Chatterbox

Origin Story

The story behind the Chatterbox: American Pale Ale is pretty simple. Anyone who looks at our draft beer line up at the pub, at any given time, can tell that we do not feature a ton of Pale Ales (whether English or American). Typically, you will only see our Pandemonium Pale Ale, which is quite possibly one of the most perfect representations of this style, and has been a solid backbone beer offering from our company for years. Not only are Pale Ales very versatile beers when it comes to consumption and flavor offerings to the consumer, but they tend to use a yeast strain that can often be applied to many other beer styles. Therefore, having a house Pale Ale can be very handy for cultivating yeast, as well as providing a good all purpose beer for our customers. Yet, we have never embraced this style fully nor have we frequently offered multiple options of them at the pub at the same time. As I mentioned before, Pale Ales tend to be perfect beers for many different occasions, as well as many different craft beer palates. With a malty backbone big enough to satisfy the more malt focused beer drinker, they actually tend to be considered a more hop centered beer, leading one to think that they cater more to the preferences of the hoppy craft beer enthusiast. However, I have seen just as many malt forward craft beer drinkers enjoy these ales, as I have hop driven craft beer fans, and have even marveled at their success infiltrating the light American lager drinking world of the sports bar scenes. Perhaps its their remarkable ability to pair up with an incredibly wide range of food styles that helps make this beer style so all encompassing? From the right amount of hop bitterness to go with the acidic tomato sauce on pizza, to the perfect malty sweetness complimenting the savory nature of a good burger, the American Pale Ale is the perfect companion at meal time. Making this the perfect time for us to acknowledge the awesomeness of this great style by offering more options of them at the pub. Aside from some experimental Pale Ales created to test the potential of new hop varieties (Marynka Pale with a new polish hop, Willamette Pale with MI grown Willamette hops, Chinook the Pale Eskimo/New Mission Pale Ale with MI grown Chinook hops, and Gleaners Mingle with ZYTHOS hops) Chatterbox will be one of the first Pale Ales* brewed specifically to showcase this great beer style and offer another great all purpose option for our clientele at the pub. As for the name, it basically stems from a sketch that one of Tony's old friends drew for him many years ago of a wind set up mechanical chattering teeth that little kids used to play with. Tony liked the picture so much, that he knew even then that it would make for a pretty cool beer label.