MACRO MONDAY WEEK THREE: Yuengling Black and Tan

Yuengling, yuengling, yuengling; you can do no wrong in my heart, I Swear baby. Now some of you out there in B-N-B land are crying foul, because I’ve already done a macro-monday on Yuengling -- to which I say, I don’t care. Who cares?

Anyways, the beer I’m reviewing (and I use that term loosely in the case of Macro-Monday) is Black & Tan. Black & Tan is a combination of delicious Porter mixed with “Premium Beer”, which I’m guessing is Yuengling Lager, which is good.

But wait, let’s pump the breaks for a second. Yuengling makes a Porter? Apparently so, even though I’ve never seen one in the wild Yuengling has been making Porter’s for many years. So long that they were often the only Porter game in town.

But I digress. You didn’t come here for a history lesson about Yuengling. Well maybe you did, in which case you came to the wrong blog, I apologize profusely. Maybe that’s a good idea for a future post, comment if you agree.

I digress again, lets move on to the matter at hand. Black and tan is a delicious little beverage. On the surface it’s got the typical Yuengling packaging. Poured from a nice longneck bottle into my favorite belgian tulip, Black and tan looks very...porterish for lack of a better term. It’s a nice midnight color with this thin beige head that dissipates to nothing. Fairly usual all thing considered.

The smell is equally predictable, it’s got this fairly hoppy smell, with a little bit of the porter-y goodness waiting in the wings. Yes I keep using Porter as an adjective, no I don’t care that it’s not really one.

The taste is what we all care about, no? And the black and tan actually holds up pretty well in this department. Just like the smell, it’s got all the hoppy goodness from what I can only assume is the premium beer, followed up by a mellow, if not serviceable porter flavor. Some nice roasted malts, maybe some coffee, and a hint of chocolate. It’s pretty refreshing

So the big question is, should I buy this? The answer, Yeah man-- you could do a lot worse then a Black and Tan. It’s dark enough to keep a veteran alcoholic happy, but also fairly drinkable from a lager perspective. It’s one of those rare beers that is both good to drink at a ballgame or have sitting down in your living room. So next time you’re grilling out, why not pick up a sixer? You could do a lot worse. Especially since finding Yuengling’s actual porter is like seeing a Unicorn romancing a Narwhal.

MACRO MONDAY WEEK TWO: Pabst Blue Ribbon

Pabst Blue Ribbon is a beer that conjures up all kinds of images. A decade ago, that image would most likely be your average working man: the construction worker who considered budweiser too fruity to keep in his icebox. Today mention Pabst and the image is undoubtedly a trend-seeking, bearing wearing, vintage denim sporting hipster. But is it a good beer? Beyond all the hype, is it worth drinking?

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the namesake of Pabst Brewing company. Pabst, through a variety of acquisitions now brings us all sorts of beers, from Lone Star to Schlitz. But since its inception, Pabst Blue Ribbon has been there No.1 Beer. Reportedly named Blue Ribbon after winning an award at the World's fair, but more then likely because Pabst used to put silk little blue ribbons on every bottle.

But whether the ribbon in question is figurative or literal in this case, I intend to get to the bottom of whether it's a half decent Adjunct Lager. I cracked open a can that had been cooling in the back of my refrigerator for some time, and poured it into a nice and clean Pilsner Glass. The beers a nice yellow color, with plenty of head that fizzles away to nothing. No lacing, looks pretty light. All in all a pretty unassuming Lager.

The taste is pretty good though. Your usual adjunct lager flavors, corn, bit of malt, slight taste of hops, and just a touch of citrus. Very light, very bubbly. I once heard a Redditor on /r/Atlanta wax poetically about PBR because it was the ultimate palate cleanser, totally inoffensive and fine with anything. In that way, PBR excels fantastically. It's definitely crisp and refreshing, and would be as good grilling a burger as it would at a concert.

So all in all, PBR is a pretty-ok Beer. It's better then Natty Ice, and a good beer to share with friends on a lazy weekend, but that's about it. And that's ok! We need beers like that, and Pabst isn't putting on any aires, we are. So enjoy a PBR, it's not a Yuengling, but it'll do!

MACRO MONDAY WEEK ONE: Yuengling Lager

I'm very proud to debut a new weekly feature: Macro Monday! Not content to be your run of the mill beer snob, I'll run a write-up on one of the widely available Macro (as opposed to Micro) beers. All the pretension of a more expensive beer at a fraction of the cost. That's the Baucom On Beer way!

This week, we're starting off strong with Yuengling Lager! Yuengling is a very distinguished beer, having the honor of not only being the oldest established brewery in the United States, but also being one of the largest by volume. There Lager is so well known in the Tri-state area that it can be obtained just by asking for a lager at a bar. It's also the favorite beer of Obama, so ya know, take that how you will. 

I cracked open a bottle of Yuengling and poured it into my brand new Pilsner glass. Immediately I'm taken aback with what a nice color it is; a charming ruby red, fading to a nice amber. It strikes me as a very dark beer for a lager, full of mysterious deliciousness topped with a thin, off-white head.

Lagers are not a specialty of mine, but Yuengling has an impressive scent to it as well. Not watery or ricey like Budweiser, but very floral, sweet with hints of peaty moss type goodness. The old joke about American Lagers being like having sex in a canoe does not apply here, thank goodness.

The taste was likewise very lovely. Some light hoppiness, mixed with some nice sweetness reminiscent of spring grass, combined with a hint of lemon and a touch of malty smoothness on the way out. A pretty robust tasting beer, but still very drinkable. It sits very light on the tongue, and goes down nice and easy.

You gotta give it up for Yuengling's Amber Lager, it's got a lot going for it; It's unique but accessible, it's refined, but versatile, it has a lot of flavor without being overpowering, but most importantly it's dirt cheap and available anywhere. You could literally stumble into a 7\11 anywhere and pick up a sixer for 7 bucks. And it's just as good with a plate of wings as it is sitting on the porch in July or Tailgating in October.

That about wraps it up for the first installment of Macro-Monday. Let me know what you guys think about it in the comments section and be sure to check in next week for another review of some good-ole-fashion Macro Beers.