What is your Favorite American Beer Now and what did you like many years ago?

[dave ziegler]

Through the years I have always loved beer quit drinking for many years due to Eusoagus Ulsers but all healed and drinking again I have a good many ones I like. Now when I was young no matter what People say I liked Schmidt's of Pa. When it went under I was sad. My Favorite regular Lager beer is one I can not get in pa but have friends bring me many cases when they get up to New England. Narragansett was good in the old days But the New Narragansett to me is one of the best Macro Brewed Lager Beers around. I just had a friend bring me 5 cases in Feb from CT. The New Reading Premium is a very nice Beer to drink when you want to drink a few it has a nice Smell great taste and good Refreshing Mouth feel to it. I also Like Ballantine XXX ale with is brewed under the Pabst group. It still smells like Corn but it also is one of the most refreshing Ales in mass market stuff. Sam Adams is good but to pricey for me. And I know I'm going to hear about this one But I like Iron City beer when I want to drink a bunch of beer it is a nice cheap tasty beer. I have bought many High end beers only to be disapointed alot. I do like some German beers, but drink mostly good Ol USA Beers. Flying fish Pale Ale which I had one when I met Kurt is a nice Ale. And when I was a Kid I always made the 3 ring sign and asked the Man for Ballantine Beer at the Old Connie Mack Ball park. I have all the guys giving me the 3 ring sign here at work they ask what does that mean and after I tell them they wave to me that way in the plant when I am doing mail. Another real nice Cheap Beer is Stegmaier Beer in 16 OZ returnables a nice tasting smooth Beer from the Lion a Pa Staple. Another old time favorite was Ortliebs and I met Henry Ortlieb the 3rd just before he died at around 55 years old of a heart attack a nice man he had bought the old Sunnybrook Ballroom and made a micro brew in it. He took his first vacation in ten years and died.
Dave Z
Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon!

[Gillman]

Dave, do you remember Horlacher? It made a brand called Perfection which was aged 9 months, as originally for lagers in the mid-1800's.

What about Prior Double Dark?

Both old-time PA beers.

Gary

[dave ziegler]

Yes Gary I remember them well and the Horlacher Perfection was a very nice Beer! Also at the end they made one called Brew II it was supposed to save them but They are long Gone. I also drank alot of Neuweiler Beer and Cream Ale and liked them alot. I liked Rolling Rock Till bud bought them None of that for me. I still have a case and a half of The Old pa Rolling Rock I am finishing up. It keeps a couple of years in the basement but I am drinking it up now and enjoying the last of a good Old Time Beer! Never had any Prior Double dark but tried to get a job there at Adam Scheidt's same time I tried to get one at Kinsey, and got the Job at Kinsey!
BE WELL Gary-!
Dave
Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon!

[Gillman]

Thanks, Dave, wishing you well, too. Here is what the late beer writer M. Jackson said about Brew II in the late 70's: "A strongish (5.57&#37, sweet beer". Straub's as you know is still made in St. Mary's, which is in the north of the State in forested hunting country. Of course there is Yuengling, which is bigger than ever, and Stoney's which is still made too I think (in Jonesville is it, I used to know this). You mentioned all the old Philly beers.

Gary

[Gillman]

No I see now, Jones was the name of the brewery, in Smithton, that made Stoney's and I hope still does.

Gary

[Gillman]

Oops, also in PA there was Lion, in Wilkes-Barre, not sure of its status.

Gary

[dave ziegler]

Gary the Lion is doing great they make Stegmaier as they bought the recipies when they went out of bussiness and promissed to keep its tradition, they have done a great job I like the Steg Porter also. They make Gibbons too which is another great buy in 16 OZ returnables. The Stoney's beer is now contract brewed by Pittsburg Brewing for them, I have not been able to get any of it to try for a long time. Used to be made in smithton by I think it was called Jones Brewing. And Straub's is as good as ever still with no preservitives. You have to drink it within about 90 days after the brewed date. Pittsburg was supposed to make one of my old down south favorites again Weidemann but from what I see have not yet. The Lion is doing all the contract brewing of bottle beer for Reading right now and Legecy is doing the draft at their Micro brewery in Reading they hope to build a bottling & brewery in Reading in the next couple of years. They are very nice People I call them every now and then. They paid about a million dollars to get the Reading name back and they are doing good. The beer is a nice beer in fact I am drinking one right now!
Dave Z

Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
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[Gillman]

Ah yes, Wiedemann's Royal Amber - not just a southern beer, but a Kentucky one, which has an extra resonance here. Listed in M. Jackson's 70's book as one of the great pre-microbrewery era American beers (along with Horlacher Perfection, Prior Double Dark, Anchor Steam (still great), Rainier Ale aka The Green Death, Andeker, Henry Weinhard's, Ballantine IPA and one or two others).

Raise a glass to the old beers.

Thanks, Dave.

Gary

[dave ziegler]

Here's a toast to Ballantine India Pale Ale so Darn Good! I used to bring 3 to 5 cases of Wiedemann's home everytime I took a trip down south to good old KY with my Mom. We loved going to Pikesville and West Libery KY and went every year till she died and I went into a sea of debt thanks to the state of Pa laws where they put leans on your home when you go in a nursing home and everything in the house was mine but they did not see it that way so I had to buy it back lived here my whole life! In the old days it was a farm my Grand parents bought in 1927. I live on the last 1 and 7/8 acre's now and glad I do. Another Beer I loved was from New England Catamount Amber Micro brewed and really good stuff! It to is gone! There is one beer I never got to taste and if I could go back in time I would Kruger Beer the good old Mr K cans the very first Beer to be put in a can 1935, I have a few well worn cans in my collection of beer cans! I would love to find out what it was like from some oldtimer that drank it.
BE WELL Gary-!
Dave
Old Hickory America's Most Magnificent Bourbon
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[BourbonJoe]

Ballantine IPA. Raise a glass to the old beers.

Thanks, Dave.

Gary

That Ballantine IPA was a favorite of mine Gary. Remember the riddles inside the caps. We used to make the guys solve the riddle before we gave them the bottle.
Joe