Old Beer and (new to me) Old Beer

We had gradually been noticing more and more signs in the bars and bottle shops around where we live talking about the impending arrival of a new (to Ohio) beer. It was Yuengling and it was going to be coming all the way from.... Pennsylvania. That'd be the same Pennsylvania of about 140 miles away. It seemed pretty strange to us that in the beers's 182 year life it had never been available for sale in Ohio.

It is America's oldest brewery and we know this as we had stopped one time in Pottsville to check it out (above). According to the weekly Columbus Alive, Ohio is going to be the fourteenth state in Yuengling's national distribution network and the last state bordering PA to get the beer. We're hoping that it'll fall into the lower of the seemingly two tier beer pricing that seems to exist in bars here. In that, if you order a "domestic" draft (Coors, Bud light or Pabst Blue Ribbon) you'll be looking at about $3 a pint. If you think of yourself as more of a connoisseur and don't want to be drinking five or six pints you might opt for a "craft" beer and pay more like $4-$5. That Yuengling is domestic but has discernible taste might mean being able to afford more than two pints!

I'm also keeping an eye out for beers that feature in my "300 beers to try before you die" book when we are out and about. As well as providing me with good cheese, Trader Joe's also came up with Anchor Steam Beer. At $10.99 for 6 it wasn't all that cheap, but when faced with a box to tick and a new beer to try it seemed rude not to. Though not quite as old as Yuengling, the label tells us it has been brewed in San Francisco since 1896. My book tells me Steam Beer is unique to San Francisco and that it "refers to a style where both ale and lager techniques combine to produce a beer with the richness and fruitiness of an ale with the quenching character of a lager."

More beer and cheese news soon, maybe.