Anyone else annoyed at what brewers are doing to cream ale?

It's a pet peeve even though it's silly to let it bother me. The "top rated" cream ale list here is particularly ridiculous... perhaps the worst on this site. It's also annoying when someone drinks a coffee beer and uses it as a style tick or then claims "I didn't realize I liked cream ales." The craft beer fixation on word puns and using beer as a canvas to replicate other foods is part of the problem. Just because a brewer uses a particular yeast at a particular temperature, doesn't mean that the resulting beer is a "cream ale." Even though you can't really define a cream ale as a narrow or very specific thing, I still feel that it doesn't taste like something made at Starbucks.

 

If what they are doing to cream ale (whatever it really is) bothers you----

----what about IPA?

 

Or almost pretty much every other beer style at this point.

 

You really think commercial brewers care about the BJCP?

Style guidelines don't mean anything when your goal is product differentiation and unit sales.

 

I would agree, I think the style can be done really well. I would rather see experimentation with hopping because I see the clean malt bill as perfect for it. I also actually enjoy gennessee and spotted cow for non hopped up versions.

 

Spotted Cow is the top selling beer from New Glarus and we've had a swimming pool or two worth over the years. It's exactly what a cream ale should be and nothing more or less. Cows give cream, so maybe that's the source of the name. At one point, the bottle said they threw in a bit of corn, "as a tribute to our Wisconsin farmers", but that has gone away. No trace of coffee, milk or anything else. That the way Dan Carey makes it, and we are pretty sure he knows what he's doing.

 

I've always viewed them as something just a bit different yet not really special.

 

I’v said it before, i believe the most beautiful thing about American brewers is the experimentation that they continue to do. I for one support that but i completely understand where youre coming from!

 

I'm incredibly upset about the upcoming release of Cartons Regular Coffee and Irregular Coffee. Tragic.
Everyone in NJ should boycott this release

 

I don't believe you.

 

You would be smart not to believe me. There is a good chance that is faux rage.

 

Too expensive for myself anyway. But what about the release?
Ive had regular coffee and heres a suggestion.....get a shooter of Mcgillicuttys coffee liquer. Its a dollar. Drop that into a high octane beer like Steel R. and the outcome is similar. I may be salty because i can never get their stuff and its crazy expensive for what it is, but its just simply put, $18 a four pack is out of my league for a beer like that anyway. Places by me take "rare" beers and jack the price so i have to make due. I'll pay $15 for 4 but 18 for 4 12oz is much.

 

Regular was $16 last year and Irregular $20. I'm lucky, in that price isn't an issue for me when it comes to beer. But I think these beers are much better than "drop a shot of..." I think they are a top tier beer and I have no problem with the price point

 

The name cream ale is misleading as to what it's "supposed to be". I'd just stick with pilsners, helles and kolsch if they're close enough and true to their styles. Or just stick to your tried and true brands. If no one innovates the craft beer scene becomes stagnant. But I can understand being misled and not appreciating it.

 

Some of these are like taking something that is celebrated for its subtlety and nuance and smashing it with a ball bat. A coffee cream ale might work on one level but it is still like a barbecued lobster slathered in bourbon bbq sauce.

 

Genuine question: Do you think a beer like Cafe Y Churro is a cream ale? Yes, no, don’t care, or not for you to decide... either way, this has nothing to do with if you think it’s tasty.

 

I'm not sure how corn and coffee compliment each other in a way that would benefit anyone but a goat.

 

I agree and please do not add coffee to it. I have had maybe two total in the style. One authentic being the genesee, and the other I can't remember.

 

Who actually misses real cream ale?