Add the word “cream” to a beer style, and it becomes wonderfully evocative—but in this case, that’s just the problem. It’s a mite too evocative, and cynics might argue it’s less a style than a marketing gimmick. Cream ales notably lack cream—or even, originally, the quality of creaminess. Looking back to its 19th-century origins, we see contemporary accounts describe it as a cheaper, easier way to enter the burgeoning market for lagers. The “cream” part just sounded good.
Ah, but styles do evolve, and if we follow the thread of this curious regional specialty, we find a beer that begins to come into its own in the 1960s and that may be entering a new phase of evolution—and finally delivering on the promise of the name.
Just Before and Just After Prohibition
Let’s hop back to the period before Prohibition, when cream ales were in their youth. In the American Handy Book of the Brewing, Malting and Auxiliary Trades, Robert Wahl and Max Henius in 1901 describe a range of lager-like ales that had cropped up to compete with the German-style pilsners already dominating the market. “Cream, lively, or present use ale takes the place of English mild ale, and more recently the American ale brewers are equipping their plants with refrigerating machines to brew a beer—brilliant or sparkling ale—that combines the property of a lager beer and ale; i.e. a sparkling, brilliant beer with an ale taste and aroma.”