No. 60 - Molson

Last night Canada defeated the United States to win the gold medal in Olympic Hockey. I then found out that there was a friendly wager on the game between President Obama and Canada's Prime Minister, Stephen Harper. The wager was on a case of beer -- one from each of the country's oldest breweries. Yuengling for the United States and Molson for Canada.

Being a native Pottsvillian, we learned in Kindergarten that Yuengling was "America's Oldest Brewery," which was started in 1829. It wasn't until years later that we were told that Yuengling was not "North" America's oldest brewery. Oops. That title belonged to a Canadian company called Molson. But in 1998 the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that Yuengling could continue to use the slogan since most beer buyers would associate the word "America" with the United States, and not include Canada. So that settled that.

I learned today that Molson was started 43 years before Yuengling in 1786. It continues to brew beer on the site of its original brewery -- kinda like Yuengling. The original 1829 Yuengling brewery burned down and was moved to its current location in 1831. And the Molson beer name comes from the family name of its founder, John Molson -- kinda like Yuengling. The only minor difference being that David Yuengling anglicized his name from David Jungling after immigrating to the United States.

The only question I have is what flavor Yuengling will be sent. Perhaps Bock?