Fine canned version streamlines baked-breaded sourdough malting with resinous hop bittering, coarse grain-husked minerality and wafting cologne musk. Herbal snips and vegetal wisps glide through the salt-watered briskness as well. Serve to anyone intrigued by Heineken’s pungent hop bitterness or to less aggressive Dortmunder lager imbibers. Betters any marketed cream ale.

On tap at Mews (and available in cans), polite moderate-bodied cream ale makes for an easygoing, approachable session beer. Dry wood-toned hop spicing creases honeyed citric easement above crowded biscuit malt bottom. Baked bread, wheat toast and baguette illusions provide restrained alacrity. 

Approachable moderate-bodied session ale. Light caramelized creaming and doughy baked breading contrast subtly perfumed grassy hop bittering. Lemony grapefruit splurge picks up mild herbal tea nuance above wispy ethanol pungency, finishing with a zesty citric-spiced zip.

Friendly yellow-cleared cask-conditioned light-body too mainstream and soapy despite zesty lemon tagline. Aromatic wheat straw wisp penetrates pallid corn-sugared cotton candy sweetness, mild perfumed fruitiness, and illuminating coriander seduction to soft biscuit-y recession. Closer to a white ale, but labeled a cream ale.

Protracted citric hop simmer given subtle lemon fizz, floral peach-pear ebb, and quince hint. Washed-out faint bitterness and soft water flow lighten dry wheat-grass chaff to doughy finish. Despite lack of reputed creaminess, no negative traits disrupt this undistinguished middleweight.

Velvety smooth, lively carbonated, light amber ale lacks expected creaminess as dry wheat grass base encounters miserly vegetal spell, yucky diacetyl swerve, and dank lemony metallic astringency.

Strangely less chocolate-y than Quake’s Red Cream. Bland, dulled out buttery mocha mouthfeel undone by watered down vanilla-maple vapidity. Brewery defunct: 2003. Picture courtesy of www.beerlabels.com

Aromatic green apple tartness and mouth-puckering citric souring provide eye-squinting bitterness, leading to heartburn-inducing vinous acidity. Intrusive carbolic fluff overwhelms miniscule butterscotch malt creaminess. Lacking necessary cereal-grained sweetness to counter dismal one-dimensional yellow-fruited sourness. Too similar to Big Hole’s lackluster Pale Ale.

Non-specific lactose cream ale lost in redundant diacetyl mediocrity. Hardly any differentiation from Quake’s two similar brews. Brewery defunct: 2003.

Warbly copper-hued cream ale with ample sweet raspberry nose and mouthfeel done in by dour phenol creaming at shaky barley-wheat backend. Chewy caramel malt overtones are welcome, but mild astringency prohibits raspberry flux at incomplete finish. Nevertheless, well fermented milky yeast thickness provides solid depth.

Belly-bloating stout-like milk chocolate creaminess, lackluster barley roast, molasses hints, and ester-y aroma intruded by acidic carbonation. Relegated to extremely filling, albeit unassuming, 8.2% alcohol-stricken rue. Brewery defunct: 2003.

Illuminating honeyed orange-lemon essence and sweet vanilla malting give tangy light-bodied thirst quencher an effervescent Orange Crush soda, sherbet, or creamsickle appeal. Seltzer fizz hides faint peach-grapefruit-ginger tones. A better ‘malternative.’