John Harvards Rheingolder Gold

Brewed by John Harvards Brewhouse Framingham
Style: Cream Ale
Framingham, Massachusetts USA

Brew pub sampler- Light gold with weak carbs and no head. Watery, dull, and really no taste. Blah!

Frankly I don’t know what the hell this is. It was listed as a light, golden ale. However, it is in the style of Rheingold, which was just a pale lager famous in New York for a time. But they don’t use lager yeast at John Harvards, so this must be an ale yeast at low temperatures, and thus a cream ale in a way. Draught pint on 4/13/06 with SuIIy
A trace of quickly vanishing bubbles is barely apparent by the time the glass gets to the table. Crystal clear, light peach fuzz yellow, but probably closer to looking like water, than beer. No lacing, no retention, but plenty of large bubbles rise furiously.
Aroma? Sweat, light hay (it is 100% saaz hopped), just bits of dry grassiness really. Seltzer water in the nose, with some light notes of vague white bread and a touch of barley. Very low esters, but some orange and nectarine sits faintly on the end. Very, very, very weak nose.
The flavor is difficult to discern at first, the palate having to grow very accustomed to the huge ratio of water to malt. Some highly biting carbonation brushes light barley grains and dry grass about the palate, but there is hardly much more than passing yeast bi-product (soft corn-like notes, a touch of wortiness as well). Watery, very extra light bodied, with some ending peppery note from the hops.