America in a Bottle
Written: Aug 26 '04 (Updated Sep 04 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Very flavorful, good roasty notes.
Cons: Slightly pasty grainy notes.
The Bottom Line: Roasty, toasty, it's the mosty.
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| Bruguru's Full Review: Yuengling Black and Tan |
If most of us had the time, energy, and resources, we’d likely travel the world and explore its many wonders. It’s a dream many of us share, yet few are fortunate enough to fulfill. If we have the money, we don’t have the time. If we have the time, we don’t have the money. But there is a way that we can travel the world without ever leaving our own hometowns: by experiencing the food, drink, music, literature and culture of faraway lands and mysterious places.
For my part, I like to travel the world as much as I can in person. But when I can’t go somewhere physically, well then, I can always travel in a bottle. As a beer lover, experiencing a nation’s beer is a primal desire; a yearning if you will that must be satisfied. And so I am beginning a world tour of my own, a series of 80 reviews over the coming months entitled Around the World in Eighty Brews.
I’ll be selecting beers from 80 different nations to review, and though each won’t necessarily be the best beer that nation has to offer (if such really exists), they’ll all be special, at least to me. What better country to start off with than my own, then, and what better brewery than the D.G. Yuengling Brewery of Pottsville, Pennsylvania?
Yuengling is not a flashy microbrewery. It’s not located in any beer Mecca, nor do they brew any especially earth-shattering beers. What they do have is history, and oodles of it. Yuengling is America’s oldest operating brewery, having brewed continuously since 1829. It won’t be long before the brewery celebrates its 200th birthday, no mean feat indeed.
Yuengling beers have long been a staple in Pennsylvania and the mid-Atlantic region. In a domestic beer market that shows little or no growth, Yuengling has defied the odds and continued to expand. At times the brewery has not been able to keep up with demand. A few years ago, they acquired an old Stroh brewery in Florida, and are now using it to brew their beer for sale in the south.
Though it hasn’t reached Georgia yet, or at least not the Atlanta area, I did see Yuengling beer readily available recently when I was passing through Mobile, Alabama. And so I picked up a six-pack of Yuengling Black and Tan, one of the brewery’s top selling beers. For $4.99 a six pack, the stuff is a bargain, wherever you buy it.
Black and tan is a blend of beer, usually stout and pale ale or lager. Yuengling blends their famous porter with lager to make their version. It’s a bit different than the usual such beer, since Yuengling’s porter is quirky, idiosyncratic, and most unusual of all, bottom fermented. This is unlike most porters, which are generally ales.
Yuengling Black and Tan pours to a dark brown to light black color with a light creamy head and a roasty nutty nose. The palate is relatively clean of any fruitiness but has a touch of chocolate and a good dash of coffeeish roastiness. There’s a bit of caramel, hints of cola nuts and a touch of licorice along with a slightly pasty, grainy flavor. In the finish, the beer is balanced by a gently roasty bitterness.
Certainly, this is not the biggest, boldest brew in the world, but it has a respectable amount of flavor and a generous amount of history. It’s a beer that does America proud, and one I’m especially fond of. It’s America in a bottle, from a brewery that continues to defy the odds and do things its own way.
Other reviews in this series:
Belgium in a Bottle
Holland in a Bottle
Recommended:
Yes
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