Intro: The Buffalo Brews podcast.

Jason: After a long hiatus, the return of Bear-ly Getting Started.

Craig: I know.

Jason: Series.

Craig: Starting to get the shakes from not doing the podcast right. Yeah. As if I don't hear my voice enough right.

Jason: Bear-ly Getting Started. Withdrawals. Yeah, yeah. Hey, we are at 799 Seneca Street here in Larkinville at Magic Bear Beer Cellar. And I am Jason. I'm sitting here with Craig Altobello, who is the owner and curator of all things Magic Bear, and we are talking about this series, series fourteen fourteen.

Craig: Yeah, look at that.

Jason: You haven't heard us since twenty twenty five. So happy New year. Happy Valentine's Day. Happy Saint Patrick's Day.

Craig: We got Easter around the corner. Everything. You know it's it's fish fry season. You know, we went from deck the halls to fish fry season.

Jason: That's right, that's right. Yeah. I think we got a couple more days left in the Lenten season here. Yeah, yeah.

Craig: So get your get your fix in.

Jason: Uh, what what are we calling the series?

Craig: I think we landed on paler pints.

Jason: Great. It's like my. Well, I was in the Caribbean, so it doesn't it doesn't apply. But for most people, they're quite, uh, pale and pasty instead of tan and tasty.

Craig: Oh, yeah. Look at that. Free, uh, free advertisement there for something nine ninety nine.

Jason: Commercial slots available now.

Craig: Yes. Right. So yeah. Um, when you take a look at our shelf, whether it be the room temperature bookcase or the refrigerated merchandiser, try to curate everything so it goes from lighter to darker. It's based on the SRM scale, which is the technical term in metric for beer colors. But I then do styles on the actual shelves. So this is I put this on the pale ale shelf and I was looking at the pale ales. The tough part about that is pale ale itself. There's American Pale ale, there's English Pale ale, but pale ale is a style category just like India Pale Ale IPA. But it is one of those where it's kind of a catch all for a lot of beers that, you know, I'm not going to have a kolsch shelf, which just has nothing but kolsch. I have a shelf in the cooler for wheat beers, so that's easy. If it's a wheat beer, no matter what type of wheat beer, I can put it there. And it makes it easier for the consumer as well as for me to purchase. But then I've got this shelf that I just call the Pale Ales, and it's not like there's nine or twelve different American pale ales, and it just is a catch all for lighter colored beers that don't fit nicely into other shelves that I have here. So it's the world of paler pints. Meaning, you know, if you wanted something that's on the lighter end of the spectrum when it comes to color, as well as typically that lens hand to hand with flavor, but not necessarily. Um, this is a good episode for you. Very easy drinking beers. However you, you know, you can find yourself a higher ABV item there because it's a pale. For example, I have, um, a beer to Mars from Brewery Arden, which is very topical because we just released bear de Mars twenty six with them this past Friday. Um, but I didn't know where do I put that? I'm not putting it on the Belgian shelf. I want it cold. There's not an actual like area for Belgian beers, but it, it's a, it's a pale farmhouse ale. Well, it's not a wheat based beer and it's not a lager and it's not a IPA. So it goes with the other pale ales. So we're doing paler pints. So that's a pretty good intro to why I chose what I chose because I just saw four really good beers. And like all of the seasons, I try to make sure it's a nice array of beers that fall nicely into one of my corny, uh, titles for a season. And as well, it just covers. There's a lot of depth within each episode, but then breadth within the season so that we're covering a bunch of different types of beer that you can then lump in this category or put on my shelf.

Jason: I have a, I have a, you have a Crushable title. I have a Crushable motto, which is the most crushable or the or the, would you say the most? Um the most. Would you just say the most corny or the most.

Craig: Well, actually, the most corny when it comes to my, uh, iteration and always wanting to have things rhyme or be the same letter.

Jason: So then I built a corny motto, which was the most crushable series to date, which, I mean, everything in this series is going to be five point two and below. Yeah.

Craig: So I'm glad you, uh, bring that up. Um, because it is very similar. The, um, if you think lagers, lagers, very crushable, very easy drinking beer. Well, the cousin to that or, you know, there's lager yeasts and then there's ale yeasts and that's basically all beer is a lager and ale. So when it comes to ales, the pale ales are the lighter, easier crushable beers. And we'll dive into that a little bit more with the next beer. But for the first one, we're kind of going to the pale ale origins, like where the actual name came from, but not necessarily jump in the pond over to England. Um, we're, we're going to enjoy a beer from.

Jason: Jump the Allegheny River. Yeah.

Craig: Yeah, we're going to Pittsburgh. So we're going to Pennsylvania in a very, very good brewery and dancing gnome that like many craft breweries. Um, a lot of times their flagship IPA or some of their hazier stuff is what they're known for. Um, dancing has some very, very good IPA's, but this is kind of like, I would say one of their house beers and something that's readily available for distribution, but not typically readily available in the market. You don't see this too often, but it's their beer called Elk artist. Elk artist. And they have it as an American ale. Okay, so an American ale and they have notes. It's an all day, all season slammer. This balanced American Bitter is thoughtfully hopped and super clean, a beer for all palates and any occasions. So the main reason I chose this beer is because I think you can go to our UK in the day, and we might have talked about English pale ales. Okay, can't one hundred percent remember if we did that?

Jason: I can make a callback on that one.

Craig: Yeah. So there you go. The, um, bitters, the family of bitters, because we've talked about porters, we've talked about dark milds. I know that for sure, but the Bitter Family is not necessarily the best name for it in these days because things have gotten so much more bitter. But were things in England back in the seventeen hundreds, early eighteen hundreds, where a lot of stuff was dark and roasty and malty? They started getting, you know, the pale ale malts and pilsner malts from lighter roasting of the grain, and you were getting paler beers. So instead of the darker ale that was available, it would be a paler ale. And instead of it being malt focused, there was a little bit more bitterness to it and not bitter by any means of the stretch with like an American Pale Ale, which we'll be trying later in the series, or even more so with an American or a West Coast IPA. It was just in comparison to the maltier and roasty beer stuff that was darker and malt forward versus lighter and hop forward. So you called it better. There was the best bitter. That was like the introductory that was, um, sorry, the ordinary bitter, the ordinary bitter would be exactly that. It's the ordinary bitter. It's basically the lighter colored ale. And these ales, even though they're lighter colored, they still would kind of like fall into our category of amber, you know, slightly darker than a dark gold. But if you think like a golden ale and then it's just got a few hues into the amber category, you know, nothing like a red or a really dark amber, but just enough where you're like, oh yeah, there's, you know, definitely still malt, uh, flavor going to be in here. It's not going to be a super light beer when it comes to the malt aspect, it's going to have a little bit of bread. Note to it. That's what these guys were in. Your ordinary bitter was lower ABV. Then they had their best bitter, which was kind of like their standard. And that, you know, was their best bitter. It was the best that they were ready to offer a little higher ABV. And they were. You know, I'm talking three point two, three point five and then three point five up to like three point eight nine. Then your ESB, which we see a lot of extra special bitter, sometimes extra strong, bitter. That was kind of like, hey, this is one of our better bitters that we offer our higher ABV. There's when I say better, I just mean there's more ingredients, right? You need more grain to get more malt flavor. And then that also is what drives the fermentable sugar, which is then going to increase the ABV. And then you need a little bit more hops to balance it. So the more the ingredients go up, the more the ABV, the more everything. But then also the balancing act of making sure you have a nice well-rounded beer, uh, really starts to peak it's head. And that was your ESB. Now when they bottled that ESB, because not many beers were bottled, it was like a cask ale or it would be brewed and then served when it was ready in a cask. right. That's your English pub, the. The real ale. They called it the cask or real ale. The bottled. When they. Were starting to ship it and send it places. That's where kind of. Like the IPA came from. But that's. You can go back to IPAs for days. That's when they just called it pale ale. So an English pale was basically a bitter. That was bottled. And I'm sure you can make some sort of tongue twister out of that. The bitter, bitter that's bottled and all that stuff.

Jason: Oh, so you just went right for it?

Craig: Yeah. Just. I could see it in my head, but I couldn't have it, you know. Wasn't ready for it just yet, but it was from that that America took on its pale ale. And I'll revisit this when we get into more of a pale ale, like the actual American Pale Ale or what some people would just call an APA versus an IPA. So this is what I am assuming is dancing gnomes. I've had it. I thoroughly enjoy it. It's their take on Like an American bitter or just an American pale ale. But I think a little less than what people assume when they think of like that West Coast type American pale Ale. The Sierra Nevada pale ales and all that stuff that has a little bit more hoppiness to it than what I think you're gonna you're gonna try here, Jason. So four point five percent going to go for the nice crack of the pint.

Jason: There you.

Craig: Go. And start pouring this paler pint and let you talk a little bit.

Jason: Your, your callback that we were talking about on the English bitter is barely getting started. Six point two episode is one one seven. And that was the, the the pale or the I'm sorry, the pub ale from Boddingtons. Oh, that we featured on that episode. Yeah.

Craig: So remember the Boddingtons, which I don't expect you to remember everything about it. I think it was a little bit darker than what I've poured here. So poured a beer. Oh my gosh, it's been a while, but I did a decent job of splitting this paler pint between two ten ounce glasses.

Jason: Look at that.

Craig: Nice but good. Good amount of just light white foam. You know nothing. Nothing creamy about the color of the foam, but it's nice, tight little bubbles. I've got about half an inch, you know, between a quarter and a half an inch. Sitting on top of a nice, slightly hazy ale. Still can see my finger through it. It's a nice, just golden kind of yellow gold. Not not much red or amber like I was talking about, you know, kind of like a cloudy pilsner, cloudy lager. It has that very in between yellow and gold vibe. It doesn't have the I would not say anything's dark about this, but it's I.

Jason: Can see my.

Craig: Approaching. Yeah. It's approaching a dark gold. Yeah. So let's take a couple of sniffs. Don't worry. We'll. Cheers before he. I got a little look there, like. Don't you forget to.

Jason: Cheers. Don't forget to. Cheers.

Craig: So again. Okay. One of those smells like a beer. Not too crazy, right? This is this is going to be a nice, balanced approach to a light, easy drinking beer that has some malt flavor, meaning a little bready and then a bunch of hops to balance it out. And probably not a ton of yeast, a little bit more than a lager, because ale yeasts tend to have a little bit more fruity esters and sometimes spicy phenols, but not not necessarily in this style. So cheers.

Jason: Cheers.

Craig: I'll tell you.

Jason: What, everything you've come to expect right there.

Craig: Everything they wrote on that can. This is an everyday, easy drinker. You know, if we put this in front of you and told you it was just like a macro lager. These are some of the beers. It's hard to tell the difference between an ale and a lager. It's very light in flavour. It does finish with a little bit of bitterness, but the same amount of bitterness that you would get. What I would say is, even though this is four point five percent, it drinks like a full Budweiser or a full macro lager, not a light lager, where most light lagers are four point two to four point five percent and the regular standard beards around five percent. This is flirting with light beer category, but it has that full flavored taste. And I think some of that is, you know, you just have a little bit more of the bread malt flavor. And in here, it's very light, very much just like white bread, hinting at a little bit of white bread crust, but no toast. It's not toasted.

Jason: You got this very mild citrus taste to it that probably comes from the centennial hops in here. Um, what's this other one? This is, uh. Is it pronounced pearly or per.

Craig: I don't know if it's Pearl or Perla. Perla but yeah, it's one of the ones that I. You know, it's p e r l e. So I've always said Pearl because in my head that's what it read as. But Perla is another way. I think I've heard it. Yeah, but I could be completely off. So please feel free. If anyone knows to correct us and email us or send Jason a message.

Jason: Sure.

Craig: Fact check.

Jason: That. You know, if you're ever in Pittsburgh, uh, dancing gnome, they actually started, uh, in about twenty fourteen and they did two years worth of pilot batches before they actually, I think, I think their birthday is actually October the first. And they started, they opened in twenty sixteen. Um, I've been there once. Uh, I think it's what I, what I love about that area is if you're not watching for the parking lot, you're going to miss the parking lot because it's on a, it's on a curve that goes to the right. So there's a parking lot and it comes up on you so fast you think you're going to miss it? Then you turn into it and realize you turned into the to the parking lot next door to it. So you have to pull. Turn around, pull back out, pull back into the right parking lot. But, um, they do a lot of focus on plants there. They grow a lot of plants in the tap room. Um, very bright, very inviting. Lots of windows. Lustra, I think is their is their flagship beer. Yeah. That's and, but I know that, um, elk, I mean, when I was there, elk was on tap there. So yeah.

Craig: I think this is like their everyday offering. And especially if you're not into something that's too hoppy, you know, if you're, if you're looking for an easy drinker for all occasions, this really fits the bill. Yeah. It's funny you mentioned a parking lot because I, I visited once and I didn't even realize there was a parking lot. I did some street parking. Um, my in-laws live out in this area, but my wife's gluten free and so are my in-laws. So it wasn't like I was going to drag them to this brewery, but I think this is the only brewery I went to when I was visiting. I was like, oh, we're, we're like very close to dancing gnome and would love to check it out, but I was in and out. But I do recall it being nice bright, you know? Yeah, a lot of sunshine, very inviting in that manner. And it was one of those where I was just drinking some half pours as quickly as possible while still enjoying, and not just for the sake of it, but also not to keep my wife there for too long.

Jason: Right?

Craig: And, uh, got to enjoy and, you know, experience it from the tap and, uh, very, very good brewery and good tasting beer there.

Jason: They're a good place to go because, uh, while they do have a few higher ABV offerings and they do have a little bit of a hop forward approach to their beers, they, uh, they focus on lower ABV so that you're, it's more of a social setting for them. Yeah. They, they, they do a great job there.

Craig: And that's, you know, perfect for these times because it's getting hard for people to pay for the double and triple IPAs. And you know, those are still popular and still drink quite a bit here and everywhere else. However, you want to be able to make a more reasonably priced beer for people to session with. So it's a little bit more. Okay, maybe people are going to come in and have three of these or three beers of this ABV, and I'm seeing a lot of people just ask me, hey, I'm looking for something in the four to five percent range because so many beers were creeping up to the six, seven, eight percent or six percent felt like the new normal, right? And seven percent was okay. That's a little higher. And then eight percent, you're like, all right, now I'm getting into that high ABV territory. Yeah. When I think a lot of people are cutting that in half and looking for the, the four to five range. And when they're having a and they want to have a good time and have a few beers without being irresponsible. So offering something that's full flavored like this at a four and a half percent. And again, it's one of those where if I sat down and had three lagers, or if we did what's called a triangle test. Sure. Triangle test being two beers are the same. One beer isn't, and you're either looking for the ones that are the same, but in the same token, you're then finding the one that's the odd one out. So you're kind of looking for the odd one out. Sure. So if you put this with even if it wasn't two of the same beer, say two lagers and then this ale, it might be difficult to pull this out. I might have to, you know, take a look at the beer and the haziness. Um, not that again. Not that this was hazy, but if I was drinking this next to a crystal clear beer, I would more be inclined to say that that was the lager versus this, because there was a little bit of haze to it and really no yeast flavors. I'm not getting anything too fruity, no real spice, nothing like clove or any of those Belgian or hefeweizen German, super.

Jason: Super light citrus. But I think again, I think that comes from the centennial hops in there.

Craig: Yeah. And it's just got like a nice little dry bitterness to it. Nothing that's really making your mouth pucker or feel like you're chewing on a pine cone, but it has like that slight astringency that comes from some of the Pacific Northwest hops, you know, where they made them famous with the Centennial and the Chinook and Cascade and all that. But you get a lot of citrus notes, um, but not much like pith or it's not very grapefruit or that type of citrus. It's more of just like this nice amount of carbonation leaves a little tingle on your palate. And then the slight bitterness balances that bready malt and you just have a nice light drinking ale. And, uh, I think, you know, elk artist, I'm interested where that might have come from, but I'm just calling this an American ale or, you know, uh, what do they say about it being a bitter? They were just calling it an American, a balanced American bitter. So to me, this this does represent kind of those easier drinking ales that you'd have a bunch at the pub in England. Those would probably be a little bit different because of the hops that they would use these hops. Um Centennial especially are going to be citrus forward. Yeah. Whereas you know, a lot of the English hops and the English pale ales and the family of bitters, they're much more earthy, herbal, slightly minty, so to speak, where this definitely has that, that lingering touch of citrus and a little bit of like pine and like green, just it's got that like evergreen kind of vibe.

Jason: I think this is a nice bridge between like British session and APA. Like it's just, I mean, this is your middle. I think this is good middle ground.

Speaker 4 Yeah. This is, this is why I started with this one.

Craig: Um, you know, we will, uh, we're going to dive into the American Pale Ale next.

Jason: Oh, yeah.

Craig: And this was the transition beer this got us from London and England over to America. And this is a nice segue into. Like, hey, when America made their American Pale Ale, you know, what did they do with it? Why did it become its own style? Why wasn't it just an English pale ale brewed by Americans? Because plenty of people. You know, the easiest thing to think about is Belgian beers. There are plenty of breweries making a Belgian style beer, but it's not from Belgium. It's just a Belgian style. And you know, it takes a significant difference for a beer to spawn its own style, especially when you talk about Great American Beer Festival or the World Beer Cup. There's, you know, there's the English Pale Ales, and then there's American Pale Ales. It's it's a different style. And this is more of a take on, I think, an English pale ale than you'll see when we try our next beer. So a little bit of a transition beer And set up to the next beer.

Jason: Good. And we've coasted nicely back into it after a big, long hiatus and break. And I think this is a great start for series fourteen. I look forward to our next episode. And then, um, people are going to want to hear this because it's coming up in two weeks. We're another callback as we're going back to South Carolina and Edmund's oast, and we'll leave the rest of that open for the next episode then. Yeah. Alright.

Craig: Absolutely.

Jason: In the meantime, we say to you.

Speaker 5 Cheers, cheers.