Mr. Garroch's Strawberry Cream Ale
Two Water Brewing Co.

473 mL can from the brewery; no packaging date. Served slightly chilled.

Pours a mostly clear pale golden-colour, its complexion fogged up somewhat by the presence of very fine sediment. Gathered atop is one finger of soapy, foamy white head that lasts for all of ninety seconds, rapidly collapsing down to a frothy collar surrounding a few filmy wisps on the surface. Scant lace, but looks OK otherwise. The aroma features a mildly tart, sweet, dessert-like note of strawberry ice cream, with hints of grainy malts and corn chips. Mundane so far, but I appreciate the fact that they didn't overdo the strawberry.

Very straightforward, inoffensive flavour profile. I'm getting grainy barley malts, bread crusts and light strawberry notes, with a little bit of berry tartness on the back end. The finish is briefly grainy/corny-sweet before fading into an off-dry aftertaste. Light in body, with average carbonation that softly tickles the tongue, contributing to this cream ale's smooth mouthfeel. Very drinkable, maybe even sessionable to the right person.

Final Grade: 3.56, a B grade. My favourite thing about Mr. Garroch's is the fact that it's just a standard cream ale with strawberry - and not, as I'd feared, an oversweetened strawberry-flavoured dessert "cream" ale. Don't get me wrong, it's actually pretty boring - but in general, if you're going to brew a beer with this gimmick, I'd prefer a boring beer with a hint of fruit over a poorly-balanced, cloying beer with way too much flavouring. I doubt I'll revisit this anytime soon, but I don't think it was brewed with snooty geeks such as myself in mind. Instead, I could see this being useful as a gateway brew for folks who have only tried macro beer, or those who don't drink beer at all.