Northhumberland Ale
Church-Key Brewing Company

Northhumberland AleNorthhumberland Ale
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From:
Church-Key Brewing Company
 
Ontario, Canada
Style:
Cream Ale
ABV:
5%
Score:
69
Avg:
2.75 | pDev: 20.73%
Reviews:
25
Ratings:
36
Status:
Active
Rated:
Aug 13, 2016
Added:
Jan 30, 2004
Wants:
  0
Gots:
  3
Northumberland Cream Ale is the Church Key classic and the first beer John Graham the owner and Head Brew-master at CKB produced in 2000. A personal homage to the Ontario brewing history, made following a local recipe that was used in the Northumberland Brewing taverns of the 1940s and 1950s. When you hear someone ask for a ‘Church-Key’, they are probably asking for the Northumberland Cream Ale. While cream ales are top-fermented ales, they are brewed as ale though are sometimes finished with a lager yeast, they typically undergo an extended period of cold-conditioning or lagering after primary fermentation is complete. It is also sometimes referred to as a stock ale.

15-20 IBU
Recent ratings and reviews. | Log in to view more ratings + sorting options.
Ratings by Viggo:
Photo of Viggo
Reviewed by Viggo from Canada (ON)

3.06/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Pours a clear amber/orange, thick white head forms, lots of lace, good retention, looks pretty decent. Smell is grainy, lots of malt, vegetables, some citrus, light sourness. Taste is similar, very dry and grainy, lots of vegetables, big of bready caramel, balanced finish. Mouthfeel is light bodied with medium carbonation. Not as bad as I have heard, but the vegetables are kind of strange.
Nov 06, 2007
More User Ratings:
Photo of BIGGIE101
Rated by BIGGIE101 from Canada (ON)

1.67/5  rDev -39.3%
look: 3 | smell: 2.25 | taste: 1 | feel: 2 | overall: 1.75
Taste like Trent river water. passed on this.
Aug 13, 2016
Photo of biegaman
Reviewed by biegaman from Canada (ON)

3.06/5  rDev +11.3%
look: 4 | smell: 3 | taste: 3 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
Northhumberland Ale pours a picture-perfect golden and has a pristine white head courtesy of a carbonation that hastened into action like an army under siege. The bubbles look furious. I'm getting more tired watching them than they are actually working. And to think I opened this growler yesterday!

Speaking truthfully, I don't know that the smell of a Cream Ale has ever excited me; it's one of the few styles that offers virtually nothing of value aromatically. This one is no exception. In both the nose and the mouth there's a distinctly sweet and very corn-like graininess that dominates. It's very similar to that of mass-produced lager brands.

It's common knowledge in the wine world that what distinguishes the good from the bad is the quality of the grapes, the terroir, the vintage, etc. But people often forget that barley, like every crop, also has varying degrees of quality, favorable and less favorable growing sites, good and bad harvests, proper and improper storage conditions...

All sorts of factors that have nothing to do with the brewer. And the better overall quality of the barley, the more flavourful and full the beer, regardless of style. The best barley can taste so wholesome, nourishing, and satiating that a pint will substitute a home-cooked meal. Lesser quality grain tastes like plain cereal or stale tortilla chips, which is what I'm tasting here.

And there's my issue with this style in general and Northhumberland Ale specifically: the attraction of craft beer is that it offers more flavour and better quality ingredients - cream ales rarely have either. I could have paid substantially less of a premium and gotten a fairly comparable product. Church Key are good folks but I can't say I'm much of a fan of their flagship beer.
May 28, 2015
 
Rated: 3.23 by mikemands from Canada (ON)

Apr 11, 2015
 
Rated: 3 by Pmicdee from Canada (ON)

Apr 01, 2015
Photo of SenorBiggles
Reviewed by SenorBiggles from Canada (ON)

2.9/5  rDev +5.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 3 | overall: 3
The smell and initial flavour aren't great, but aren't unconvincing. Pretty grainy, with some metallic and orange juice flavours. However, it quickly fades to an unsatisfying, watery aftertaste. Not a whole lot to like here.
Mar 16, 2015
Photo of DaveBar
Reviewed by DaveBar from Canada (ON)

3.63/5  rDev +32%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.75 | feel: 3.75 | overall: 3.5
Purchased as a single at the LCBO. Served at 4deg C in a tulip.

A- Opens well and pours a small head that is gone pretty fast. Dark gold. Filtered

S- Pretty good hops and a goodly amount of malt.

T- Good malt backbone. Not a complex beer. Just a refreshing moderate flavored beer

M- Pretty dry. Good aftertaste

O- Pretty good. Will not buy again as there are more beer out there to drink!

Food Pairing

This pretty good beer went well with..... chicken wings

Enjoy
Nov 23, 2014
 
Rated: 3 by Ericbeech_87 from Canada (BC)

Jul 08, 2014
 
Rated: 3 by Brody1714 from Canada (ON)

May 15, 2014
Photo of thehyperduck
Reviewed by thehyperduck from Canada (ON)

3.18/5  rDev +15.6%
look: 3.75 | smell: 3.25 | taste: 3 | feel: 3.25 | overall: 3.25
341 mL bottle from a six-pack picked up at the LCBO; coded H161313:37 (I am guessing August 16 2013). Served ice cold.

Pours a clear, pale golden-amber colour, topped with one finger of frothy, soapy white head that recedes steadily over the next few minutes. A thin cap soon results, with a modest ring of lacing. Fairly sweet, uninteresting aroma that includes grainy malts, corn, honey sweetness and some bready notes. Not all that encouraging...

A drinkable ale, but not much more than that. This is a fairly bland stock ale, but about what I'd expect from this pseudo-style - bready, pale malts, grainy sweetness, a touch of honey, and some vaguely floral, earthy hops at the finish. Slightly bitter aftertaste, with some metallicity. Light-bodied, with moderate carbonation appropriate for the style - this is as sessionable as any macro lager or blonde ale, and equally dull.

Final Grade: 3.18, a C+. Church Key's Northumberland Ale is a pretty forgettable brew. Priced like a craft beer, but tasting more like an industrial blonde - I can't think of any convincing reasons to select this one over cheaper alternatives like Molson Export, Sleeman Cream Ale, etc. I'd drink this again if someone else were buying, but I'm not going to be spending money on it again. Most BAs can probably skip this one without losing out on much.
Apr 24, 2014
Photo of mick303
Reviewed by mick303 from Canada (ON)

2.76/5  rDev +0.4%
look: 3.25 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2.75 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.75
Light golden colour with a decent cap of white fluffy head. Lots and lots of carbonation.
S - graininess, light, bready, some faint grassy/earthy hops but nothing exciting.
T - really lightly bodied, bready grains, stinging amounts of sharp carbonation and metallic notes. Has a cloying finish. Some harsh lemon and a slim body, with some sour vegetal notes coming through, a bit more heft than BMC but this has nothing notable about it. Finish is wet and has shallow malts.
M - tons of carbonation and a strong metallic feel. Watery body.
Boring, overly carbonated, watery. There is nothing to recommend in this beer, a light ale a half-step above the macros it is trying (admittedly!!!) to emulate. If Church Key wants to convert beer drinkers you have to offer something different not a more expensive/harder to get example of the same watery fizz. They arent necessarily alone on that strategy in ontario sadly, but eventually people are going to be demanding actual craft beers.
Dec 12, 2013
 
Rated: 3 by RedAleMan from Canada (ON)

Oct 20, 2013
 
Rated: 3.75 by KrisDLSmith from Canada (ON)

Aug 08, 2013
Photo of atr2605
Reviewed by atr2605 from New York

2.49/5  rDev -9.5%
look: 3 | smell: 2.75 | taste: 2 | feel: 3 | overall: 2.75
A-pours a golden very light copper color with a white head with decent retention
S-sweet malt, no hop aroma
T-Pretty faint flavor, bit of sweet malt in the finish, comes across as more of a macro lager with a heavier body
M-medium-light bodied
O-not a bad brew but doesn't strike me as a cream ale. Would drink it if it came my way, but wouldn't seek it out
Apr 11, 2013
 
Rated: 2.25 by DaPan from Canada (ON)

Feb 13, 2013
 
Rated: 3 by cfalovo97 from Canada (ON)

Nov 06, 2012
 
Rated: 3.75 by beerhunter13 from Canada (ON)

May 01, 2012
 
Rated: 3 by kelvarnsen from Canada (ON)

Nov 30, 2011
Photo of kjyost
Reviewed by kjyost from Canada (MB)

2.57/5  rDev -6.5%
look: 3 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 2 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 2.5
An English brown ale, eh? Thanks tbeckett! Poured into a tulip around 4C.

A: Copper, clear, light white head with little lacing.
S: Not much here, some vegetal that grows as it warms, with a nice hint of malty sweetness off the top
T: English brown ale or non-descript BMC lager? Hard to tell here. The esters go towards the vegetal. A touch of sweetness from malt with hints of earthy hops. Not much going on here, and certainly nothing I would be wanting to go to again.
M: Crisp, with an odd aftertaste, likely from the vegetal aromas.
O: Now I know why people drink crap beer in ON, if this is a craft option, I too would avoid craft. That said, upon review of their website they medaled with this beer as a cream ale. A cream ale? Still not quite, but at least the description is closer.
Oct 12, 2011
Photo of spinrsx
Reviewed by spinrsx from Canada (ON)

3.1/5  rDev +12.7%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2.5 | overall: 3
12oz Bottle

Appearance - Clear amber colour with an average size fizzy white coloured head. There is an average amount of carbonation showing and there isn't much lacing. The head lasted for around 4 minutes before it was gone.

Smell - Malts, caramel, bread

Taste & Mouth - There is an average amount of carbonation and I can taste malts, caramel and a very light amount of hops. There is also a bit of a rusty taste going on. The beer finishes with a malty cookie sweet aftertaste with a slight amount of bitterness.

Overall - The beer definitely isn't a brown ale.. so I'm not sure what's up with that. The taste ins't awful.. it's actually pretty decent considering what's out there for beers from Ontario. It does seems a little bit like a watered down american pale ale, and the rusty flavour kind of ruins it. But regardless, it's not as bad as some of the reviews make it out to be.
Aug 24, 2011
Northhumberland Ale from Church-Key Brewing Company
Beer rating: 69 out of 100 with 36 ratings