This is Beer in Front, part of the Odd Pods Media Network. Sometimes the beer in front of you is the best one yet. I'll talk about some great beer, and I'll also talk to various people in and around the beer industry to get their stories all about beer. That's Beer in Front, and it's coming up now. Welcome to episode two hundred and nine, the May thirteenth edition of Beer in Front. I'm your host, Dave Xalatorus and Beer in Front is a proud odd Pods Media Network member. Get ready, folks, this week or diving into the world of American pale ales, a beer style that's close to my heart. It's the perfect choice for those who crave the happy goodness without the high alcohol content of an ipa. And stay tuned because later in the show I'll be sharing my thoughts on some national and some local Illinois pale ales. All this and more right here on Beer in Front. There has been a lot to talk about since the last episode. Illinois Craft Beer Week was a great success. Beer under Glass was terrific as usual. I had some outstanding beer, met some really cool people, and hopefully I can get some of those breweries on in the near future. If you were there and saw a guy walking around like Fred Sandford. That was me, and you should have said, Hi. I had a surgical procedure done on last Thursday, and I thought they were giving it to me, like when I'm going back and forth with the surgeon and everything. I was supposed to get this electronic device that I could hook up to my back afterwards. I didn't get it, but I ordered it, and I need to give a shout out to my friends Floyd Freeman and doctor Doris Forte. They hooked me up with spare nine volt batteries because who uses nine volt battery outside of a smoke detector? When was the last time you used the nine volt battery? But this electronic apparatus, I have to like put these pads on my back and electrocute myself or something. I don't know, but I need to thank them for the batteries. So the procedure, they gave me more epidural injections. The way he described it, I don't remember what the technical term was, but went in there and fried the nerve endings and burned them off, so I guess like I won't feel the paint. Well, he says, it takes maybe seven to ten days before it'll kick in, because right now I'm feeling the paint. So if you're listening to this and I'm recording this over the weekend, if some of it doesn't sound right, blame the METS. In Beer and beverage news, there was a good article in the San Francisco Chronicle on the California wine industry. Now consumption of wine fell by almost nine percent last year. The article says that rising prices, the drinking habits of gen z and millennials, and COVID are being blamed for this. But it was a pretty good article. If you have a subscription to San Francisco Chronicle, I would check that out. Staying in the Bay Area Russian River, they celebrated the twentieth anniversary of Pliny the Younger that brought in eight point eight million dollars to local economies. Of the two group hubs that they have, Fat Tire and Vans are collaborating on this special edition label and it features the legendary checkerboard Van's pattern on the Fat Tire bottle or can so keep an eye out for that. During the week, I went to this place called the Bookseller. It's my local independent bookstore, and there was a thing on Instagram from Illinois Brewing, who I follow, and they said that there's this new book coming out. It's called Beer Hiking Chicago and Beyond. It was written by Jessica Sedgwick and dan Ahawat. Dan if I mispronounced your name, a thousand apology, So I went to the book signing the day that it came out. Really good book. Once my back is fine, I'm gonna have to definitely utilize these hikes that they list here and brewery. So it's a really good book if you're in the Chicago area, as you know, hikes in the city, hikes around the suburbs, so not that far away. But check out Beer Hiking Chicago and Beyond. On Friday, I participated. I didn't participate. I listened to. It was a workshop from radcraft dot com and that was really good on like marketing and social media. I know that Emily from radcraft has a few more later in the year, so check out radcraft dot com for more info. But I really thought this was useful and I enjoyed it, so maybe you might too. Hello friends, This is an AI version of John Lauren has the Power to make me say anything she wants me to say. She decided that I needed to tell you to listen to the beard Al podcast. It's the podcast where we talk about two of the best things in the world, beer and the wonderful weird Al. She also wants me to tell you that she rules and I drool. Lauren is awesome. I smell like feet. Go listen to the beard Al podcast, available wherever you get podcasts. Lauren is the best at running the show. I'm just side talent. Lauren is so great. This week, I'm going to discuss and sample American pale ales. The American version, as a rule, uses American two roll vault. It is more aggressively hopped than it's British counterpart, the UK version, and their hops are generally I get a more herbal aroma in flavor than I do from the American, which is more high and citrus like. According to the style guidelines, the American pale ale should fall between four point four and five point four alcohol and around thirty to fifty IBus. The first version of this style that was still available up until last year was Liberty Ale from Anchor Steam, which came out in nineteen seventy five to commemorate the two hundredth anniversary of Paul Verbier's ride. The following year, Jack mccauliffe he was brewing to Albion Hale, both of which inspired Ken Grossman, who founded Sierra Nevada, which produced its first batch of the iconic pale Ale back in nineteen eighty. All three of these beers utilized the newer Cascade hoop, which thanks to them, is still widely used to this day. While not as trendy as their IPA or Hazy ip cousin, the American paal ale still has some national distribution with Oscar blues is Dale's paal Ale to Shoots Mirror Pond, both of which I'm going to discuss later on the show. Also Flying Dogs Doggy Style Sweet Waters four two zero and Toppling Goliath Pseudo Sue but which you could pick up at most places. Illinois and Chicago has a plethora of breweries that knock out some great American payal ales. I'm going to talk about a few of them later on as well. I didn't get to all of them because I had surgery I couldn't drink that much. But I've talked about them before on the show. There's just a lot of great payal ales in the city of Chicago, in the state of Illinois. I know a month or so ago I did a review on Sierra Nevada's Payalal and actually the last episode I had Daisy Cutters, So I'm not going to do the full reviews on those. Go and check those out, but those are still extremely highly rated pay ales that I've had. I didn't mark down the score when I had those because enjoy the beard it's in front of you. But they were both excellent beers and I wanted to include them a little bit on this episode on the American pal Al. The classic American pal al I'm going to have right now is from to Shoots. This is Mirror Pond. This beer has been around since nineteen eighty eight. It's won four Great American Beer Festival medals. It's weird. It's the same beer, but they won metals under a different style. So in nineteen ninety it won under a pale ale category, than in ninety four the American pale Ale, and then in two thousand and nine and ten it won under the English style pay al. I've always considered this a great classic American payoe ale. So let's crack open the mirror pond from the Shoots. Beautiful color here, more amber than your usual payo ale. Good foam, has a nice maulty sweet aroma here. Now, in fairness, you know, you can't find this anywhere because everyone with the Shoots you see the fresh squeeze. You don't see a lot of this. So this was canned in August, so it's not the freshest. So I gotta like judge this on a sliding scale. But it smells really good. But I'm getting more of the malt than the hop out of the aroma, and I'm sure that's just because of the age of this, but I still enjoy the aroma. It smells great. That's really good. Such a nice sweet taste from the malt. Here I get a little of the hops. It's more of a like a floral taste than your typical cascade citrus, you know type taste. This tastes a little bit more floral, but I like it a lot. I've always enjoyed this beer. This black Butte Porter the Shoots is just a great brewery. Good mouthfeel to this. This is definitely a rock solid pale ale and one that you should definitely put in the cart. I know they've updated the artwork on their Classics series, so you know, if you see it, grab it. Don't get the purple can, that one's old, get the newer can. But Mirror Pond is a great pale ale. Been around for shit thirty six years now, so you know it's a classic. People drink it for thirty six years for a reason. It's good. So if you see Mirror Pond, you have to put it in the cart. In scoring this right now, I gave this. The appearance was a ten, the aroma was an eight, the flavor the taste of this was a nine, and overall I give this a nine. So on the beer in front scale on a one to ten, this bounces out at eight point nine. Excellent beer. Like I said, you need to grab this one. I'm sure you haven't had it in a while because well, and it's hard to find into everyone's drinking Fresh Squeeze. But don't sleep on Mirror Pond. It's a great beer. Next up on my pale Ale series and they call it a pale ale and I'm not really quite sure, but Zombie Dust from three Floyd. Now it's hiering alcohol and hire an IBus than what's in the style guide. But if three floyd wants to call it a plao, who am I to argue with them? This came out in twenty ten and is probably single handedly the reason why Citra Hops became so popular. I mean this beer the first five years that it was out, Like I remember my friends and I we would go to Three Floyd's and there'd be signs right outside no zombie doest, so you couldn't even get it there. And remember places like Bennie's when they would get it, they would limit you to like one six pack. You couldn't, you know, load up on zombie dust. Well now you could get it everywhere. You could even get the stove pipe can at your local grocery store, which is what I have here right now. But I mean it's a great beer. Haven't had it in a while, probably a good year or so, I think since I've had zombie dust. So let's crack it open. It's a little darker than what you would normally think of as a plao, but I like the color. It looks great. There's good foamyar. The smell is phenomenal. I mean you just get that citra hop aroma right up front, just kind of slaps you right in the nose. That's just so good. I mean, this is a great, great beer. I mean you don't get, at least for me, I don't get a lot of like malt flavors here. It's just all hops. And it tastes hoppier than a sixty two. It almost tastes like some of those ninety to one hundred ones that were out years ago. But it tastes really good. And maybe you're just not used to having a sixty two Ibu beer anymore because everything's hazy, so you're getting all the hot flavors without the bitterness. But this is good. It's balanced, it's not overly bitter. I just think it's a great beer. Yeah, that's fantastic. So maybe you haven't had Zombie Dust in a while, but it's still a classic. Put it in the cart if you see it, if you're in Munster, and hopefully the signs are down where you could actually go there and pick it up or get it fresh on tap. But Zombie Dust is a classic beer. You can get it all over grocery stores, liquor stores, bottle shops, all varieties, twelve ounce cans, the stove pipe cans. So when you see zombie Dust, you have to put it in the cart. And I'm going to score this one right now. On the appearance, I gave this a nine, the aroma was a nine, taste was eight point five, and overall eight point five for a grand total on the beer in front scoring scale, there's eight point six y five. Just a great classic beer, world class. And everybody you're saying, well, ten's perfect. How is eight point sixty five world class? Well, I'm not just handing out awards. Hey, this is a great beer. I think it's fantastic. So definitely, if you see zombie Dust, you must put it in the cart. The next payal ale I'm going to have is from Oscar Blues. This is Dale's American payal ale. This checks in. It's six point five percent alcohol. They use Cascade, Centennial and Comet hops. This has been around forever. Dale's was the first, if not the first, it was right up there with Kraft beers being canned. You remember seeing it. Originally it's like craft beer in a can, what's this? We don't want this? But now you can't even find beer in bottles anymore. Everything's pretty much in cann So the paal al you said, it's been around forever. It's a great beer. I haven't had one in probably a year or so, so let's crack open dales pale ale. It's a nice color good like caramel malts in here, so it's a little darker than your usual pale good foam on this. Yeah, the aroma I get like from the hops, I get like it's a citrusy like a pine notes that I'm getting out of the aroma. It smells really good. Yeah, that's a winner. You get up front for me, at least I get like the malts, the caramel malts, the sweetness from there. Then with the hops coming through. It doesn't list the IBus on this, so it's not it doesn't taste very bitter, but definitely you get the flavor of the hops. It's I mean, it's just a well balanced beer. Yeah, I'm a fan. Well carbonated. It has a good mousepiel to it, like you still get all the flavors like once you're done. So I think this is like really good and I'm a huge fan of this. Yeah, the more I have of this, the more I like it. I think this is good. I scored this an eight point six ' five out on a one to ten scale. Yeah, I said before, and I mentioned it before on the show. It's a good classic American pal al. So if you haven't had Dales in a while, you can pick it up everywhere. Definitely, you got to throw this one in your cart. Next up in the pale Ale series is from Alarmist Brewing in Chicago. This is Handseless. This is a payal ale six percent alcohol. Just reading the name Pantciless makes you want to chuckle. The twelve year old in me makes me want to chuckle. They use mosaic hops and pills their malt in this. It's always great beer. I haven't had this one in a while, so let's crack open Handcless. This is a really good color. Nice little darker than your usual pale, but good color. Good foam meer, smells really nice. You get the nice big hop aroma up front that hits you. Smells great. Yeah, that's good. You get the hot flavor, you get the malt sweetness there. I think it's well balanced. It's a great pale ale. Man. There's like nothing I would change about this. This is really really good. I'm a huge fan of this. I scored this on the Beer in Front scale. This was an eight point six, really good. I liked everything about this. I think this is just a fantastic hall. I don't know what I would change about. So it's really good. If you're in the Chicago Land area and you're near alarmist, you could pick it up. You could grab it at bottle shops, liquor shops, grocery stores. You could find pantiles. So if you see it, put it in the cart. The last one I'm going to have in my pale ale series, it's one from Chicago and one that I've talked about a couple times before. Ride or Die. This is from Hope Well. It's a great palette. I think I just talked about this a couple of weeks ago, but since I'm doing pay als, I have to do it. Ride or Die is probably if it's not my favorite Chicago pale ale, it's right up there on Mount Rushmore. Let's bust this one open. Ride or Die as a big you get it right up front that citrusy heiny notes that you associate with a good American style payal ale. Good color, good foam. Here almost kind of looks like a hazy it's more it's not as clear as some of the others that I've had, but it smells great. Yeah, that's really really good. Five point six percent, so it's not really heavy. This is one that you know should be in your refrigerator at all times if you're in the Chicago Land area. So one of my favorites. If you see it, you gotta throw it in the cart. Hope Well, Ride or Die. Of all the ones I've had, this scored it was tied for first. I gave this an eight point nine. I ranked them all. This was right up there with Mirror Pond as my favorites of this episode, but all of them were really really good, and I was kind of surprised that and it could be an older can. Of all of the pale ales I had this week that my least favorites and it was still a great beer, was Sierra Nevada, So go figure. But if you see Ride or Die from Hope Well or any of the ones I've talked about, you definitely got to put them all in the cart. They're all great payo ales. It's a great style of beer. Mentioned a couple of weeks ago on the show that I'm starting something new called the Beer Media Group. Thankfully, I now I'm not the only member. I'm not the only clown in this group. Rod to j from Rod Jay's Beer Ventures, He's joined. We're going to get a couple more people. What I want this to be and in my world, and I know I had a private call with Rod not that long ago. Kind of like a sounding board for people like us who are beer enthusiasts and we're advocates for great craft beer. Also a spot where you know people that are in the PR world. If you need to reach, you know, people who are fans of beer. You could find different people from all around the country and world for that matter. I want to get people like me who do podcasts. Rod does a weekly live stream every Thursday night. I want to get people like us. Also, it's like people that are writers and who write blogs or they're beer writers, or they do you know, a video. I want to get a wide variety of people from all different medias. So I have a beer media group. You could follow it over on Instagram. I have the website Lockdown. I haven't done anything with it yet. But if that if that's you, if you are an enthusiast and advocate and you put out content, whether it's you know, podcasting, video, written word, you know, get a hold of me like to include you in the beer media group that's going to wrap things up for this edition of Beer in Front. I thank you very much much for listening. If you'd like to support the show, head over to Patreon dot com slash beer in front for more information. If you want to get hold of me, email me Dave. That's beerinfront dot com. Have a great week everyone, and remember sometimes the beer in front of you is the best one yet