Vintage Premium Lager

Origin Story

Was that a PBR I saw the head brewer from Griffin Claw drinking at the Summer Beer Fest? Did someone just offer me a Blatz during set up at the Detroit Beer Festival? What's all of this domestic "schwill" doing at events designed specifically to embrace the creativity and awesomeness of craft beer in Michigan? It's actually no secret that people who have helped build this amazing craft beer culture in Michigan, also have an affinity for some of the classic beer offerings of old. Let's face it, we didn't always have this incredible micro-brew scene in Michigan and when people wanted to drink beer, they often had to go with what was available. It's also not unlikely, that those "go to" beer styles from a few decades back would still hold a spot in many people's beer drinking heart's, because one of the greatest consistencies about all beer is the memories and fun experiences that often accompany the times when its being consumed. I personally can't even remember how many 1/2 bbls of Pabst Blue Ribbon were bought back in college for an acceptable sum of $55. These beers are affordable and have been available for many years, before the beer isle took a considerable turn for the better. However, just because we all began to acknowledge and appreciate the beauty of variety, with a huge degree of quality from one style to the next, that doesn't mean we need to completely shun the old beer buddies of the past. In fact, the well refined American Pale Lager still serves many useful purposes. For one thing, it's light and refreshing, perfect for when you need something for the parched palate. They are also considerably lower in ABV, exactly what you need when you got a long day of yard work or 5 consecutive hours of watching the Olympics on the agenda. This is exactly what the brewers set out to do when they brewed the Short's Vintage Premium Lager. Think of it as an experiment to clone PBR, so we could get all of the usefulness out of this style, without having to give our hard earned dollars to "Big Brother" beer companies. We even used rice syrup when brewing this beer, closely resembling the large domestics that turned their backs on brewing 100% with malted cereal grains a long time ago, intentionally creating the lightest most refreshing Short's beer imaginable. Now we don't want anyone to panic. Short's isn't venturing down that dark path of stylistic uniformity, where the "one beer to rule them all" mentality came from (little Lord of the Rings plug for you all). Our country has been there before and we wouldn't be here doing what we are doing, if the realization that more is better hadn't come out of those dark days of American beer. Yet, at our core, we love to play around with beer styles and test all sorts of different brewing practices, ultimately helping us refine our own craft. In the end, we got a super drinkable light bodied beer to help break up the heavy high gravity styles that have been appropriately dominating the boards at the pub during these long cold winter months.