100 Beers, 100 Days: Day #22

Buffalo Bill’s Orange Blossom Cream Ale

The front of the label says Buffalo Bill’s Brewery, the back of the label says Pyramid. That means this beer is contract brewed, which is not in itself a bad thing. That just means one person came up with the recipe and had it brewed using the spare capacity at a larger brewery. From the website, it looks like maybe beers on tap in the restaurant are brewed on site but bottled beers are contract brewed. Nothing wrong with that. I bet lots of places do the same thing. I’ve sometimes wondered if I should do the same thing, but decided against it because that takes the fun of brewing out and leaves you with all the marketing and business work. Yuck. Anyway, on with the show.

This beer pours a very clear pale yellow in color, with a high degree of carbonation. Not bad looking - definite summer beer potential here. The smell and the taste went together so well that I decided to write about both at once. There’s a load of orange, lemon, and other citrus fruits. You get a bit of a light floral feel. That could be from a hop addition or from some adjunct. It’s hard for me to tell. The flavor and texture here is most definitely a cream soda. It’s very unusual for a beer. Finally you get some hops towards the end though the cream soda overshadows it.

In all this was an interesting, light, refreshing beer. It’d be absolutely perfect for a hot summer day out by the pool. The cream soda idea is kind of strange, but I’m down with it. At the least, this is quite different from anything I’ve had in these three weeks so far. Sarah picked it out as part of a random six pack for me and was the most interested in trying it. I think she liked it quite a bit.