Third Street BrewHouse Rise to the Top Cream Ale

Once again, horray for samples! This here beer is one I was holding back on, because of my dislike of the "cream ale" style. Luckily, their distributor came through and I got a 4-pack of samples, which included 3 I've already written about here, purchased with my own money. This one, I really didn't want to spend my own dime on. The only other one I'm missing is their pumpkin ale, which I might be able to still snag. Nonetheless, here are tonight's notes on what might be their most popular beer, the cream ale from Third Street BrewHouse, aka Cold Spring Brewing, Rise to the Top:

Third Street BrewHouse Rise to the Top Cream Ale, Alc. 4.1%.

Hazy, pale yellow cast, small white head.

Aroma: soft, citric, lightly floral, a touch of sweetness.

Taste: Starts with a tidy hop snap (not quite a bite), here comes a squirt of lemon, a bit of bitterness, then it's all smoothness and light. Faint finish, light body.

Cream ales are all fine, but they'll never be a choice for me. You may have seen my review of Anheuser-Busch's Natural Ice, which won the gold medal at this year's Great American Beer Festival in the Cream Ale category. If that's the best that a cream ale can be, this is way off of the mark. And, still, I find no special thrill in it. It's decent, you can drink, and it's beer. But…blah.

Hey, there's a story! How about some gobbledygook?
"Wusses need not apply. In the quest to be the best, obstacles are obliterated. Like a barrel-chested brewer lets nothing stop him in his journey to reach the top. {huh? That's a sentence?} We've bottled that don't-hold-back, bar-none, full-flavor into Rise to the Top Cream Ale, and nothing says manly like cream on top." {What?}
That's right, we said it. We mean it, You like it. We know you do."

Oh, please. This puffery is only slightly true if your target market happens to have previously believed Miller Lite to be a macho drink. I wish I could get over the poor writing, and awful marketing, but the blase' beer doesn't help, either. I'm still hanging on for Third Street beer I might actually be able to say  that I like.