Fellow Pittsburghers-what's the deal with Iron City?

[Guinastasia]

Is it a really good beer? Or is it just because it's local and it's hometown pride?

(I am NOT a beer drinker-yech-so I wouldn't know good beer from bad.)

[The Mad Hermit]

Everyone I know thinks that Iron City is unfiltered river water. It's probably a matter of local pride- but it's more likely that the perception is caused by the heavy advertising Pittisburgh Brewery. They sponsor sporting events and buy lots of billboards and airtime to push their product.

[The Mad Hermit]

oops- submit instead of preview...

should have read "but it's more likely that the perception is caused by the heavy advertising used by Pittsburgh Brewery.

[DoubleJ]

Yeah, "Ahrn" isn't much better than Coors, and I've never been brave enough to try IC Light. If you want a cheap, almost-beerlike drink I'd stick with Rolling Rock.

[BlackNGold]

I'm not a fan of Irn, but I used to drink "Imp 'n Irn" at a local bar. Just 'cause it seemed like the right thing to do. Polish Hill does that to you.

That said, their "Augustiner" is very tasty.

[beergeek279]

I think that most of Pittsburgh Brewing's appeal is their marketing; television spots, and their line of collectable cans (I think everyone has the Steelers Super Bowl cans somewhere), mixed in with a local pride at a fairly national brewery (Pittsburgh Brewing is still in the top 10 in the country in production; which sounds impressive until you consider the market share of the Big 3).

I would say that Iron City is anything BUT a good beer.......cut with corn and rice the same way as the Big 3, along with a lite beer designed, like the others, to remove all the beer taste from it.

For good Pittsburgh beer, I heartily recommend the far superior Penn Brewery!

[AmyG]

As a former Pittsburgher who watches in horror as her relatives chug the stuff whenever she visits, I register my agreement with the appeal-driven-by-marketing camp. I certainly can't think of anything more traditional back home than IC and a Steelers (Stillers) game. It can't be the taste that appeals, unless you like cheap, weak-tasting beer. IC Light is even worse -- as you might expect, it tastes like cheap, really really weak beer. My father swears that Golden Lager, which they stopped making when I was quite young, was pretty good.

Even my family members who agree with me that Iron City blows drink the stuff by the caseful, and the brand is pervasive in the area. Every man I know in the area has at least one IC-logo shirt. Like hot dog vendors in New York, Pittsburgh's Iron City Beer is gross, but it is part of the city's fabric.

As a brief hijack, I had the dubious good fortune to attend Iron City's Octoberfest last September. They boasted a booth selling memorabilia for "the finest Kiss tribute band in the land." I forget the band's name, but no doubt they will soon be rising to national prominence.

[Flymaster]

Here's what the guys over at BeerAdvocate.com have to say about it: http://www.beeradvocate.com/beer/rate_results/410/2680/

They rate it as 151 out of 205 beers in the style.

[MeanJoe]

Checking in here too to add that Iron blows ass, just terrible beer.

Now that the NFL regular season has started, I'll continue to bitch and moan about how horrible a beer it is as I grab another one while watching the Stiller's game - its tradition n'nat.

MeanJoe

[Guinastasia]

I see. I feel really stupid asking this, having been born and raised in "Picksburg", but like I said, I wouldn't be able to differeniate between beers.

Why is it called Iron City, rather than Steel City? That never made sense to me.

[GIGObuster]

Originally posted by Guinastasia
I see. I feel really stupid asking this, having been born and raised in "Picksburg", but like I said, I wouldn't be able to differeniate between beers.

Why is it called Iron City, rather than Steel City? That never made sense to me.
Searching for small and big details here:

Examining microscopically :D we get:
http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/beershots/beers/ironcity.html

Closest to why that name was chosen: It came from one of the brewery’s early names:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/alabaster/A331011
Brewing was a popular industry in Pittsburgh's early years, and dozens of small neighbourhood breweries competed for the favour of the Steel City's thirsty blue-collar labourers. During this time Frauenheim and Vilsack changed their brewery's name to Iron City Brewing. In 1899, Iron City and 20 other local brewing companies merged to become the Pittsburgh Brewing Company. The merger made Pittsburgh Brewing the largest brewery in Pennsylvania and the third largest in the country.
Watch it Cecil!, they are getting into Chicago!:
http://www.ironcitychicago.com/index.html
Iron City Beer, the flagship brew of Pittsburgh Brewing Company, has been the mainstay of the company since 1861. Recognized as one of the first true lager beers brewed in the United States, Iron City continues to surge forward opening new markets here in Chicago.