René of the Day // 10.17.11 // Yuengling Fling!

My friend Melissa called me at 3:30 on a Monday afternoon when I was at work - it worried me. She'd recently experience a family tragedy and I hadn't heard much from her since then... And I was damn glad I answered my phone! She's the food and beverage director at a country club in Cincinnati and she had two free tickets to the "Yuengling Fling" at the Hyatt downtown that evening. w00t!

What an event! To introduce the beer to local industry professionals, they filled a ballroom with unlimited availability of Yuengling - light, original and dark - The Rusty Griswolds played on stage and there was a delicious spread of favorite foods from Cincinnati and Pennsylvania (Yueng's homeland.) We grabbed a beer and loaded our plates with cheese coneys, soft pretzels with cheese and mini Philly cheesesteaks. NOM. The ice sculptures were pretty neat too - a bottle when you arrived off the escalator (see photo below) and they also served from a bar made of ice with bottles tucked inside.

We had a hell of a good time catching up and letting the beers flow... It's funny how everyone was freaking out about Yuengling coming to Cincinnati. So many of us have been rum running it here the past few years. My mom and I brought back 24-bottle boxes from Pittsburgh two autumns ago when we went to visit Falling Water and the Andy Warhol Museum. They don't sell beer in the grocery store so we went to this beer shack on top of a hill - seriously. And MR always brings some when he visits from Tennessee. It's been such a treat and now its here! Cheers!