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I’ve been seeing billboards advertising Yuengling Lager’s arrival in Wisconsin, so on a recent visit to my former home state, I picked up a sixer.

Every beer fan knows that Yuengling is the oldest operating brewing in America, family owned since 1829. So, I was eager to finally taste a Pennsylvania tradition – Yuengling Lager.

I noticed the can read “Traditonal Lager,” so when I poured it into a glass for the first time and saw that it was amber colored rather than the typical golden lager of mainstream American brewers, I knew immediately that this is a pre-Prohibition-style version, based on what early German-American brewers were making – lagers with corn being as much as 20 to 30 percent of the grain bill. There are modern all-malt pre-Pro lagers made by various craft breweries, but they are not authentic. Yuengling uses the old-school way, adding corn grits in brewing their pre-Pro lager.

It was in 1987, during the early days of the craft beer evolution/revolution, two years after  Richard Yuengling Jr., took control as 5th generation family business president, the Yuengling introduced its pre-Pro lager, which, to my knowledge, was the very first to do so.

Besides the darker color, Hhow else does it differ from the traditional American mainstream golden lager? There’s more body and flavor. Despite the large amount of corn in the grain bill, it has a much maltier flavor than golden lager. It also seems more aggressively hopped than your average American golden lager, giving a nice little bite in the finish. They use both Cascade and Cluster hops in this lager.

It pours with a beautiful white head atop the amber liquid, a combination of most inviting colors, not unlike a traditional Oktoberfest or Vienna lager such as Dos Equis Amber..

Welcome to Wisconsin, Yuengling.