Best Local Beer: National Bohemian | Baltimore City Paper

Eats and Drinks

Best Local Beer

National Bohemian

Posted 9/18/2002

OK, OK, we know what you're saying: "Natty Boh?! That hasn't been made in Mobtown in years." True enough. Ignore the Milwaukee address that Natty cans and bottles bear. The Land of Pleasant Living beer comes to us from North Carolina these days. But though it's made in the Tar Heel State, you can't buy it there. We spoke to a bigwig at Pabst Brewing, which ultimately owns the Natty brand, who told us that Baltimore is ground zero for Boh distribution. Some trickles into southern Pennsylvania and a few other parts of Maryland, but Mr. Boh's main base is B'more. OK, OK, we know what else you're saying: "Natty Boh, that $6.99-a-case fizz water as Best Local Beer?!" True, today's National Boh is an anemic shadow of the tasty lager your grandparents quaffed at the corner tavern. And. yes, our local brewpubs and microbreweries turn out some complex and compelling brews. God love 'em. But think about this summer, when your rowhouse was a convection oven. Did your sweaty mitt really want to reach for a Double Bock Raspberry Stout or some such highfalutin concoction with the color and consistency of used motor oil? Natty cuts through a heat-and-humidity thirst as well as any bubbly macrobrew out there, while keeping alive--if in name only--a storied bit of Baltimore's brewing past. And did we mention it's cheap as hell? Our Pabst contact put it this way: "If you all keep drinking it, we'll keep making it." You have your marching orders.