Two mid-strength beers designed to be easy-drinking thirst-quenchers. Let’s not waste time (or any more hyphens than necessary).
The Pilot pours a deep gold, almost rust colour that may look confronting to someone expecting a light beer. But get into it and you’ll find the right amount of sweet malt to hold up the citrusy bitterness, all in a tidy 3.8 percent ABV package.
Easy Rider is much closer to the quaffable lager many think of when they hear "mid-strength". I could talk about how though this beautifully bright beer is labelled as a sparkling ale, its roots are in the American style called cream ale; how when lagers were skyrocketing in popularity in the US in the second half of the 19th century (thanks to migrants from Germany), American brewers developed a crisp style of ale to compete with them; how the term "cream ale" doesn’t have anything to do with the ingredients of the beer, and was simply introduced as a marketing term to suggest these beers were better than lagers (think "cream of the crop" or "crème de la crème")…
Well, I did talk about it after all. No matter. A cream ale is a pale ale that sounds like a milky beer but drinks like a lager, and Easy Rider is a lovely example of the style.
Mick Wüst
- Style
- Session IPA & Cream Ale
- ABV
- 3.8% & 3.5%
