The actual name of this beer is Thomas Creek’s Stillwater Vanilla Cream Ale, but that is exactly one word too long to fit into the title area. Sorry Stillwater. Anyway…
The Lowdown: I gotta say, I’m kind of excited about this beer. It just sounds good, you know? Other than “stillwater”, that sounds a little stagnant, otherwise though: great name. But I hate having high expectations about a beer, because they are all too often dashed upon the rocks like last year’s lobster pots, and that hurts. I suppose if a beer didn’t look good from it’s presentation and branding, nobody would buy it, right? Sure, that’s how beer works. So no hard feelings. I went a little stupid taking lots of pictures, so get ready (I’ve got to keep myself entertained somehow):
There is is, pale gold and pretty as can be, but is it…
BIGGER THAN THE MUTINEER COVER MODEL!?!
LARGE ENOUGH TO BATHE IN!?!
Just kidding you guys, totally normal-sized beer. FOOLED YOU!
Ok, I’m done being a jackass (for now). On to the drinking!
The Whiff: Not much here. Faint vanilla, and a general “beer” smell. Doesn’t really mean much one way or another. We soldier on!
The Taste: Hmm. Well, looks like the nose was “on the nose”, GET IT!?! Not a whole lot going on, weak vanilla flavor, light creaminess, and some very gentle hops. It’s not bad, it’s just not doing much either. To be honest, I bet you could give this to someone (not telling them what it is) and they wouldn’t even say “Pardon me sir, is this a vanilla cream beer you’ve given me?” It’s really that subtle. The upside is that same subtlety would allow you to drink many of these beers without getting sick of them.
Would you drink it again? Sure, but I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to buy it or pay much more for it than other beers. It’s just not that exciting.
Would you recommend it to someone else? Probably not. Like I said, not because it’s bad, there’s just not much going on to get hyped up about. YAWN.
Overall: Sometimes all the great marketing and fantastic pictorials featuring magazine covermodels can’t make up for the fact that a beer is just kind of meh. C+
yes! Mutineer FTW! Things have gotten AWESOME on Drink Planner!
Let’s see if I can get my avatar to work…
Yesssssssss…
Sweet shots. Third one is my favorite.
Sweet cover. Too bad the beer wasn’t as good.
Cover models bathing in beer, the dream has finally arrived.