Hey, now...don't diss on the Yuengling! Traditional Lager is a fine beer, and their porter is great (although not available outside of PA, so far as I know). If you like a super-hoppy ale, Lord Chesterfield is worth a try, too.
I dig the Yuengling Premium, which is their budget product mostly sold locally in eastern Pennsylvania. They hit the motherlode with "Traditional Lager", which is an amber, maltier concoction than the Premium. Premium is the workingman's pilsener that was the brewery's mainstay in the decades before the current Yuengling took over from his dad. I knew the dad, having visited the brewery as a semi-annual pilgrimage with a few buddies back in my law school days. We cut class to visit the brewery one Friday, only to learn that Friday was the one day of the week that no tour was offered. No matter, the old man came out of his office, blew off his morning meetings and led us on a personal tour complete with a lot of suds flowing in the basement taproom. When we'd come back, he always remembered us and joined us for a fresh one - and my gosh, Premium straight from the brewery tap is as fresh as a perfumed forest wet with rain.
The Premium is the "real" taste of Yuengling. Sure brings me back to better times . . .
