Beer Review of the Week: Yuengling Light Lager

I started "actually" drinking around the age of 16, but for the first few years of my road to adolescent alcoholism I stuck to mixed cocktails, because I couldn't stand the taste of beer. Note: I never actually went down this road, but when you spend your sophomore homecoming dance making love to a toilet instead of a your date, there's reason for concern. I drank gin and Sunkist because I thought all beer tasted like ass. Turns out my presumption had nothing to do with beer in general and it was just due to the fact that the only beer my friends bought was Old Style. It wasn't until I had my first Yuengling Lager during my freshman year of college that I realized why God created beer. I even remember shedding a few tears as the first few drops touched my lips.

If you're from west of the Mississippi River or north of the Mason-Dixon line, you've probably never experienced Yuengling. The Pennsylvania-based brewery is clearly very selfish and they only distribute their delicious nectar along the Eastern Seaboard. It's almost impossible to get unless you're within a stone's throw from the Atlantic. However, after a month of trying, the dedicated staff at my local BevMo was able to score me a sixer of Yuengling Lager and another of the Light version. I had never tried the Light variety and I have to admit that I was a little nervous as I opened the first bottle -- could it possibly live up to the standards set by it's big brother? Here's what I thought...

Calories: *** Until I come across a sub-100-calorie Porter, I can't think of a better way to spend 98 calories. It's got a body that rivals any light beer on the market and twice the flavor of a Bud Select (which also has 98 calories).

Antioxidants: ** Nothing to write home about, but then again I don't expect any lager to cure cancer.

Refreshmant: *** I typically stick to ales if I'm looking to quench my thirst after a brick workout, but the "hopiness" of this lager is relatively light and it goes down smooth.

Taste: *** All things considered, it's a great beer. I would've given it four stars, but it's still not quite on par with Yuengling's classic Lager -- and I didn't expect it to be.