Sleeman Cream Ale

Brewed by Sleeman Brewing & Malting Co. (Sapporo)
Style: Cream Ale
Guelph, Canada

On tap. Probably the best cream ale I know of. Nice colouring and smooth taste. One of the more popular brews on tap in Canadian pubs, too. Could do with a little less carbonation, though. Too bad you can’t get this cask-conditioned.

Yellow, with a big foamy head. Lemony, citric aroma - maybe a tad skunky. Citrusy, some notes of vanilla, maybe some sour, and a bit of a peppery finish.

I originally purchased a six-pack of this beer while returning home from a family vacation from Yellowstone in July, 2006. I came across a can in my refrigerator yesterday and decided to have it with my dinner. I’m not sure if it was the beer itself or the fact that it was the first barbecue of the season, but I enjoyed this beer more than my original review shows. Still pours a clear gold with a moderate white head that lasted through most of the glass. Not much aroma to speak of. The flavor is a little sweet with some grassy hops. Smooth, somewhat creamy mouthfeel. I realize this is not a much loved style, but I thought this was a better example of a cream ale.

Original review 7/23/2006. 11.2 oz. can. Pours a clear gold with a decent head that lasted through about 1/3 of the glass. Light, indescript aroma. Some hops present in the flavor, but there is definitely some corn as well. Somewhat smooth, but I expected more from a cream ale. I wouldn’t go out of my for this one. 5-3-6-2-9=2.5

Bottle. Quickly disappearing white head. Clear yellow body, heavily carbonated. Dry hops aroma and flavor with more bitterness than expected. Cream ?

A light yellow beer with almost no head. A flavor and aroma much like a pilsner. Not a very good beer in any way except it did look good, but that is where it ended.

Bottle from Super Saver. Pale gold pour with minimal head which went away quickly and stayed away. Some slight hopcitric and creamy malty aromas and flavors, but overall a watery mess of a beer.

I tried this twice, it has a golden color with a quickly diminishing head that starts off with a smooth taste, but quickly down hill after that.

Can from the LCBO. Nearly 20 years ago when this beer was launched, I was a student at the University of Waterloo, and my local hang-out was one of Sleeman’s first draught accounts. My regular beers at the time were Black Label and Molson Golden, but the bartender convinced me to give this new beer a go. I did, and I was amazed at how fresh and creamy and flavourful it was. From there, I went on to discover many other beers in Ontario’s fledgling microbrew scene, but Sleeman Cream Ale remained a favourite for a few years. Now, though, it’s been nearly a decade since I last had one, and this beer is not the one I remember. It’s still the same golden-yellow colour, but that’s where the similarities end. The aroma holds notes of stale malt and corn with a harsh finish that suggests cheap, high-gravity brewing. The body is light and weak with none of the full creaminess I remember. The flavour is fairly sweet and bland, with a hint of lemon and a slight vegetal note in the finish. It sucks that some people still consider this crap to be "craft brewed".