Bicentennial Cream Ale
Saint Benjamin Brewing Company

 

 

 

A thanks goes out to the captain of the canquest, woodychandler, for this beer. Poured from a 16 oz. can. Has a golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of malts, little else. Taste is mild, malts, a bit grassy. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall is an easy drinking and decent beer.

I am now waffling between the eradication of The Bottle Backlog here at Chez Woody & the CANtinuation of The CANQuest (tm) since I have made signifiCANt strides on the former & the latter dovetails nicely with some upcoming bottles. In the interim, I have enough CANs for a brief brewery horizontal with Saint Benjamin so that will be my next focus.

From the CAN: "Bicentennial is a refreshing take on the Ameri[CAN] classic. This easy drinking beer has a light hop aroma from American Cluster hops and a clean finish."

I Crack!ed open this 16-fl. oz. pounder CAN & in a moment of unbridled patriotism, I CANducted an inverted Glug until the foaming action became too much to CANtrol. I ended up with a finger of fizzy, foamy, bone-white head with minimal retention. Color was Straw-Yellow (SRM = > 2, < 4) with NE-quality clarity. Nose was evocative of childhood summers spent at my maternal grandparents' home which abutted a working farm. It smelled of mown & drying hay & grass and freshly-baked biscuits drizzled with honey for supper. It had the clean crispness that is a trademark of the style. Mmm. Mouthfeel was thin-to-medium, not watery, but not far beyond it, either. The taste followed the nose about as vlosely as could be hoped. Had the brewery not identified their hops as Cluster, I would have defaulted to a Noble hops variety, thanks to the ongoing hay-grassiness that was prevalent, underlain by the biscuity maltiness. This is an easy style to ruin with corn as an adjunct since it is such a clean, unassuming flavor otherwise. I am glad to taste that the brewers did not succumb to temptation and add any corn to the mash. The end result was a clean, very easy-drinking beer that would be perfect to fill the beach-bound cooler this summer. The finish was clean, dry and very refreshing. It s low-ABV makes it a sessionable CANdidate, to boot. I suggest giving it a try!

absurdly light, almost a lager to me, pale yellow, white headed, and super light in color, almost looks watered down, quite bubbly, but lighter than most all other beers, even in its style. the nose is a little adjuncty at first, although this should be all barley, i think i detect a little corn sweetness with the pale and pils type malts, but its not there at all in the flavor. this isnt under flavored, but its awfully light on the tongue. very little hop to this, a mild crackery malt bill that has a similarly watered down vibe, but a great yeast character that again almost screams lager yeast at me, definitely a cooler fermented or cold conditioned light ale strain, its great, gives a mature crisp dryness to this beer, and makes it pretty distinct despite it all being so absurdly light. as drinkable as they come if you like this sort of thing, pleasantly carbonated, and overall rather upbeat and summery as they go. it tastes a bit light, i could stand more of this malt flavor, and even a bit more body, but its well enough made beer, something for those who prefer a three sip pint. no real complaints...