The beers of Pax River: National Bohemian

This beer caught my eye at a local package store up here in southern Maryland. It was $9.99 for a twelve pack at the brew-threw up the street (the drive through ABC stores that are also bars are one of Maryland's few redeeming qualities freedom wise), and I had never heard of it. It is National Bohemian, a regional beer from Baltimore Maryland (although now brewed in NC,GA,and OH) that is now owned by Pabst and contract brewed by Miller.
First brewed in 1885, it was the flagship beer of the National Brewing Company of Baltimore. This smaller brewer was forced to shut down after the passing of the Volstead act (Alcohol Prohibition) as they could not compete with larger brewers in the very limited "near beer" market. The Hoffberger family purchased the business (it is unclear if shortly before the repeal of Prohibition or just after) and modernized it's building and equipment. A few years later they created their marketing icon "Mr. Boh", which has graced "natty boh" containers ever since.

National Bohemian was the first beer offered canned in the now common six pack sometime in the late 1940's, although it is unclear as to when. Also in the 1940's they started adding rebus puzzles to the underside of their caps as a marketing gimmick, but this became a permanent feature after US spies used them to assist the allies in 1944. In 1954 they partnered with the newly created Baltimore Oriels to offer Natty Boh at Memorial Stadium, a partnership that would cement it in the local culture and turn it into "The Official Beer of Baltimore", the brand is heavily involved in local sports to this day. Sometime in the 60's the company created it's slogans "land of pleasant living" (which occasionally morphs into "live pleasantly) and "Oh boy, what a beer!". In 1967 they tried out "every man should have a beer to call his own" but that didn't stick.
I'm not going to get into the gritty details of what happened to the National Brewing Company, so I'll try to make a short synopsis. The 1970's-80's was a dark time for small breweries, and National Brewing Co. got caught in the 2nd Great Die off (you could also call it the great reshuffling, same thing previous regional brand Narragansett was caught in). So in '75 they merged with Carling Brewing Co. in an attempt to save both companies, becoming Carling-National and the ninth largest brewer in North America. But sales did not pick up, and an attempt was made to merge with Pabst. This was denied on anti-trust grounds, which seems ridiculous today as not only would they not be the largest brewer, but the companies are failing. So in '78 the company was sold to the G. Heileman Brewing Company. In the late 80's that company had a hostile takeover by an Australian brewer Alan Bond, it was a complete disaster, they tried to push more into the Malt Liquor market (they already owned the brand Colt 45 from National), it was a complete disaster, they were bought by an equity firm and then sold to Stroh Brewery Co., it was a complete disaster, Everything was bought by either Miller or Pabst.

I got this in 12oz. twist cap glass bottles. The bottle has a sort of mid-century Miller Highlife feel to it in that it has a white, black, red, and gold color scheme. The front prominently features Mr. Boh looking at the National Bohemian logo. On the neck banner you have "Live Pleasantly" and on the main label the other catch phrase "Oh boy, what a beer!". The red cap features Mr. Boh on top and the aforementioned rebus puzzle. It doesn't have the ABV on the bottle but it's about 4.3% according to the internet. Lets twist off the cap and give it a whiff.

listen to your elders

It has a grainy, light pilsner malt nose from the bottle. No hops to speak of, but that's common for the style. It smells pretty clean. Now lets see the head.

It has a soft, white head with poor retention. Color is golden straw with perfect clarity and good agitation. Nose from the glass is similar to the bottle, but with a light malt sweetness.

on first sip, It is lightly sweet and somewhat malty leading into a grainy huskiness in the finish. The sweetness has a red delicious apple quality that lingers after the finish. I can't really detect any hop flavor.  It has a lighter medium body, moderate carbonation, and is fairly creamy. It is a very "clean" beer and quite similar to Miller highlife (which is not surprising considering it was contract brewed by Miller). That apple flavor evolves into honey as you drink it.

So It's been a while since I've posted. I got a job doing what I did in the Marine Corps but for significantly more money. The job required me to move to southern Maryland (I'm outside of PAX River). Hopefully this job will lead to others in the Machine Gun world. I've missed working with automatic weapons so much I can't believe this is real. I'm keeping my house back in South Carolina as my official residence, but I maintain a townhouse up here as it is inconvenient and logistically impossible to move back and forth from my home to work (it's a 9 hour drive). I don't think I could see this place as my home, it's like New River was, just a place I have to be for work. Maryland is better than I anticipated, but it's not fantastic. It's a good enough place to be while the money is coming in, but I wouldn't want to put roots down here. I definitely want to bring my 180 up, the Sequoia isn't long for this world and I don't really need it for anything but going to and from work. At least the crabbing is good around here, I'm pretty excited for that.

Final thoughts, It's a pretty inoffensive beer. It's a bit better than Highlife but not quite as good as Narragansett. It's really a "peripheral beer", not made to be thought about but just used as a social lubricant at events. For this it serves it's purpose quite well. Should you seek it out? probably not. Just get a Miller Highlife and wish it was slightly sweeter and a little more smooth, then you've basically got it. But if you're ever having crabs in Maryland, go ahead and have one or two, they're not bad.