The Short Horror Beer Cast

The Short Horror Beer Cast

Violating your earholes while pairing pints with classic horror, GenX style. Paul and Alec drink in the work of literary masters amidst collapsing scenery and pop culture digressions. Open all hours. www.shbeercast.com

Episodes

July 15, 2025 65 mins

This week on The Short Horror Beer Cast, we’re getting rodential with a little known up-and-coming writer by the name of Stephen King. We expect great things from this kid!

Spoilers ahead, so read the story first if it'll blow your skirt up. 

Story Info

  • Title: "Graveyard Shift"
  • Author: Stephen King
  • Originally Published: Cavalier, October 1970

Beer Pairing

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This week on The Short Horror Beer Cast, we’re rockin’ with Richard Matheson’s kooky, kwazy dystopian world of happy fun times!

Spoilers ahead, so read the story first if you're precious like that.

Story Info

  • Title: "Dance of the Dead"
  • Author: Richard Matheson
  • Originally Published: Star Science Fiction Stories No. 3, 1955

Beer Pairing

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June 11, 2025 48 mins

This week on The Short Horror Beer Cast, we’re diggin’ on Dog. That’s right, it’s Ray Bradbury again, wagging a tail—er, uh—weaving a tale of terror. 

Spoilers ahead, so read the story first if you're precious like that.

Story Info

  • Title: "The Emissary"
  • Author: Ray Bradbury
  • Originally Published: Dark Carnival, 1947 (re-published as The October Country)
  • Get it here: https://a.co/d/cqO8n7R

Beer Pairing

  • Alec's...
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May 23, 2025 25 mins

In this bonus mini-ep, we dive into our dusty dictionaries to dig on some of our favorite words that have fallen out of fashion. Paleologisms, if you will. (And we know you will.) Some words are due for a comeback, and today they’re getting their shot!

Theme song: “Afterparty”, by Paul Lorello, performed by Sid Seizure and the Conniption

Edited by Alec Chambers

Produced by Sid Seizure


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May 20, 2025 44 mins

This week on The Short Horror Beer Cast, we’re gettin diggy wit it once again with "Free Dirt"—Bradbury style, baby! 

Spoilers ahead, so read the story first if you're precious like that.

Story Info

  • Title: "Free Dirt"
  • Author: Ray Bradbury
  • Originally Published: Quicker Than the Eye, 1996
  • Get it here: https://a.co/d/cqO8n7R

Beer Pairing

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May 6, 2025 49 mins

This week on The Short Horror Beer Cast, we’re cracking open “Free Dirt” by Charles Beaumont and pairing it with two beers that go down smoother than a buttered gerbil.

This is Part 1 of a two-parter! Sort of. We’ll explain when you get here.

Till then, you can expect our usual mix of literary over-analysis, pop culture nerdery, and tangents about [insert Gen-X grievance].

Spoilers ahead, so read the story first if you're prec...

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Today we look at Poe’s masterpiece of mesmeric, macabre, malodorous morbidity while masticating malt from murky mugs!

Also, Irish antics! Swooning students! And how we nearly inhaled ourselves into early graves!

The Beers

* Paul’s choice: Aurora Brewing Company, Fresh to Death

* Alec’s choice: Dragonmead Brewery, Final Absolution

The Book

* The Complete Tales & Poems of Edgar Allan Poe

The Music

* Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse (Dig his stuff...

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April 22, 2025 30 mins

Welcome to the afterparty! In this follow-up to Episode 10, we bring you the darkest music we could think of in a moment’s notice without pre-thought, forethought, or intuition of any kind.

Nevertheless, you’ll love what we chose:

* S. Prokofiev, Montagues and Capulets

* Johnny Cash, Hurt

* The Beach Boys, ‘Til I Die

* The Talking Heads, The Overload

* Nina Simone, Strange Fruit

* The Keith Jarrett Trio, My Back Pages

Plus, EGOISTE!

Theme ...

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April 14, 2025 41 mins

Grandpa Lovecraft is back with another delightful tale. Fill yer tub with ice and crack open a cold one. Doctor’s orders. We’re gettin shiv’ry wittit.

Also, Surströmming! Paul gets another bad taste in his mouth! And Alec becomes a keyboard warrior!

The Beers

Paul’s choice: Freigeist Bierkultur, Smoke and Ice Sixpoint Brewery, The Crisp

Alec’s choice: Arbor Brewing Company, Cold Excursion IPA

The Book

* The H. P. Lovecraft Collection: D...

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March 24, 2025 58 mins

We kick off Season Two with everyone's favorite racist uncle, H.P. Lovecraft!

Join us as we witness our poor narrator endure the worst soundtrack since Moulin Rouge. Get a front row seat to Erich Zann's All-Star Celebrity Hootenanny!

Also, the plausibility of ghosts! Keith Emerson's Moog! And Paul offends 15,448 people in a single rant!

The Beer

* Paul’s choice:

* Twin Fork Beer Co., Crescendo

* Alec’s choice:

* Griffin Cla...

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Greetings, mofos!

So here’s the deal. Season 1 was a test run to see if we could actually do this thing. Turns out, we sorta can. At any rate, we're having fun, and that's all that counts. (That's not all that counts.)

This season, Season 2, is actually our first real season, the one where we finally figured stuff out. But to avoid the crises of schemata that will inevitably result from renaming all of Season 1's...

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January 2, 2025 43 mins

NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: This is a toned-down, less special-effecty version of the show we uploaded as a treat on New Year’s Eve. That glitzier edit was a one-time dealio, you see. But the show’s more or less the same. If you listened to it already, we hope you liked it and urge you to listen again. And bring a friend. And take notes this time. What the hell are we paying you for, anyway?

Enjoy!

Ever find yourself alone in a cabin with ...

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Ah, ‘tis the season of warmth, of joy, of strict atomization of humbug, of all things wintery and blazing with good humor, benevolence, comfort, and extreme pessimism regarding the futility of all human existence…

Yes, we're covering the king of bad tidings, Thomas Ligotti, by discussing his masterpiece of unnerving horror, "The Frolic."

Also, terrible Christmas gifts! Alec meets the Night Hag! Paulie Wren's Chris...

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December 2, 2024 53 mins

We’re back with a banger by F. Paul Wilson.

Join us at the end of the world with the most hideous disease to befall humankind since ABBA.

Plus, rats! Paul Newman! Mutant bunnies! And more!

Make no bones about it, this one’ll get under your skin.

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: Unibroue, La Fin Du Monde

* Alec’s choice: Short’s Brewing Company, Soft Parade Founder’s Brewing Company, All Day IPA

The Book

* Masques, J.N. Willamson, ed.

The Music

* ...

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September 23, 2024 43 mins

Hop on over and settle in for a night of batrachian terror! It’s anthropologist Loren Eiseley’s masterful foray into fiction, or so we’re inclined to believe. We took a leap with this one, dissecting something toadily new, warts and all.

Also, more impressions! How to pronounce “Schuykill”! And we unveil the catchy new jingle: “Is it Horror?”

Enjoy!

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: First State Brewing Co, Cosmic Imbalance

* Alec’s choice: Arb...

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September 2, 2024 50 mins

Uhhhhh, today we're, eh-huh, going Down There, hhhuh-huh, huh-huh…

So join us as we explore the depths of a certain office building and the horrors that lie within.

Also, Anglophilia, more sucking sounds, Paul's very weird obsession, and more!

Keep your area clean and join us for some workplace thrills!

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: Samuel Smith’s Nut Brown Ale

* Alec’s choice: Dark Horse Brewing Co, Smells Like a Safety Meeting

T...

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July 2, 2024 50 mins

Join us as we gaze into The Jar, by the one and only Ray Bradbury!

Plus, swamp sounds, a 1940s alert, more podcast spinoff ideas, and fair to middling impressions!

You really don't want to miss this one.

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co, Hazy Little Thing (served in a mason jar)

* Alec’s choice: North Peak Brewing Co, Dauntless Oktoberfest Lager

The Book

* Ray Bradbury

* The October Country

The Music

* Iron Cthulhu ...

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July 2, 2024 32 mins

Wake up and smell the hamster cage, because today we're heading to the pet shop for "Fritzchen," a creepy little weird tale by Charles Beaumont, featuring a truly bizarro creature and a psychopathic monster of a child. Fun for some of the whole family!

Plus, Greg Brady's rival, and a podcast spinoff idea!

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: Smuttynose Brewing Co, Old Brown Dog

* Alec’s choice: Great Lakes Brewing Co, Return ...

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July 2, 2024 33 mins

Today we pour over “Smoke Ghost”, by the incomparable Fritz Leiber Jr.

Also, Paul mangles the German language, Alec can’t hear himself, and we introduce the 1940s alert!

The Beer

* Paul’s choice: Aecht Schlenkerla Rauchbier

* Alec’s choice: Altes Original Detroit Lager

The Books

* Fritz Leiber Jr.

* Selected Stories

* Conjure Wife

The Music

* Iron Cthulhu Apocalypse

YouTube Link: https://www.youtube.com/@IronCthulhuApocalypse

Follow Us:

* Ale...

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June 3, 2024 35 mins

What’s the worst taste you’ve ever had in your mouth? We discuss our top picks and talk about “Gray Matter”, by horror gem Stephen King. Bring your corn cob and settle in for a swig!

The Beer

* Paul‘s pairing choice: Budweiser (Not gonna link it. You know where to find the damn swill.)

* Alec’s pairing choice: Founder’s Dirty B*****d

Books Mentioned:

* Night Shift, by Stephen King

* Gray Matter and Other Stories From Night Shift, by Step...

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