Genesee Cream Ale
Genesee Brewing Co. / Dundee Brewing Co.

I've been wanting to try this for YEARS.... I drank it in my teens with an Old fat Black man who had a Pool Hall in rural Ga whose name was 'FATS:...
Fat's was a Cool old ol Cat. At one time he had 13 wives when he was in New Orleans.. or so he and the black and white Pictures with him and 11 OTHER women than the two Wives that he told to go get them pictures seemed to indicate!!! One was with his two GA wives, Sweet P and Martha and the other Wives NAKED or in lingerie... The 2 wives used to sell us dime bags of reefer"
Should've seen it when they tried to sell LSD... We went back the next night, They was all naked said "come on IN ... Fatz don't give a damn bought no working tomorrow"
ANYWAY I like the beer!!!

I remember seeing this in my college liquor store when I very new to beer and being like, "That probably tastes like complete piss." I wasn't that far off. It certainly isn't a 'good' beer, but it has its spots and plays the role of a cheep, reliable beer very well. A night at the Sevens Ale House on Beacon Hill is never complete without firing up a Genny Cream. More than a few times I have left that place examining the tables and seeing a solid Genny pyramid had been constructed. A true sign of a great night. In a world of over priced, heavy and over stimulated beer, sometimes you just need to polish off a few $4 Genny Creams and put a smile on your face.

 

 

 

 

 

Draft at Genny Brew House. Clear golden, thin creamy head, lively carbonation. Biscuity aroma, grainy, white bread. Taste is grainy, malty, crackers. Creamy feel. High school all over again.

 

24oz can purchased from the fridge as a single for $1.99. There is a code on the bottom of the can: J062 11 10:37. A quick Google search for genesee date code led me to I found an old thread in BA Beer Talk called ""Genesee production code." It explains that J would correspond to October (10th letter or the alphabet and 10th month), 06 is the 6th day of the month, and 2 is 2022. The first 1 in 11 means Rochester, NY brewery and the second 1 in 11 is production line #1. So if this was canned on October 6, 2022 then that means that it is just over 3 1/2 months old.

Look: It has a medium gold color, perfectly clear. There was a nice frothy eggshell-colored head that dissipated very quickly to almost nothing. I'm not sure why the head disappears so quickly. Tiny bubbles are consistently rising up the glass at a slow to moderate rate, almost like Champagne.

Smell: This is a bit of a "beer-smelling" beer. It doesn't have such strong or complex aromas. I get a sweet, biscuity malt note that is also very doughy. There is a subtle floral note also. Over time, I pick up a bit more of an earthy hop character. There is a sweet fruity note on the nose that kind of comes off a bit like apple juice or white grape juice (not in a Nelson Sauvin way at all, this is a totally different way).

Taste: This is really not bad. It is pretty highly carbonated and it is also pretty easy to drink. I wouldn't call it watery, but it is pretty light in flavor overall. However, it doesn't taste like it's been watered down or lacking in body for its size. The flavors are pretty simple - again, it has that beer-flavored taste It has a mild to moderate bitterness on the finish that is crisp and refreshing. The knock on this beer is that it is not super flavorful and it is not complex and a bit uninteresting. That could also be what you want to drink sometimes, so it could also be a positive.

Feel: For a 5.1% ABV cream ale, this has a decent body that is somewhere in between light and medium. It is highly carbonated, as most cream ales are.

Overall: As a University of Rochester alumnus, where Genesee beer was pervasive during my college experience, I was compelled to drink and review this. It goes without saying that an appreciation of beer (or anything else that is an acquired taste, for that matter) is lost on most college students. The old joke for a college student is true: There are two types of beer - free and cheap. While Genesee beer was and still is pretty cheap, I don't think that it was so popular with most UR students...either that, or they just drank whatever was available and didn't care. This is my first review of a cream ale and it is my second Genesee Brewing Co. review (Genesee Ruby Red Kolsch was the first). I would say that for me, it's not so much that this is surprisingly good (because it's not so good) but I would say that it is surprisingly not so bad. I had no trouble drinking the entire 24oz can in just a few minutes. It was easy to drink, relatively light, crisp, and refreshing. This would be super crushable on a hot day; a nice lawnmower beer.

Canned on: A112 13 02:03 (whatever that translates too - hey, if you can't give a straight up date, confuse the heck out of your customer base... rolling eyes).

This review is written in memory of Albert Hinton, this was his favorite beer.

A - Light gold colored pour with light carbonation and a moderately dense bright white lacing.

S - Delicate sweet honey grain malt with a cream aroma. (Go figure, right?)

T - Dry cereal grain corn malt from start to finish with some cream presence, and ends on the sweeter side with a slight bit of earthiness. Leaves a lingering corn sweetness on the palate.

M - Medium body with gentle carbonation.

O - Not a beer I would seek out but considering the circumstances this is a very special beer I will never forget.

Wow +30 I guess I'm biased on this 1. It's good I can appreciate beers like this. I could put many pints away.

BEST ECONOMY BEER TO DRINKS LOTS OF

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of all the box store inexpensive canned beers, Genny Cream is my favorite. Great taste, certainly a throwback, low hop drinkable beer on a hot day. Better than Coors or Natty Lite? Hell yes. It's pour is consistent, taste is consistent. I actually have a hard time finding this at my local purveyor because they run out a day after it's delivered. Rochester's brewery of note is certainly doing something right for the past 60 years and I hope they don't ever change it.

Is this beer going to blow you away something crazy? Nope. But If you are looking for an adjunct beer, this is the best one on the market and the cheapest. So it's a win win. Pours a golden color, medium body, nice crisp taste can't go wrong.

Pours crystal clear with a minimal head that dissipates immediately. Semi sweet and heavily carbonated with very fine bubbles giving it a zing sort of sensation to the mouth. Very typical adjunct brew that will do the job on a hot summer day. Growing up this was sort of an underdog brew.The Bud drinkers would give you the stink eye when you brought it to the party but I didn't care.

Drank quite a few of these as a grad student in Buffalo in the mid 1970s. Coming from Wisconsin, where ale was virtually nonexistent, this seemed to have a more robust flavor. Today of course it seems barely distinguishable from a garden variety AAL.

Going to college in upstate near the brewery, many nights we peed upstream in the river from which we thought they sourced the water for this stuff. And, we still drank it on the regular. I always thought this one was special due to the smooth mouthfeel. Easy drinking.

EDIT: Revisited fresh 16oz ~30-day old cans and love every single one. Bought more. Better than any AAL at the same price point.

Standard American lager. Smells of malt and a hint of sweetness. Medium amber in color and a quickly disappearing head. Middle of the road adjunct lager flavors showing sweetness over hops. Descent bubbles giving it a creamy mouthfeel. It is refreshing and worth the trip vs American adjuncts.

Decent light beer. Very good price for what your getting. Wish they made tallboys of these maybe they do but I haven't seen them. Doesn't taste like metal or alcohol so it's good for a cheap beer.

12 oz can into a pint glass.

A: Clear pale straw color with a one-finger white head.

S: Corn adjunct, grassy hops, and just a bit of funk.

T: Tangy, almost peppermint-like sweetness predominates, complemented with some mild grassy hop bitterness.

F: Medium-light bodied, smooth and easy drinking.

Half of the enjoyment of drinking a specific beer are the memories of youth and the younger days. This beer was unique and made you feel sophisticated as you were clutching the stubby bottle with the fancy green and gold trimmed label. Yes, you were standing around a camp fire drinking not just beer but Genny Cream Ale.

 

 

 

 

Looks amazing, with a nice thick, cuddly white foam and a matching mouthfeel. A tad on the sweet side for my tastes.

From a tall boy in a tall glass.

 

Really a terrible beer, cheap and disgusting from the gross polluted Genesee river into your toilet.

Very clear light golden with a nice top of white foam. The bubbles kept the top of the beer covered even after I started analyzing the next categories of smell and taste. They play into the feel as I get to the latter component where a nice amount of carbonation provides some interest and helps to clean up the beer after each sip.

Smell does have a bit of corn, but I am also getting some mineral and dry grass hop notes. There's a very light hint of red apple skins as well. There's an interesting mix of sweet and husk-like to dry grass bitterness when I take a sip. The sweetness surrounds the sides of my tongue while the carbonation seems to scrub it from the middle. This washing appears to give the (light and dry grass/herb) hops a place to take hold.

This is not a very bitter beer, but it is a bit more balanced than I expected. I think it might fit in as well or better light drinker than my current go to, Narragansett, though we'll see how I feel after another 5 and perhaps a comparison.

The quintessential working mans beer in Buffalo. I remember these in my old mans garage beer fridge right next to the regular genny. There was always a few Heinekens and Lowenbrau in there next to the Labatt Blue, Molson Canadian (special occasions like holidays had Molson Golden or Stock Ale). This was his go to beer in the summer. I remember him pouring it into one of those big German style tall glasses - this was the beer for a shot-and-a-beer guy after a shift at the steel plant (Kesslers, Canadian Club, VO). I still get comments from friends when they see my garage fridge stocked with it, but is is fantastic.

 

I wish it tasted like it did in 1971 when I had my first sip/glug of beer at eleven years old from my Dad's glass of Genny Cream while he relaxed in a vinyl lounge chair in the backyard as my brother and sister and I ran around in the hot summer sun and needed some water but my Dad's beer was closer and he let us have some. The foam touching my nose. The tiny bubbles rising up. The sweet, the bitter. A burp! I'm drinking a Genny Cream right now. Here's to you, Dad.