Olde Frothingslosh, the Pale Stale Ale with the Foam on the Bottom

Written 2015-04-01

Here it is – April 1^st – April Fool’s Day. Regardless of all of the other pranks which have been pulled on this day, such as Mr. Lion from the zoo calling, my favorite will always be “Olde Frothingsloth, The Pale Stale Ale with the Foam on the Bottom.” This beer, canned by the Pittsburgh Brewing Company, was actually sold around Christmas but I tend to associate the radio advertising of it with April Fool’s Day. Regis Cordic, a popular radio announcer on KDKA AM, would go on at length about the quality of the beer with its most amazing one being that yes, the ale was so light that the foam was on the bottom. According to the radio announcements, the beer was brewed by Sir Reginald Frothingslosh IV at Upper Crudney-on-the-Thames. The cans also bore the full body portraits of Miss Olde Frothingslosh, who, shall we say, was amply endowed in all areas of her body.

I could never understand how the foam got on the bottom. My parents and aunts and uncles would drink some each year and the foam was always on the top of the glass. But my father, who we knew would never deceive his children, would just smile and say I must have missed it when it was being poured from the can. How could I not see that foam would stay at the bottom for a few seconds, and then quickly rise to the top? After all, Regis Cordic said it and no one was allowed to lie on the radio. (For those not old enough to remember, look up the 1938 radio broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’ by Orson Wells.) And technically, Regis and my father did not lie, although bending the truth might have been more like it. It seems that the cans were packaged upside down. And if you used the beer can opener on the bottom of the can, it was correct to say that the foam was on the bottom. I cannot vouch if the pale ale was stale, as I haven’t developed my beer tasting skills until my college years. Our parents did allow us to have a sip or two, a really big treat, being as it was Olde Frothingslosh. Nor was it a big deal back then to allow a child to have a little taste of beer.

If you want to learn a little more about Olde Frothingslosh, here is a good website – http://www.rustycans.com/HISTORY/oldfroth.html