beer me.

Derrick had a good suggestion when I asked for help with topics a few days ago. In the past couple of weeks, I’ve sampled a huge variety of beer; Derrick was curious about what I had tried and liked.

I’ll address Derrick’s suggestion more directly in the near future; what I want to do today is talk about discoveries of a different kind.

You may recall that Mrs. Crappy and I hosted Jennie’s baseball game tailgate a couple weeks ago. One of the spoils of hosting a tailgate party: You get to keep the leftover beer.

I was pretty proud to see that my fellow YinzTeamers actually didn’t leave behind a whole lot of beer when we all called it a night. What was left behind was, uh, interesting. There were a couple bottles of Hoegaarden, which was a very nice surprise. And then: Yuengling, IC Light, Miller and even a couple bottles of Straub.

If you know me, you know this generally isn’t my kind of thing. But as money is a little tight — and I hate to let almost any beer go to waste — I dug into the American Pale Lager assortment while Mrs. Crappy finished off our case from Brooklyn Brewing.

IC Light: Um. Yeah. I’m hoping I can talk my dad into finishing these when he visits this weekend.

Miller: When I was drinking this stuff regularly, I would generally choose Miller over and AB products. A little corn-y, and a little too sweet, but overall not horrible.

Straub: Actually a pleasant surprise, although I’d admit to giving them a little bit of a pass because they’re one of Pennsylvania’s few remaining regional breweries. Taste was similar to the Miller, although it was a bit drier. That’s a good thing.

Yuengling: This one wasn’t so much of a surprise; I still like their lager if I can get it really freaking cold on a really freaking hot day. It’s the driest of the bunch, and easily the best tasting.

I liked it enough, in fact, that I just bought a case for the beer fridge; once Dad kills those IC Lights, he can start on those. And I won’t be horrified if he leaves a few bottles behind.