Unchained #22: Zingiber Cream Ale
Summit Brewing Company

Poured from 12oz can into glass. Best By Date of 11/03/16.
Amber body with white cap and extensive lacing.
Out of date beer but still has aroma and taste of ginger and hops. Crisp.

 

I am continuing to give my attention to the Summit as the dreaded Bottle Backlog at Chez Woody continues to fall by the wayside. The name on this one is so picture perfect that unless I built it, my hat is tipped to the person who did so.

From the CAN: "Proudly Brewed in St. Paul, Minnesota"; "Where brewers are free to explore their craft"; "[undersigned] Christian Dixon [,] Brewer"; "Mother Nature doesn't want your empties. Please recycle."

A CAN?!? Is this the long-awaited and highly-anticipated return of The CANQuest (tm)? Sadly, no. I still have too many bottles to review & consign to the recycling bin, but CANs will be interspersed as I go along.

I listened to the loud Crack! and as I peered in, I saw that it was a brimful craft CAN. I love it when that happens. I then quickly performed an inverted Glug, stopping only when the foamy head came rushing up almost to the lip of the awaiting glass. I then backed off and watched as it settled into two fingers of dense, rocky, bone-white head with good retention. Color was a very slightly hazy Amber (SRM = > 7, < 9) & it might have been a chill haze or the suspension of a minute amount of lees. I am not sure. There was no need for the mention of "Ginger" on the CAN since the nose was redolent with it! I love fresh-sliced ginger with sushi & this smelled fantastic. I know that I often identify as a self-avowed, self-described hophead, but I just generally love beer. I especially love the creativity that my fellow AmeriCANs bring to their products and this is a shining example! I drank Genesee (Genny) Cream Ale as a young teenager (eek!) & it was & remains one of my favorite beers. This beer had little resemblance to Genny Cream, but dang!, it sure was tasty. You had best like the zesty spiciness of ginger, though, as this was awash in it. It would make a fine acCANpaniment to Asian food & especially if a) they deign to brew it again & b) you CAN find a BYOB restaurant. If "a" happens, come to Lancaster, PA & I will take you to award-winning Tony Wang's, where "b" is a given. Finish was necessarily dry, which is what happens when spices play an important role in a beer. I guess that it must have been especially spicy since I find myself tearing up as my glass empties. Boo hoo.

L: pours gold with a slight haze with streams of rapidly rising bubbles under a 2" off-white to cream foam cap. The cap takes 5 minutes to reduce to a thick, sticky 1/4" film.

S: The hops and ginger are evenly matched on the nose combining to produce a floral, spicy, citrus, ginger aroma with a hint of forest. T

T: spicy start supported by light grain and clean fermentation character with traces of light fruit. Spicy hop flavors and a moderate to moderately light hop bitterness balance the light grainy sweetness. The ginger joins in too adding a light dab of spicy heat which fits nicely with a slight prickle from the above average carbonation.

F: This is a full flavored, refreshing medium light bodied beer that is very well balanced. The added wheat gives it a creaminess while the above average carbonation keeps it crisp.

Got in a trade with The-Adjunct-Hippie. 12 ounce can into pint glass, best before 11/3/2016. Pours lightly hazy/cloudy medium golden/yellow color with a 1-2 finger fairly dense and fluffy white head with great retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice spotty soapy lacing clings down the glass, with a moderate amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Aromas of big lemon, ginger, wheat, cracker, corn, biscuit, light honey, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. Very nice aromas with good balance of pale malt, ginger, and light-moderate fruity yeast/earthy hop notes; with great strength. Taste of big lemon, ginger, wheat, cracker, corn, biscuit, light honey, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness. Light-moderate herbal/grassy bitterness and peppery ginger spiciness on the finish; with lingering notes of lemon, ginger, wheat, cracker, corn, biscuit, herbal, grass, pepper, and yeast earthiness on the finish for a good bit. Very nice robustness and balance of pale malt, ginger, and light-moderate fruity yeast/earthy hop flavors; with a great malt/bitter/spiciness balance, and no astringent hop/ginger notes after the finish. Light-moderate dryness from bitter/spiciness, increasing though the glass. Medium carbonation and light-medium body; with a very smooth, moderately crisp, and bready/grainy/sticky balanced mouthfeel that is nice. Zero warming alcohol as expected of 5.3%. Overall this is a very nice spiced cream ale! All around nice robustness and balance of pale malt, ginger, and light-moderate fruity yeast/earthy hop flavors; very smooth, crisp, and quite refreshing to drink. Very well made cream ale to style. Very vibrant on ginger, but not overpowering and well balanced with the base beer. A very enjoyable offering.

Hazy, pale gold liquid with a foamy, sticky head. Smells yeasty with ginger and a sweet maltiness. The taste is quite bitter with a little sweetness and a lot of ginger. This is quite well done for a ginger beer and is pleasant to drink.

I tried this from the can chilled in a glass.
The color is medium golden amber with thick head of off white cream with fine bead. the smell is mostly spice with a slight malt aroma -ginger has a woody scent. The feel is decent with dry and spiced body with very low sweetness and moderate carbonation with moderately bitter and subtle alcohol.

The taste is decent with malt on the dry side with a light toasted quality and slight mineral element with ginger giving a slight spicy accent to the flavor with a more pine-like hop taste that clashes in my opinion. The flavor of the ginger does not really enhance the base beer overall, this was okay, but not something I would want to return to, perhaps if on tap maybe, not sure of the freshness of this can, but everything else I had from this bar was fresh.

Good clarity, golden color, soapy white head.

The cream and ginger are very apparent in the nose, followed by pepper and a base of crystal and golden malts.

Quite a bit of ginger out front, followed by lactose, tea, Pilsner malts, and bitter grapefruit rind.

Feel is prickly like soda, and semi dry on the finish.

Overall a pretty decent ale that's a departure from the norm. I like this one, maybe a touch hard to finish but it's not too shabby overall.

I won't remember this beer when I'm done with it, which isn't automatically a bad thing, but it obviously isn't anything special. The ginger notes are nice at first, but they ultimately fade away and the beer's smoothness is compromised as a result. Not the best cream ale available.

This beer pours a clear straw color with a large head. The aroma offers mild biscuity malts, some ginger - almost more gingerbread, and blackpepper. The flavor offers the same malts, noble hop flavors, milky tea, and moderate bitterness. The mouthfeel is light but milky and lasting. Overall I find this a bit dull, but very pleasant - almost more crisp than creamy, though.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 oz. can. Has a dark golden color with a 1/2 inch head. Smell is of ginger, grains. Taste is strong of ginger, light grains and malts in the background. Feels medium bodied in the mouth and overall not what I expect from this style, but is a pretty good beer.