Creme de la Creme Cream Ale

Creme de la Creme Cream Ale
1 6-pack bottles, $9.49++ 5.0% ABV

Purchased at Whole Foods, West Hartford

cremeI didn’t drink until I was 21 and even then, not much. I think I had maybe two sips of it in my youth – once when my mom was making some completely-out-of-character Oh-Sweet-Baby-Jesus We’re-All-Going-To-Hell! beer battered chicken when I got a spoonful of whatever cheap beer my parents found.

Also a few years later as a teen, a friend and I found a can of Genesee Cream Ale and traded sips in the woods somewhere. This was probably around the time we each puffed on an ilicit cigarette (menthol, no less) and decided then and there that we’d never drink beer or smoke in our lives.

Well, he still smokes and I still drink beer. What do kids know?

Anyway, I’ve always had it in my head that I hate Genesee Cream Ale. Which is completely stupid and unfair, but I can’t help it.

Then I married a woman who went to school at the University of Rochester where they are only allowed to drink Genesee’s family of beers. She told me I was being stupid.

Which was nothing new.

To this very day in 2013 I’ve never had a Genny Cream Ale again. But I have now had a few of City Steam’s fourth bottled beer, brewed on contract down at Two Roads, which they call a cream ale.

City Steam says:

This is truly the “Cream of Cream Ales”… or so we modestly proclaim. Like the elegant and understated pearl necklace the young lady is wearing on the label, our interpretation is crisp and malt forward and features a delightful whiff of noble hops.

ZZ+Top+zztop500037Who writes this crap? Do they have to make some embarrassing reach to make some thinly veiled sexual reference? We get it – Naughty Nurse, Blonde on Blonde, the coquettish librarian on the Innocence IPA label – now with the “cream” ale we get a “pearl necklace.”

Sigh.

Does this work on any level? Like, do bros even notice this? Probably, but does it give them reason to purchase it? Highly doubtful.

Anyway, I’ll turn to some random reviewer from some beer review site for a quick review: “A nice throw back beer that is spot on for the style. If you want to introduce craft beer to your father or Grandfather, this would be a good starter.”

I think that’s pretty good. There’s nothing too bold about the Creme de la Creme Cream Ale – and there’s nothing really wrong with it. It satisfied all the adjectives the macro breweries use in their commercials: goes down smooth, full of flavor, malt goodness, etc.

So yeah, I don’t really know what a “cream ale” is, but this was pretty good. It IS “creamier” than a straight up lager or ale. So there you go.

Overall Rating: B
Rating vs. Similar style: A

City Steam Brewery & Cafe
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