Dale's Pale Ale

[AUChizad]

http://www.thewareaglereader.com/2011/11/giveem-ale-top-american-craft-beer-first-brewed-in-auburn-bathtub/

Give’em Ale: Top American craft beer was first brewed in an Auburn bathtub
Written by Jeremy Henderson Featured, People, Profiles Nov 1, 2011


The Cure for What Ale's You: Craft beer canner and 1992 Auburn graduate Dale Katechis ales it up at the Oskar Blues Brewery's Longmont, Colo. facility in 2008.

It seems that one one of the reasons the 1993 Auburn Tigers played so well is because they weren’t supposed to play so well. Same with 1972. Same even with 2010. The Auburn Spirit is the spirit of the underdog.

So the success of Dale’s Pale Ale (the New York Times called it the Top American Pale Ale) comes as little surprise—the recipe was perfected in the bathtub of a trailer off Wire Road.

“I got a homebrew kit for Christmas and started making small batches of it while I was in college,” says 1992 Auburn graduate (and former off-Wire Road trailer renter) Dale Katechis, founder and owner of Oskar Blues, a Colorado brewery for which Dale’s Pale Ale serves as flagship. “I just remained an avid home brewer during my five years at Auburn.”

During that five years, Katechis bartended at Darnell’s, “that hippie bar across from Toomer’s Corner.” After graduating from Auburn with a degree in finance, he moved to Colorado.

“I had no desire to work in the banking business so I started working for a back pack manufacturer and bar tending at night and did that for about five years and eventually opened my own restaurant,” he says. “I started making the beer (Dale’s Pale Ale) there at the pub and that beer was the beer that I was brewing at Auburn. That was our (Oskar Blues’) first beer.”

And according to Katechis, its recipe remains virtually untouched since the days he was bathing regularly in Auburn. It’s also one of the best-selling craft beers in the country, which might have something do to with Dale’s revolutionary idea in 2002 of putting his tub ale in a can.

“It was too far-fetched for anyone to really believe, even in our industry, that someone would put a full-flavored, hoppy beer in a can,” Katechis told AdAge.com last November. “Some people laughed it off.”

Then they started ripping it off; according to the Brewers Associations, now more than 100 craft brewers offer their beers in cans.

“We’re the scrappy little guy that took a lot of risk,” he told AdAge. “We kind of did it while we were flipping everybody else off.”

Katechis has a history of going against the odds. There was no home brewing scene during Dale’s days in Auburn, no brew clubs lobbying to legalize the hobby.

“I was the only homebrewer that I knew of in Auburn at that time,” he says. “There weren’t any clubs to speak of, or if there were I didn’t know about them. That was back in the day when there were any homebrews available. We used to have to drive to Green’s Liquor Store in Atlanta to buy Pete’s Wicked Ale. You couldn’t even buy that in Auburn.”

Twenty years later, Dale is selling his old homebrew through 80 distributors in Colorado and across the south and the coasts. You can find Dale’s Pale Ale in BevMo. You can find Dale’s Pale Ale in Whole Foods.

Auburn alumni in and around Boulder, Colo., just 15 minutes from Lyons, can usually find it flowing at alumni club meetings.

“We sponsor some of those (alumni) events, you know, at the local bars where the beer is served,” Katechis says. “We’re trying to keep some of the Auburn Spirit alive.”

[AUChizad]

I have never tried it. The only craft beers I've had in a can are Blonde Bombshell and Good People.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

I'm a big fan of craft beer in a can.  Canned beers have several advantages in that they are absolutely air tight, cannot get light struck, and are much easier to haul around than bottles.  Some people say that the beer has a metallic taste from the can, but that's usually because they are not pouring into a glass.  Drinking from the can is fine for Bud Light, not for something that actually has some aroma and taste.

My go to beer during the summer is Yuengling, which I buy in cans.  Especially since it normally comes in those stupid green bottles that lets the beer get light struck.

[Saniflush]

Drinking from the can is fine for Bud Light, not for something that actually has some aroma and taste.

You are obviously taking too long to drink a beer.

[GH2001]

You are obviously taking too long to drink a beer.

I was thinking the same thing.

[Snaggletiger]

Bud Light pours up cool and crisp with a nice amber color and fruity finish

[AUChizad]

Bud Light pours up cool and crisp with a nice amber color and fruity finish

What's wrong wit da beer we got? You got, um, Millah. Coors. It drank pretty good, don't it?

[GH2001]

What's wrong wit da beer we got? You got, um, Millah. Coors. It drank pretty good, don't it?

Alabama should get with the program and let microbrews do their thing! Look what this homegrown talent is doing for the state of Colorado.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

You are obviously taking too long to drink a beer.

That's cause I'm not 16 anymore and the beer I drink actually tastes good. 

And is about 11% alcohol and roughly 2000 calories per serving.

Another comment like that and I'll call down St Benardus down to deliver a holy ass whoopin'.

[GH2001]

That's cause I'm not 16 anymore and the beer I drink actually tastes good. 

And is about 11% alcohol and roughly 2000 calories per serving.

Another comment like that and I'll call down St Benardus down to deliver a holy ass whoopin'.

Do you drive a dodge stratus?

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Do you drive a dodge stratus?

Not while drinking.

Usually I ride my high horse.

[Jumbo]

I drink Bud Light.

[AUTiger1]

I drink Bud Light.

Don't forget teh KY Gentlemen......

[Vandy Vol]

Is this craft beer any good?
























I bet it would be even better if he took

THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

and shoved it in a can.

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Is this craft beer any good?
























I bet it would be even better if he took

THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

and shoved it in a can.

There is no way that

THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

could be canned, bottled, or in any way contained.   

[AUTiger1]

There is no way that

THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

could be canned, bottled, or in any way contained.

Everyone realizes that immediately after THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED the world is going to come to an end.  THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYEDwill cause a disturbance in the Space/Time Continuum.  There will also be mass suicides due to people being depressed that they will never see anything again that comes close to THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

[AU_Tiger_2000]

Everyone realizes that immediately after THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED the world is going to come to an end.  THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYEDwill cause a disturbance in the Space/Time Continuum.  There will also be mass suicides due to people being depressed that they will never see anything again that comes close to THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED

Luckily the victory gatorade bath of the winner of  THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED will be bottled.  It will be able to resurrect the deceased where they will report that heaven consists of sitting in a theater with Jesus and Howard Cossell doing commentary watching  THE GREATEST GAME EVER TO BE PLAYED on an endless loop in 9,700,500i HD 3D.