Go A Few Rounds With Yards Brawler Ale

This post has been a long time in the making and for no reasons other than I'm lazy and school sucks. I have finally decided to write up a review for one of my favorite regular brews.  Being in Philadelphia has afforded me the opportunity to try some very excellent beers from the eastern Pennsylvania area, as well as Delaware and Maryland.  However, this one comes right from the "City of Brotherly Love", Philadelphia, more specifically Yards Brewing Company down along the Delaware River.

Anytime I think of Yards I immediately think of their Brawler Ale.  This is one of their year round available ales.  While very abnormal for craft beer it has a very low ABV coming in at only 4.2%.  This may have you thinking it is a very light and flavorless beer as mainstream beer marketing has unfortunately done.  However, it has a considerably robust and strong flavor, especially since it has such a low alcohol content.  It has a very caramely and almost bready taste to it with subtle hints of lemon or something citrusy at the end.  One would not find this flavor a shock if they did not know the ABV in advance though because it pours a very pretty dark red and brownish color that had a very light, almost white head (that was also very small). It is most certainly a session beer in that it is a very flavorful and filling beer, but drinking one of them will not severely impact your level or judgement and coherence. To me this means it's the perfect beer to have when doing homework and projects at night.  I can grab a few of these and drink them throughout the night and relax a bit without feeling drunk to the point of not being able to complete my work.

I absolutely love the labeling on this bottle as well as it has a classic style image of a manly man boxing a devilish creature.  They also give it the appropriate title of a Pugilist Style Ale (which after using the google machine means it is a "boxer" style ale).  You can certainly go a few rounds with this one.  For someone like myself who is on a somewhat restricted budget these were also great on my wallet not costing much more than a dollar and a half a beer (when purchased in a 6 pack), which I find to be very beneficial for my stomach, liver and wallet.

A Tenacious New Year

Thanks Hop & Soul! I'll try the Curious
Traveler Shandy ASAP, I promise.

Happy 2013 DLAA readers! This New Year's Eve, I decided to try Tenacious Traveler Shandy based on a suggestion provided to me by our new friends at Hop & Soul. (Actually, I'm a big fat liar. They recommended Curious Traveler Shandy but the nice man at the liquor store checked the back room, and only found this one. Oh well, I'll try anything once.)

Fun Fact #1: Tenacious Traveler Shandy is brewed by The Traveler Beer Company, formerly known as The House of Shandy Beer Company.

Fun Fact #2: The Traveler Beer Company follows Drink Like an Adult on twitter. Go ahead, follow them back. We don't mind.

Fun Fact #3: The Traveler Beer Company's logo is a man with a sweet mustache. This clearly makes the beer all that much more appealing. Seriously, who doesn't love a good stache?

The beer was a light orange in color and had a decently thick head at first (although the head dissipated fairly quickly). It had a distinct sweet smell of honey. The very first thing I could taste was the ginger. It reminded me slightly of a really good ginger ale, but was also sweet and citrusy from the honey and lemons. This beer was also pretty carbonated, which made it easy to drink and made me feel even more like I was just drinking a glass of soda.

Overall, I absolutely loved the Tenacious Traveler Shandy. I've been telling everyone who will listen to me for long enough about how much I enjoyed the ginger and sweetness. I even drank ginger tea for the entire next week just to remind myself of the taste of what may be my new favorite beer. Sure, it only has a 4.4% ABV and only got a 25 from ratebeer.com, but I loved it, so I hope you'll give it a shot.

My new shirt!

*Side Note: Thanks again to Hop & Soul for the suggestion, support, stickers, and my free shirt. You guys are awesome.