BEER

From Mabel's Kitchen Table

Yesteryear Cream Ale is like that treasured guest who graced the table at your last dinner party. The one who showed up with a bright smile, was familiar but not boring, comfortable but not predictable, interesting but not full of himself and confident enough to let everyone around him shine. He was easy and fun to be with and you knew he would be at the very top of the invitation list to your next party.

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When you drink a pint of Yesteryear Cream Ale with our Farm Box, you’ll experience a light, crisp beer with enough acidity to cut through the rich flavors in the meat and cheese, all the while allowing the fresh, bright, creamy flavors in the box to stand on their own.

 

Yesteryear is easy to drink and brings out the best in all the elements of Mabel’s Farm Box.

 

Just like that beloved guest - familiar, refreshing and oh, so easy to be with.

 

Brewer's Notes

Before we get started, no, it doesn't actually have cream in it. Cream Ale was born here in the states during the 1800s, making it one of the few truly American beer styles, and was brewed to compete to the popular lager style beers of the time, but taking less time to produce by using quicker and warmer fermenting ale yeast. 

 

Still, no one knows exactly why or how Cream Ale got its name, but some keen investigators look to clever marketing from the breweries of Pennsylvania, angling to draft off of the regions highly successful dairy industry. Cream Ale sure sounds nourishing, doesn't it?

 

If we get past the curiosity of its naming, Cream Ale could essentially be thought of as being German Kolsch's American cousin. These beers were typically brewed with malted 6-row barley, adjunct ingredients like rice or corn to keep them light and dry, and with a moderate hop addition for a balanced finish. The cream ale style was able to survive prohibition, and today is seen as a refreshing and thirst-quenching "lawnmower" beer- meaning really easy drinking! No fuss, no frills, 'nuff said!

 

Here at Ruhstaller, we brewed our Cream Ale as traditionally as possible, using what ingredients the Sacramento Valley gave us, as they would have have decades (if not centuries!) ago -- a blend of locally grown 2-row barley and heirloom 6-row barley, malted by our friends at Admiral Maltings down in Alameda,  rice grown and malted by Jim Eckert up in Chico, and an heirloom Cluster hop variety we call "Grasshopp'r" grown by the Utterback family out in Sloughhouse. Bone dry, lean, snappy and wonderfully straight forward. A tribute to fond memories of YESTERYEAR.

                                                                                        Jarred Sorci, Ruhstaller Brewmaster