The Beers of PA

[FlaSoxxJim]

Note: This was moved from the pinned thread initiating this dubious venture. Flaxx

 

Phillies at Sox 6/8 - 6/10

 

 

OK, I’m taking liberties here. Technically I should be talking about Chicago beer opportunities here at the start of a homestand. But we aren’t going to be playing in the City of Brother-on-Brotherly Love (good add campaign) anytime soon, so I have to take this opportunity to talk about America’s first city of beer.

 

Philadelphia was an important US brewing center from the earliest colonial times. Gov. William Penn (as in –'sylvania') opened the first brewery here, the 'Pioneer Brew House' (1683), and ran it out of his house. They brewed British style ales, including the newly emerging dark porter style that history tells us was the favorite of George Washington. The ales were probably the best in the country and ostensibly as good as any produced in England at the time. Lofty beginnings, to be sure.

 

By the start of the 20th Century there were more than 50 breweries operating within the city, and a good many more throughout the state. German immigration and the worldwide Lager Revolution of the 1840s-1550s had changed the styles that were being produced, but brewing was alive and well and it certainly looked like that trend would continue…

 

Then came 1920 and the beginning of the friggin’ “Noble Experiment”....

 

 

*Shudder* Looking at that bunch, is their sign a threat or a promise?

 

As in most US brewing cities, 13 years of Prohibition spelled the demise of nearly 100% of the small artisinal breweries, and more than 3/4 of the large regionals. Even the big boys like AB and Pabst and Miller came close to going under - hard to make money as a brewer when you can’t brew. The big boys got into the bread and malt and dairy industries to survive, gobbling up the failed little guys where they could. Lost to Prohibition were several large breweries including nationally distributed Baltz, Hohenadel, Esslinger, Continental, and Philadelphia Old Stock. When the dust cleared in 1933, only two of the large Philly breweries were left standing: Ortlieb's and C. Schmidt’s of Philadelphia (No, Schmidt of Philadelphia the brewery, not the HOF third baseman).

 

OK, then, next time we're all in Philly, let's make sure to enjoy some locally crafted Ortlieb's Lager, Schmidt’s Lager, or Schmidt's Prior Double Dark, right? Wrong. Ortlieb's and Schmidt's both closed their doors in the 1980s, with the Ortlieb's name being sold to Stroh and Schmidt's to Heileman. Schmidt's stopped producing in Philly in 1987 (and the brewery was finally torn down in 2002), and Heilman made it here and there for a while it its breweries. But not in Philly, which was without any breweries to call its own (excluding Prohibition) since Penn's Pioneer days 300 years earlier. Sob.

 

Happily, things have gotten better in the last 15 years or so. There's not much chance of getting Philadelphia products unless you are local or at least in-state, but there is once again good beer to be had if you find yourself in town – dressed perhaps in colonial-era clothing waiting for your love to meet you at Independence Hall.

 

Beers from the Stoudt Brewery (opened 1987) in nearby Adamstown are probably the ones you might actually find with some wide distribution in bottles. They make mostly very good all-malt German styles, with their marzen/Oktoberfest beers being most often available (down here anyway). I've also had and very much enjoyed some nice beers from Yards Brewing Company. Unlike the other current players, Yards focuses on English ales instead of German lagers. Their ESB, served from casks and beer engines' (hand pumps) on site and at a couple other local beer bars, is particularly good. They have been past participants in the annual Real Ale festival held in Chicago and co-hosted by Goose Island.

 

Dock Street opened as a brewpub in Philly proper in 1990. It has been through ownership changes and has closed and reopened at least once that I know of. Their bottled products made it to within a few states of me (striking distance!) until the mid-90s, but I don't know how widely they are distributed now. I've not had a chance to try anything from the Independence Brewing Company (opened 1995), but their flagship lager has won a few medals at the Great American Beer Festival. Red Bell and Poor Henry's are the other new Philly breweries I know to be in operation. I've not made it to either brewery yet. I know "Poor Henry" is Henry Ortlieb of the Ortlieb brewing family, so there is a historical tie-in. When the brewery opened in 1997, Stroh still controlled the Ortlieb name so he couldn't use it. Now that Stroh is gone he has regained control of the family name (and also the aforementioned Dock Street pub).

 

If you can't make it to Philadelphia, and you can't find Stoudt's locally, you have to punt. This can be done in a good way (relatively speaking) or in a bad way. The good way is to find something from Youngling's (Pottstown PA), THE oldest brewery in America. The Bad way is to have to suck it up ad drink Rolling Rock (Latrobe PA). I'll share my thoughts on these two breweries and their offerings a little later in the series.

 

Go White Sox. Have a Beer SoxTalkers.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Rolling Rock ‘Extra Pale’: Ahhh, "From the glass-lined tanks of Old Latrobe," "33," aka the mysteriously and cleverly labeled Rolling Rock. There’s nothing like a good beer. And THIS is NOTHING like a good beer.

 

I know Ranier, Genessee, Special Export, Mickey's, and Haffenrefer have all been dubbed “Green Death” by their devotees/detractors (all of these are defunct but Genesee now I think, so apparently having the “green death” moniker attached to your product is not a shrewd marketing move). I think Rock is the heir apparent to the title. Don't get me wrong – I'm an 'any-port in-a-storm' beer drinker, and if that's what you got then that's what I'm drinking. It's just not nearly as good as I thought it was 15 years or so ago when there weren't so many much better things to drink.

 

The beer is overly sweet, overly thin, and overly carbonated to be considered drinkable by many. Still, that combination can be refreshing if it’s not the only thing you ever drink. I admit the one I had last night during the game is the first I have had in about 5 years. Most other breweries call their products brewed to these specs ‘cream ales.’ In truth, cream ales have no cream of any sort in them (but they are usually very sweet) and are lagers NOT ales (i.e., bottom fermented and cold conditioned versus top fermented and usually with no protracted aging). Bastard pseudo-style though it may be, cream ales have kind of a cult following and there are even those who homebrew them now. Viva la difference.

 

The corn flavor from all the adjuncts in Rolling Rock is more pronounced than even Busch or a Miller product. That is probably the biggest thing keeping me from rushing out and getting more of this any time soon.

 

If you do get some Rolling Rock, I encourage you to try a little science experiment that will tell you a lot about what beer is and isn't supposed to taste like. Take one of those green bottles and place it, full and unopened, in your backyard to bask in the summer sun for a day (I just did). Then chill it and, er…, enjoy it. That overpowering smell of Green Giant niblets corn gone bad (if you've done it right) is DMS – dimethylsulfide. It's the premier off-flavor in adjunct heavy American beers that have been "lightstruck." It involves some hairy chemistry between sunlight, hop isomers, and fermentation byproducts in the beer, and it is not pleasant. It's also the reason beer is usually shipped in dark brown bottles – clear bottles won't protect the beer, and neither will the green ones Rolling Rock and many other breweries use. Weird Science.

 

Yuengling’s next time.

[Goldmember]

 

*Shudder* Looking at that bunch, is their sign a threat or a promise?

LMFAO...

[knightni]

 

*Shudder* Looking at that bunch, is their sign a threat or a promise?

That has got to be a quote of the month....

 

 

LMAO!

[Gene Honda Civic]

Yuengling’s next time.

I was getting very upset the closer I got to the end of than and had not seen yuengling yet.

 

Can't wait.

[JohnJeter]

Actuall, the "33" is not a mystery. Excerpted from a Cecil Adams column ("The Straight Dope"):

 

I hunted up James L. Tito, who at one time was chief executive officer of Latrobe Brewing, the maker of Rolling Rock beer.

 

Mr. Tito's family owned Latrobe from the end of Prohibition until the company was sold to an outfit in Connecticut in 1985. After some prompting, he told me the sordid truth.

 

Based on some old notes and discussions with family members now dead, Mr. Tito believes that putting the 33 on the label was nothing more or less than a horrible accident. It happened like this:

 

When the Titos decided to introduce the Rolling Rock brand around 1939, they couldn't agree on a slogan for the back of the bottle. Some favored a long one, some a short one. At length somebody came up with the 33-word beauty quoted above, and to indicate its modest length, scribbled a big "33" on it.

 

More argument ensued, until finally somebody said, dadgummit, boys, let's just use this one and be done with it, and sent the 33-word version off to the bottle maker.

 

Unfortunately, no one realized that the big 33 wasn't supposed to be part of the design until 50 jillion returnable bottles had been made up with the errant label painted permanently on their backsides. (I suppose this bespeaks a certain inattentiveness on the part of the Tito family, but I am telling you this story just as it was told to me.)

 

 

This being the Depression and all, the Titos were in no position to throw out a lot of perfectly good bottles. So they decided to make the best of things by concocting a yarn about how the 33 stood for the year Prohibition was repealed.

 

Count 'em:

Rolling Rock from glass lined tanks in the Laurel Highlands. We tender this premium beer for your enjoyment as a tribute to your good taste. It comes from the mountain springs to you."

[FlaSoxxJim]

Yeah, I have head that proposed as the source of "33", but I had not seen the ORIGINAL Rolling Rock Pledge Before. THANKS for providing it here.

 

As far as that theory I always loved it, because if you read the Rolling Rock Pledge as it appears on the bottles now...

 

"From the glass lined tanks of OLD LATROBE we tender this premium beer for your enjoyment, as a tribute to your good taste - It comes from the mountain springs to you."

 

... THERE ARE ONLY 31 WORDS IN THE PLEDGE!!! The apparent original version of the pledge has possibly shed some light on the matter, but it also calls into my question one of my own theories on "33" – that it was tthe number of Rolling Rocks that needed to be consumed before one could count those words and end up with 33.

 

I'm going to track down a 1939 bottle and look at the Pledge as it originally appeared before I make a decision, but you have lent some credence to one of the competing theories.

 

The other leading theories are:

 

• The number of letters in the ingredients list also included on the bottle – water, malt, rice, hops, corn, brewers' yeast = 33 letters.

 

• 1933, the year of the repeal of Prohibition (as you noted)

 

• The suggested serving temperature in degrees Fahrenheit – One degree above freezing! But like most American beers, many think your tastebuds need to be frozen before you can drink the stuff.

 

• There were 33 or more diffferent recipes in the Latrobe catalog, and Rolling Rock was number 33 – Depending on whether Heinz '57' came out before or after 1939, maybe they took note of a successful marketing gimmick.

 

My own theory (the one I do believe but have not seen put forth elsewhere) is that it is shorthand for an original wort (unfermented beer) gravity of 1.033. This is a low starting gravity on the scheme of craft beers (high grav translates into high alcohol), but it is right there as far as an SG for a commmercial cream ale.

 

There is some historic presidence for this. English brews will have the alcohol content right on the pump handle badges, and some have the starting gravities as well. At least two beers I can think of off the top of my head – Saint Sistus Abt 12 (Belgium) and EKU 28 (Denmark – out of production I think) – were purportedly named to indicate their weight on the Balling Scale (also measures specific gravity, used more in Europe than here). 28 would be WAAAYY up there alcohol wise so I don't know for sure – EKU was the world's strongest beer for a good while and I remember being blown away by it, but I'm not sure it was that strong.

[JohnJeter]

I think the "33" included the name of the beer which of course would appear on the label.

[JohnJeter]

Btw, FlaSoxxJim, when you visit Chicago, here are the two places you MUST visit: the Map Room and the Hopleaf. Excellent selections- tap and bottled.

[FlaSoxxJim]

Btw, FlaSoxxJim, when you visit Chicago, here are the two places you MUST visit: the Map Room and the Hopleaf. Excellent selections- tap and bottled.

Cool, many thanks! I'd been to the Hopleaf maybe 5 years ago and liked it a lot, but when I found the Clark Street Ale House a couple blocks closer to me that also had an outstanding selection I started going there instead. The Ale House was also right next door to an outstanding resturant named Mango who's head chef was I guy I grew up with. played in garage bands with, etc., so between dinner there, the Ale House, and Blue Chicago a couple doors down we'd have ourselves a helluva night.

 

I've not been to the Map Room. I'll have to try to get there (coming in in two weeks for Sox/Cubs!)

 

Goose Island is always on the list. I went to Rock Bottom when it first opened and was unimpressed, but I've herd better things about it lately. I used to try to get out to the Winekellar brewpub in Berwynn as well before it had a fire and closed down a few years back (will probably always be may favorite Midwest brewpub ).

[sox4lifeinPA]

ahh...pottsville..home of yuengling

[FlaSoxxJim]

ahh...pottsville..home of yuengling

OK, PA, I was waiting for you to show before hitting Pottsville…

 

Yuengling: First things first. It is pronounced "YING-ling", not "Young-ling". I was soundly ridiculed on my first trip to Philadelphia in 1990 for not knowing better.

 

Yuengling is America's oldest brewery still in existence. It was founded in 1829 in Pottsville PA, and moved across the street to its current location two years later after a fire destroyed the first brewery. For perspective, that means that at the height of Prohibition the brewery had already been around for 100 years. Like all of the breweries that were to survive those dark times, Yuengling turned to non-alcoholic commercial pursuits. In their case it was near beer and dairy products. They brewed a special batch of beer on the repeal of Prohibition and shipped a truckload of it to FDR in thanks.

 

They are primarily a lager brewery of German lineage. But, as the Pilsner style and modern lager brewing did not come about in Europe until around 1845, they were producing something other than pilsner-esque beers in the early days. Possibly it was the darker, older, but still very German ‘alt’ beer style – an Old World ale style that almost completely disappeared when light lagers came on the scene.

 

I had not had the Yuengling beers before that first Philly visit. They were available on draft everywhere – a pleasant substitute for the national brands that so completely dominated back then and mostly still do now. I liked the ‘Traditional Lager’ when I had it then, and REALLY liked the ‘Dark Brewed Porter.’ The now commonly seen Yuengling's ‘Black and Tan’ had not yet been introduced, and I didn't try their light beer on principle. I've not had their ‘Lord Chesterfield Ale,’ but have been told that it is not as good as the glowing self-description on the bottle suggests it is. I'll reserve judgement until someone sends me a bottle. I can now get both the lager and the black and tan (sadly not the porter) just about anywhere down here. They brew those two styles in the old Stroh brewery in Tampa so it doesn't have far to travel to get here.

 

I realize now that I have only assumed y'all get it in Chicago, but I may be in err? Is it available in the Midwest?

 

While the Traditional Lager is not world class by any standard, it's pleasantly drinkable. It's also cheap and invariably a better choice than Bud, Mich, Miller, et al. More importantly, it is probably also the best widely distributed modern interpretation of Pre-Prohibition American lager beer. That is not to say it is altogether accurate, however.

 

Great European and English beers are all-malt beers, as are the American craft brews. That is, all of their fermentables come from malted barley and maybe some wheat in certain styles. But no corn, grits, or rice; these are cheap adjuncts that up the alcohol while not affecting flavor, body, or color very much. Today, the adjuncts make up about 50% of the grains in American beers, and the generally sad resulting product is the worse off for it.

 

But what a lot of people – even "beer people" don't realise, is that there is a historically valid reason for the adjuncts to be there (other than modern corporate cheapness). The American-grown 6-row barley available to European immigrant brewers in the last half of the 19th century produced a harsh, phenolic, and hazy beer if used as 100% of the grist. The problem was that it had a lot more protein in it than the 2-row varieties they used back home. It was not economically practical to import large amounts of European grain, so the brewers turned to the use of adjuncts like corn and rice to cut the harshness of their products. Fortunately, the high protein content of the domestic 6-row also meant there was a high enough enzyme activity in the malted barley to convert not only its own starches, but also the starches in the adjuncts to fermentable sugar. That's something you can't do with classic European malts, which probably kept Old World breweries from screwing up their beers with adjuncts over the years. If not overdone, corn can give a pleasant graininess to a beer, along with light body and sweetness. When overdone, it throws the whole deal out of whack.

 

Back to the present. So where does Yuengling's diverge from the the historic Pre-Prohibition lager?

 

First, it is only about 1/2 to 2/3 as strong as the historic version would have been. It also uses a higher percentage of adjuncts than historical examples would have; probably 40% or so as opposed to 20-25% in the originals. It also has less than half of the hops that the historic version would have. That is a reflection of the need to decrease hopping (bitterness) rates as you bring down total grist amount and as you up the percentage of adjuncts, and also a reflection of changing consumer tastes that forgot the beauty of hops in beer after WWII. In the same vein, there is not a dedicated use of “noble” European hop varieties like Saaz or Hallertau. Even if domestic strains were used to bitter the historic versions, the noble varieties would have been used for late additions (flavor and aroma additions) during brewing.

 

None of that is to single out Yuengling as a less authentic American lager than the megabrews; in fact it is a lot better than most. There is some body to the beer, some hop character, and some color from the use of a little high-kilned specialty malt. In that last regard, Yuengling Traditional is probably more a loose interpretation of a Vienna or a Dortmunder, and not a Czech or Bavarian Pilsner (which would use just light pilsner malt).

 

I’ve had very good, very faithful reproductions of Pre-Prohibition American lager from some brewpubs and some homebrewers (I stick to ales in my brewing – no patience and insufficient cooler space to mature lagers). Quite simply, our grandparents and great grandparents drank quality American lagers on a daily basis while we of Generation Bud are left to wonder what that must have been like. And, while Yuengling may not stand with those, I’m finishing off my second bottle of Trad Lager as I write (and watch the Sox crash and burn…), so it can’t be all that bad.

[sox4lifeinPA]

pottsville's like 25-30 from where I live(d).

 

Yuengling is good stuff.

 

are you in PA right now, Jim? Miss sox4life's been complaining about a '72 chevette following her around the last couple days...

 

hmmm

[FlaSoxxJim]

I planned on closing out this self-serving (excuse to talk about beer) thread last night with the Philly beer and ballparks connection. Then we got rained out and I ended up doing real work instead. I wouldn't bother to add this now, except there's a (kind of) White Sox tie in that's pretty cool trivia – plus I have an excuse to talk about beer...

 

At least until the closing of Connie Mack Stadium, the most visible beer in Philadelphia was not even brewed in Philadelphia. A 60-foot tall Ballantine (then brewed across the river in New Jersey) scoreboard in right-center field was a prominent feature of the park – so prominent that for a while the announcers referred to homeruns as "Ballantine Blasts." Balls hitting anywhere below the top of the sign were actually in play – very strrange. In fact, only two people ever hit long balls over the sign (here's the kind of Sox tie in): Dick Allen did it in 1965 as a Phillie, and Wes Covington did it in 1966 as a Cub.

 

The scoreboard actually came from Yankee Stadium and was installed at Connie Mack in 1956.

 

Like so many venerable old brands Ballantine Ale was sold from brewery to brewery and after the original Newark brewery folded, and it eventually pretty much disappeared. When getting the finishing touches on the new Citizens Bank Park together, the stadium operators thought it would be cool and nostalgic to bring back Ballantine. They tracked it down in the Miller portfolio, being produced in small volumes at their Ohio facility, and Miller agreed to ship bottles to Philadelphia for sale at the stadium. A pretty cool little touch I think, and a nod to tradition that the organizations and stadium managers rarely take the time to get right.