The Pugsley Brewing LLC has unleashed (no pun intended) a foul beast upon the beer drinking world. Several actually the entire Sea Dog line seems to be an ill advised trip into a world where adjuncts are what make a beer. I can sort of wrap my head around a blue berry and an apricot wheat, but honestly who needs or wants “natural hazelnut flavor” in their porter. The porter is a beer of humble origins and humble aspirations, it is not a beer in need of tarting up. Maybe a little bit of smoke, in homage to the breweries of the past that didn’t have quite the advanced ventilation systems that we do today but for the love of all that is good in the world please do not make my beer taste like the weird cartoon of milk that sits on the coffee station at 7-Eleven.
I had about three sips and then dumped it out. Stay away.
As for Yuengling, “America’s Oldest Brewery,” I must say I wasn’t expecting much. I knew it couldn’t be any worse than the Sea Dog but I figured it would be a dunkel lager packaged as a porter. Oddly enough while it was a bit thin, I enjoyed it a great deal more than either the Sierra Nevada and the Anchor offerings. On the gassy and thin side, it was very nutty and a bit roasty. Just enough sweetness. Not horrible at all and if I ended up at barbecue with slim pickings in the beer cooler, I would check the local bodegas for this one.
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i wish you had been able to have the yuengling porter in a returnable bottle. they stopped that production in the late 90’s but man was that a nice drinker. those screw caps ruin everything plus the returnable stuff almost never tasted funky, just nice and roasty….memories…
What’s up with these returnable bottles?
before yuengling tried to take over the eastern seaboard they bottled each of their brews in cases of returnable bottles as well as screw caps. the returnables tasted better, probably were fresher and were less expensive than the others. we used to taste test between the two from time to time. the returnables always won. i remember being in the tap room during a visit to the brewery, we used to go every year, where almost everybody was complaining that they hadn’t been able to get porter or chesterfield ale in ret’s for a while. they lied and said we would soon, they were never seen agaain. bummer! i think they still put their “premium” in 16 oz returnables. it’s not their best beer but the bottles are useful for homebrewing.
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