Central Coast Chai Cream Ale

Brewed by Central Coast Brewing
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
San Luis Obispo, California USA

Spicy funky aroma, with some hoppiness. Pours cloudy golden amber with a thick white head. Very spicy upfront, clove, cinnamon, allspice, then it turns funky sour, like brettomyces, maybe this bottle is infected? Has a dry bitter finish. Not what i was expecting. Interesting to try, won’t try it again.

Pours cloudy gold with a puffy white head. Nutmeg, chai, cloves, phenol, and that ginger everyone keeps talking about. Very carbonated. Tart, astringent taste. The chai is right there. Comes across like a Flemish sour with a ton of bubbles.

Bomber $4.99 at Bottle Barn; 2007 product. Looks like I should just copy IrishBoy’s words. Glass of foam with a little liquid. (That repeats with each pour; must be a live one) Slightly hazy golden color with a huge frothy white head. It has a really spicy aroma. Pie spice. Coriander? Nutmeg? Clove! Chai? Isn’t that tea boiled with milk and water? Certainly seems to have ginger. Thin to medium bodied with spritzy carbonation. On to the flavors. Ginger, coriander or nutmeg, likely clove, something herby - must be the Chai - seems a bit like tea. Light malt, or medium malt overwhelmed with spice. Overall it reminds of different ales: Butte Creek Mataveza; Badger Blandford Fly. Pretty tasty. Ought to go great with spicy asian food. The finish is decently dry, and the spice lingers while there is a flavor like that from sucking tea leaves. Overall it is pretty strongly flavored, but there are many different flavors, and they seem to work well together. Don’t die ’til you’ve tried this one.

Bomber $4.99 at Bottle Barn, Santa Rosa; 2007 vintage; bottle opened fine, but I got an inch of beer in the glass for aech 6 inches of foam; urine yellow with an absolutely huge and pretty long lasting yellowish head; nose of chai, grain, and nutmeg; flavor has mainly spices (chai, nutmeg, cloves, and maybe some ginger) overpowering a small amount of background hop bitterness and the malts.

There had got to be a problem with their bottling line or something. This had a loud almost explosion like CO2 release sound upon opening. I have been trying to get this head settled for about five minutes now and the more I pour the more I get a mountainous foamy head. Well, I finally got it settled... Cloudy yellow gold with a 1/2 inch head after scooping the mountain out. Aroma of sweet leafy spices. Smells kind of like a belgian, and a beer that comes to mind is New Belgium Mothership Wit. Definite spices, probably from the Chai. Sweet and spicy. The spice is definitley the most prevalent flavor quality. Mouthfeel has tea like coaty qualities. the carbonation tickles the tongue, as it is quite strong. A little gritty and grainy too. This is unique, but the whole head issue bothers me. I take it all back. The spice is the tea. This is essentially carbonated tea. But the original rating will stand.

Bottle. 2007. Amber beer with a huge cream colored head. Bottle under big carbonation. Spicy, nutmeg aroma. Very spicy (nutmeg, cinnamon, clove) flavor. Some vanilla and dusty malt. Lingering spice. Medium bodied. Spice overpowers.

04-Jun-07 (22 oz bottle: Purchased 03-Jun-07 for $5.69 at Holiday Wine Cellar in Escondido, CA) Nearly explosive CO2 release when opening the bottle, a very heady pour, and a moderate smell of phenolics from the head means this freshly purchased and opened bottle of beer is already showing signs of problems. Fortunately, the phenolic flaw is only present in the nose, not in the flavor which makes me wonder if the aroma of chai is tricking me. What really jumps out on my first taste is the strong, herbal flavor of chai, not surprising for a chai beer, but it’s definitely not shy. To me, the herbal flavor is also reminiscent of spruce tips. Lightly bitter, but it’s an herbal bitterness, not from hops. The base malt is very innocuous, which was probably the intent of the brewer, but the chai is so dominating, a little more maltiness wouldn’t have interfered. A mild honey sweetness gives the beer added depth and pleasant counterpoint to the chai. As the beer warms, a background graininess and slight breadiness emerge, the mouthfeel seems fairly creamy and smooth, and the medium-full body seems to have increased from my initial impression of being light-bodied. When cold, the beer has a nice, herbal crispness and is very refreshing, but when warm, it’s more balanced and interesting. Carbonation is quite lively, adding to the refreshing nature of this beer. Dark-golden in color and fairly hazy, sediment makes the final pour very cloudy. The whitish head never fades below a quarter inch, and I’ve nursed this beer for a few hours, though the initial patchy lacing eventually disappears. Overall, while the beer is fairly expensive, I found this enjoyable, intriguing and refreshing enough to buy it again.

I enjoyed the spices to this, what I didn’t like was the mix of the spices and the stong citrus hops, the two flavors didn’t go well together for me. For a cream ale this was really hoppy, it felt like a battle between citrus and chai.