pFriem Family Brewers Co-Founder and Brewmaster Josh Pfriem Talks pFriem Pale Ale

We spoke with pFriem Family Brewers Co-Founder and Brewmaster Josh Pfriem about pFriem Pale Ale.

Who came up with this beer’s recipe?
This was a team effort with the pFriem brewery management team.

What’s your favorite aspect of this beer (flavor, aroma, etc.)?
How “big” the beer drinks for being a 5.4% beer, full and resiny hops with the crisp malt creates a complex but crushable beer. 

Where does this beer’s name come from?
As with most beers at pFriem, we simply call them what they are. 

Is this your “desert island beer?”
This beer is a solid contender for my desert island beer, it is definitely cutting into my pilsner consumption. 

Can you describe this beer in 10 words or less?
Bright and vibrant, boosting flavors of melon, ripe berry and passion fruit!

Do you know a story – or have a personal story – that revolves around this beer?
This is a beer that we have been holding on to for quite some time and waiting for the right time to release it. When most people think of pale ale, they think of malty and maybe some “C” hop character - Cascade, Chinook, Centennial, etc. and this style has lost a lot of steam over the years. On the contrary, session IPAs as a style saw their heyday and then fell off a cliff, something about the thinness and lack of depth had a hard time holding up to the hop character. We wanted to reimagine the pale ale, but not make it a session IPA. We built a base of high-quality two-row pale and hopped it close to a rate of IPA focusing on Citra, Mosaic and Cashmere hops. We are tickled at the result. It is such a well-rounded hop forward beer that is super-crushable, it has been fun to see people’s reactions. We hope to see more people brewing beers like these.

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