Beers of the Train Show Weekend

My health has deteriorated enough in recent years that I rarely even have one beer but, when we plan for some travel or a special occasion, I load up on extra medications in the previous week so I feel a bit better than usual for our trip or special occasion.  Our weekend out of town for the train show last weekend was one of those times that I spent the previous days pre-medicating and, fortunately, I felt well enough to have a few beers over the long weekend!

Unlike the masses clamoring for overly hoppy, sudsy IPA swill, I go my own way when it comes to beer, just like for everything else.  I rarely move in mainstream lemming circles.  When it comes to beer, I prefer a pilsner that is on the smoother side.  For me, the best pilsner was Piel's...  that was an incredibly smooth beer!  Unfortunately, I haven't seen Piel's in many decades.  For me, the smoother the beer, the better.  Most pilsners aim to be crisp and dry but I don't care for those.  I lean toward the smoother ones with fruity notes.  Unfortunately, this always proves difficult to find.

I also like smooth and balanced porter beers but these are hard to find as well especially in these times of an ocean of IPAs...  actually, IPAs remind me of that ocean sudsy stuff that forms on beaches every now and then...  it looks like it and, to me, probably tastes just as badly.  Anyway, I will also choose a nice smooth porter but they are hard to find.  

This weekend out of town was a mixed bag for me.  When we went to Munich Haus for dinner (which is a German festhaus) I had a decent pilsner (seen below).  This Radeberger wasn't ideal but it is mild enough and smooth enough that it would do.  

Since we socialized in our suite on our first night, we had to visit a nearby liquor store (the only place you can purchase beer in Massachusetts...  which is a big pain in the butt).  I came across a six-pack of Yuengling Lager.  I do like this beer on tap but not so much in bottles.  As with most bottles of beer I purchase, some of these bottles were a bit skunky.  Putting aside the couple of skunky bottles, this was an acceptable change though and it reminded me of the days when Yuengling was available on tap...

This beer below...  Good Measure's Riser beer is one of my favorites lately...  so I made sure to stick a four pack in my bag before we headed to Massachusetts.  This is made by a small brewery nearby us in Vermont.  My good friend, Perry, introduced us to this beer and the owner a couple of years ago.  I just found this beer at our local supermarket this Christmas though so I grabbed some.  Again, it is not what I would call a perfect replacement for Piel's but it comes close.

Incidentally, I had read somewhere that Piel's started brewing again just recently but I have yet to see their beer anywhere.  

Sheila had a mix of different flavors of Woodchuck Cider...  I can't remember the four different flavors but this Wild Tropic flavor was one of them.  She seemed to like them...

On the positive side, there are so few beers that I find tolerable lately that I don't mind just drinking tea at home every night but I can still vividly imagine the taste of that smooth draft Piel's beer from many decades ago...  that would be hard to resist!