In my early twenties, my folks frequented Tavern off the Green, a local bar with decent food and friendly staff in Morristown, New Jersey. Whenever I visited, we would go there for dinner and a few drinks. And I would always get a Genesee Cream Ale, which they had on tap. I always thought it was exotic (mainly because I had never seen it before) and easy drinking. My father, however, never touched the beer, explaining that, having grown up just two hours from Rochester, New York, where it was brewed, he had seen the Genesee River and wanted no part of anything that came from it.
While that Morristown bar was my introduction to Genesee Cream Ale, I don’t know that I had another one until I met my wife some fifteen years later. She hails from Rochester, and her friends would ply me with them whenever we returned. I quickly found that I still enjoyed the light and refreshing quality of the Genny Cream Ale. And, coming from my wife’s hometown, I now had a genuine connection to this regional beer, which made me truly love it.
Though Genesee Brewery started operations all the way back in 1878, they did not begin brewing Genny Cream Ale until 1960. One of their brewers, Clarence Geminn, created the beer as a middle ground between two of their other popular brews. The new Cream Ale quickly became a flagship for the brewery, representing a third of their annual million barrel output. Today Genesee Cream Ale is still their most popular offering and stands as the representative of the cream ale style.
Cream ale itself is one of the first original American beer styles, having been developed in the mid-1800s. The style became popular with Canadian brewers during Prohibition in the United States, and the Canadian ales reinvigorated Americans appreciation for the style. Today, a number of craft breweries make cream ales. But Genesee Cream Ale is the only bigger brewery offering of the style.
In many ways, a cream ale is exactly what Genesee’s tagline for their Cream Ale suggests, “a beer that’s smooth like a lager and crisp like an ale.” Cream ales can use ale or lager yeast. And they are top-fermented ales. But they also undergo a conditioning, secondary fermentation process called lagering that characterizes the lager style. In the particular case of Genesee Cream Ale, the kräusening method of conditioning – adding wort to the finished beer to restart the fermentation process and thereby increase carbon dioxide – is used.
With its smooth, easy drinking qualities and regional attachments, Genesee Cream Ale easily makes it way into my list of cheap beers that I love. It is not available everywhere – that is, after all, part of its appeal – and you should be sure to give one a go if you find the opportunity.
