You don’t miss what you don’t have. Although I might be flushing that phrase down the proverbial toilet once I settle back in Boston after a brief 3-day trip to Florida. But on the other hand maybe I won’t. I think I’ve had enough (for now at least).

From about 11:35am Wednesday morning until around 11 at night my Uncle Stevie and I drank in the vicinity of 28 to 32 cans of Yuengling Light Lager. My brother Mark probably had about 28 before he eventually got a grip and succumbed to reality.

Uncle Stevie worships Yuengling Light Lager and knowing that he and his girlfriend would be spending a full day and night in Boynton Beach, FL the same time my brother and I where there, things would get interesting and the Rolling Stones would be played.

By 2:30 of that day the Boynton Beach Publix was officially ‘out’ of Yuengling Light according to our enabler, Earle. Word had spread amongst the city’s homeless that a treasure of empties sat inside my mother’s garage door that would of made even Black Beard tremble with excitement.

We drank them in an air-conditioned kitchen nestled off the 18th hole of a beautiful private golf community. We drank them illegally at the aforementioned country club’s community pool while the pool boy nervously looked on in horror. We drank them at this place called Two Georges on Florida’s intercoastal waterway and then took over an entire bar at another place called Boston’s in Delray, suffocating the bartender with draft orders the whole merry time. And during the segues we drank them in the back of a rented Chevy Traverse because we could.

Each can was accompanied by a steady stream of The Rolling Stones during the entire gluttonous odyssey. Beggar’s Banquet, Get Your Ya Ya’s Out, Exile On Main Street, and Let It Bleed were all played in their entirety at some point that day. Actually I’m lying…we listened to one George Harrison song and one Dire Straits song too.

No Yuengling products are available in my uncle and I’s home state of Massachusetts. The closest place to find it is New York. While I was living in Vermont my friend Ned once took his ’97 Mazda Miata on a ferry across Lake Champlain just to buy a keg of it (there’s actually a short film documenting this endeavor but it’s whereabouts is currently unknown). Distributor politics can get cloudy and I’ve been waiting patiently for the lager to hit Massachusetts shelves since I first tried the stuff over 10 years ago via my New Jersey raised-roommate freshman year of college.

I recently read an article that Sam Adams (Boston Beer Co.) no longer holds the title of being the largest, privately-owned brewery in the US. The 182 year-old D.C. Yuengling & Son, Inc. of Pottsville, PA are now king, or at least tied with Sam. Commonly known amongst its’ loyal supporters as “America’s Oldest Brewery” Yuengling now produces over 2 million barrels a year between it’s 2 breweries.

For a beer than can’t even be bought in New England this is an incredible stat…and one that deserves some recognition. Yuengling Light Lager really is a beer drinker’s light beer, more so than Amstel Light by far. It pours a nice amber color, so it actually looks like a beer, but drinks smoothly without any annoying flavors and doesn’t fill you up. Hop flavor is minimal but it carries just enough bite to avoid going down the Bud Light road to Swillville.

Yuengling currently produces 7 beers and expects to release an Oktoberfest style in the near future…Yeungling Lager, Yeungling Light Lager, Yeungling Porter, Yeungling Premium, Yeungling Black & Tan, Lord Chesterfield Ale, and Yeungling Light.