REVIEW 53: YUENGLING TRADITIONAL LAGER

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Yuengling Brewery

STYLE:  Amber Lager

ABV:  4.4%

PURCHASE:  Pint (draught), $3.50

SERVING:  Pint glass (obviously). Tap formed a predictable head of roughly one inch. Average to slightly worse than average retention. 

APPEARANCE:  Mahogany body with an off-white head. Transparent. Not much bubble action even when freshly poured. Great lacing, though.

BOUQUET:  Aromatically, comes off less like a beer than as a clean surface of some sort. Damp metal? A whiff of generic grain is discernible. Perhaps half a hop. 

PALATE:  Standard carbonation and a mouthfeel that almost comes across as a light beer. It's very easy to drink, despite the lack of character. There is very little malt or hop presence; in fact, nothing is particularly memorable until the finish, when an apple-skin note emerges and remains through the otherwise tea-like aftertaste. That said, it is also kind of seltzery at that point. Everything here is just so . . . bleh. It has no balls. But it goes down like a sorority sister!

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  Yuengling. A staple of eastern Pennsylvania bars, restaurants, and bottle shops. So much so that it is popularly referred to simply as, "Lager." A sort of rite of passage for teens and college students from this region of the country--especially if they wanted something better than . . . Natty. It's priced just right for them.

The Yuengling Brewery may be a point of pride for my fellow Pennsylvanians. But let's face facts: Yuengling is a mediocre brew. I'm sorry if that upsets any brahs reading this.

The best thing about most beers is the taste. The best thing about some beers is the aftertaste. The best thing about many other beers is the aroma. The best thing about still other beers is their appearance.

The best thing about this one is the lacing.




GRADE:  D+