South Shore Herbal Cream Ale

Brewed by South Shore Brewery/Wilmarths Deepwater Grille
Style: Spice/Herb/Vegetable
Ashland, Wisconsin USA

Hazy golden color with a lasting white head, a lot of carbonation and a little sediment floating around. Hops and cloves on the nose. Malty mouth feel, flavor of lemon zest with a hint of wheat and a slightly tart finish.

BOTTLE: at WA Frost (St. Paul, MN) on 1.25.09. Pours a murky straw color, with herbs/fruit on the nose. Taste is herbs and cherry, not hoppy, and carbonated. Decent beer.

This was an interesting tasting brew. A silky mouthfeel with a hint of spice and herbs, yet still typical in a cream ale fashion of prevalent malted flavors with a touch of hops in the finish.

The issue with this beer is not the flavor. I think it actually tastes pretty decent, like a cream soda with the elements of a good sausage. It doesn’t look like much, other than dirty cream soda, but that’s not really vital. The problem is with the very soft and retreating palate, which makes it feel very limp in the mouth. It has a sweet/sour plus salty/bitter thing going on with the measure of bitterness at the end. Interesting beer, if only it weren’t so ambivalent. The flavors are decent, though not perfect either--there’s a chance I wouldn’t like the flavor if I had it too many times. Bottle.

Aroma: Yeasty, clean smell. Lemon and pine sharpness. Parsely and similar seasonings. Definitely herbal, just as the name suggests. Salt, seaweed, iodine, like a dram of young Laphroaig, except without any smokiness. That aroma is superb in a Scotch, but I’m not sure it works in a beer. It’s an interesting, strong smell, but I don’t think I can call it “good.” <P>Appearance: Sparkling, pale gold to tan. Cloudy with suspended particulate. Moderate amount of frothy, off-white head. <P>Flavor: Salt and dill pickle juice dominate the initial taste. Subsequently, however, the sweet maltiness underneath and the cream referenced in the name take over. Red apple, sugar cookie, cake frosting, skittles, and artificial-fruit-flavored sucking candy. Much too sweet for my liking. Like the aroma, the flavors are interesting, but they are overwhelming and not my thing. Reminiscent of a not particularly well made and unbalanced Belgian ale. <P>Palate: Not as much aftertaste as I expected given the style, but there is something there that is hard for me to identify. Light body. Frothy and, dare I say? creamy. <P>Overall impression: Poured from a 12 oz. bottle. I’ve been very hard on this beer in my ratings in each of the individual categories. It’s really not that bad. It’s just not that good either. It definitely is noticeably different from just about every other beer I’ve tried and therefore perhaps worth a sample anyway.

Pours a light golden color with a frothy white foamy head which dissipates to nothing. Aroma is ginger spice, earth, flowery, and pepper, with lemon hints. Light flavor with slight corny hints and more lemon peel and lemon grass with ginger root. Spritzy and high carbonation leads to a light and weak mouthfeel.

flowery, medicine aroma. Pours a slightly cloudy yellow, thin head. Yeasty herbal flavour. Doesn’t give you anything to bring you back for more.

Dirty yellow Light white fuzzy bubble head. Herbal aroma kind of friendly flower shop. Herbal flavour. A bit rough. Third of a bottle is enough.