Anderson Valley Summer Solstice Cerveza Crema

Brewed by Anderson Valley Brewing Company
Style: Cream Ale
Boonville, California USA

On tap at The Red in Santa Cruz. Poured into a nonic. Orange body with a tannish head that starts out thick but fades rather quickly. Decent lacing. Aroma is pale malt with vanilla and buttery overtones. Flavor is creamy, literally. Almost like a little half & half packet was dumped into a kolsch. Is it diacetyl? I don’t know. Anyway, there’s also an even vanilla wafer note. Pretty one dimensional and rather sweet but I imagine this is pretty standard for the style. Full mouthfeel with lots of carbonation. Maybe a little too thick and chewy for the low ABV and lack of complexity. Pretty drinkable.

12 oz bottle. Pours a clear orange-reddish body with a small orange/off-white head. The aroma is very light, some orange. The taste is very smooth, creamy.

Ususally I like to dismiss summer beers as bland and flavorless but this example is quite stunning despite its low percentile ranking here. Mouthfeel is very smooth and creamy as the label implies. The real star of this beer, however is the masterful flavor. Strong caramel, fresh fruit, even traces of vanilla linger. Another winner from AVBC.

2008 Bottle - Pours reddish orange with an orange head, smells kinda like freshly caught fish, creamy palate, seems to coat your mouth with milk, malted and slightly bitter, this is not what I think about for the summer (or any other time of year for that matter)...

Poured a copper-dark amber, good clarity with a small off-white head, few lacings. Slight excess of carbonation. Aroma is sweet and floral. First sip is sweet malts. Second taste is the same with a slight rich bitterness. I caught a suggestion of vanilla and a bit of pepper. Palate is average. Overall a refreshing sweet cream ale. Not sure where the cream part is. Maybe the smoothness of it. A pleasant enough beer, a bit too much abv for lengthy sessions though. Served about 55 deg. F.

It is copper colored, I’ll give it that. It has a foamy head for about half a minute. Tastes of carbon dioxide and... not much else. It’s rather fizzy and makes me burp a lot. I have to say that this was a bit of a disappointment.

Dec. 2007 - An odd brew worth trying, even if I’m not sure I really enjoyed it. Deep copper color with smallish head and little lacing. Not much by way of an aroma. The flavor was an odd blend of citrus/berry fruits, vanilla and a certain earthiness that was hard to describe. It reminded me of drinking a cookie.

Bottle. Pours a clear copper color with a small off-white head. Aroma is odd but spices, malt and toffee are detectable. Tastes of dried fruit, malt, caramel with some hops present.