog as some of those around us refer to both of us as Beer Snob Sr. and beer Snob Jr. It's about time he gets his opportunity to make his own post For the rest of this post, you'll be reading the work of the infamous Beer Snob Sr.

I am a beer snob.  I believe that beer should be consumed for the purpose of enjoying its carefully crafted character and sharing the experience with others who enjoy it as well.  I am a friend of Bill's, aka Beer Snob Jr. I take pride in the fact that I introduced him to D's Six Pack Shop and its heavenly beer cave, and I am grateful for him introducing me to Blue Dust and its "No Crap on Tap".  Drinking, I mean beer sampling, with Bill has been the inspiration to quite a few of his blogs.  When I was his age, we didn't have blogs. We told drinking stories.  I'll tell you a few of mine, and what led to my beer snobbery.

When I was in college at PSU, I went to parties and forced down anything that came from a keg and filled a plastic cup.  My first four beers were Budweisers. I drank and regurgitated them all in an hour.  For two years I drank Natty Ice/Light, Bush, and Budweiser. After the first seven beers, my taste buds were numb to the cheap corn malts from which they were made, but they got the job done, and I stumbled home without ever savoring the experience.

But that all changed one night when someone handed me a bottle of an amber liquid that I loved the moment it started dancing on the front of my tongue. I don't remember how many bottles I drank, but I made sure to save the bottle fearing that I would never find this beer again or remember what it was called. I am proud to say that the beer in question was Yuengling.  Yuengling was proof to me that beer didn't have to suck. After that, I started saving bottles of any beer I enjoyed and developed enough of a repertoire to consider myself a young beer snob by the age of 21.

My beer snobbery traveled to England with me my final semester of college. I student taught half the time I was abroad, and drank the other half. The campus bar served Caffrey's Irish Ale, while the local pubs satiated my beer lust with pints of properly poured Guinness with shamrocks shaped in the head. My cooperating teacher gave me a 4- pack of Heineken pint cans at the end of the semester to "share with my mates."  Not a bad beer, but I could never get a buzz off it.  

After I graduated, I moved to New Mexico to teach on a Navajo Indian Reservation.  One Friday, some coworkers took me to my first brew pub called Socorro Springs in the city of Socorro. It was there that I was introduced to the pale ale, and the wood oven pizza.  Months later I fell in love with the green chili cheeseburger. I would walk back to New Mexico for one more of those burgers if they called out my name.

I moved to Columbia, MD a year later and bought a book called "America's Best Brews" by Steve Johnson. From it I learned about how beer is made, the difference between an ale and a lager, and how beer shaped our country. I received my beer education from this book, and I refer to it all the time whenever I try a new style of beer and need to know more about it.  

It's been ten years since I bought that book, and I can't even county how many different beers I've tried. But every time I think of a good story, I can recall what frothy goodness was in my glass at the time.  Like the night my ex-wife decorated our Christmas tree while I sat and drank whatever I pulled out of the Samual Adams holiday mixer in 2006 (oh how I miss the Cranberry Lambic) and told her a fact about my childhood for every dated ornament she pulled my collection.  I can go on and on just about that night alone. 

 I started brewing my own beer this past January. I've made five batches so far, and hope that someday something I create will be an important detail in one of my (or Bill's) future stories. 

Cheers.

Beer Snob Sr.   

Monday Rant: Beer Cans - Good or Bad?

An interesting poster I came across at Beer of Tomorrow brings up an intriguing point that many beer drinkers have been debating for years and perhaps will for the rest of eternity: canned beer.

From what I can gather there are people that hate having beer out of a can and there are also people that think it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. I think that the ball falls on both sides of the fence in this argument.

As you can see in the poster, having your beer in a can is almost like having it in a mini-keg as it can keep it colder easier. In my book this isn't always the best option. It depends on the beer you're drinking. I feel that a good bit of beers don't need to be really cold to be enjoyed at their fullest.

I agree with he energy-saving aspects brought up in the poster as cans are infinitely recyclable as well as the fact that your beer is less likely to become skunked in a can rather than being in a lighter-colored bottle

Where the argument goes south in my mind is the fact that I've had some beers out of a can taste totally different than it does on tap or out of the bottle, whichever is better depending on your preferences. This is something I've referred to as my "Yuengling Theory" which proposes that the beer tastes magnificently out of the bottle, but isn't the same from cans or on draft. I named it as such because Yuengling was the first beer I noticed this with.

Regardless of what I think, I don't think that you're wrong if you're on either side of the fence. This issue is something that will be deeply rooted in our own personal preferences of how we drink our beer. Just don't come to me and tell me how awesome you think the new Miller Lite punch-top can is. Yes, I had to remind myself how to breath after watching this commercial, too.