Beer – #507 – Garage Project – Cat’s Pajamas

So, I have me a strangely named beer, the Garage Project Cat’s Pajamas, giving us quirky names, quirky music, a quirk in the numbers and idiosyncrasy, perhaps.

Poor old cream ale. ’Dumb Blonde’ some say. It’s not its fault. It’s all the sweet maize that goes into brewing it that makes it teeter on the edge of being the ’creaming soda’ of beer styles. Then we go and add milk sugar and vanilla and push it right over the edge. Well, you know what, we can’t all be rocket scientists! Celebrate who you are, we think you’re the Cat’s Pyjamas.

This is a 650ml bottle (22 fl oz), with beer of 5.3% ABV, that then would be 159 calories a serving size (330ml) and this is 2.71 standard drinks.

Brewed by Garage Project in the style that is of Cream Ale and they are still based in Wellington, New Zealand

Like I had the cream

This is our take on ‘American Cream Ale’ a style of lager-ale hybrid that dates from the Prohibition Era (before, after — and of course during).

It was hugely popular, but never got enough respect from the beer snobs, derided as too ‘easy’ and being like a creaming soda for grown-ups.

But what could be wrong with that?

We’ve embraced the comparison and brewed this beer with a dose of lactose and a touch of vanilla; it’s light, friendly, and a bit of a treat

Indeed what could possibly go wrong with that?

Bitter sour aroma on opening, like a saison sour. Cloudy golden yellow pour with a smallish head, aroma settles to that dull hop aroma you get with lager beers, slightly grassy.

And then you get a taste like you were not expecting, this is really full, and that sweetness presses the hops down and mutes them, and then you get a slight bitter finish, and then you want some more.

This is weird drinking though, it’s almost like they’ve managed to suppress all the hops and things that make a beer a beer into a very narrow point, and made some strange golden water cocktail. There is still a bitterness there, but it’s as reminder to a beer.

I don’t particularly notice the vanilla in this, and all I have is somewhat reminder of something like American Budweiser, or malt predominant beer. I could buy that for coins. Except that this isn’t a rough or mechanically metallic as the US Domestic things I’m thinking of, and I don’t know if that is a good thing, or if it is a bad thing.

The pdubyah-o-meter rates this as 6 a of its things from the thing. It is easy drinking, offering next to nothing by way if engagement or levels of complex, it is a cold, lightly bitter, slightly sweet drink. Average.

The double dip review

Am I enjoying it? I am but I’m thirsty and this is cold and meets the brief.
Would I have another? No, I could drink similar for pennies.
Would I share with a friend on a porch and set the world to rights? For the comedy value of the name perhaps, but even that idiosyncrasy wouldn’t be enough to keep a conversation going.

For music it’s “Antony and the Johnsons” which may not appeal to everyone, this is a track “Bird Gerhl” from an album/Soundtrack called “Turning” Antony and the Johnsons is a music group presenting the work of Antony Hegarty and his collaborators. It could be described as ‘performance songs” and his best known track might be “Hope there’s someone“, which is a particular sentimental favourite of mine.

A haunting and unusual vocal style.

CREAM ALE

A mild, pale, light-bodied ale, made using a warm fermentation (top or bottom) and cold lagering or by blending top and bottom-fermented beers. Low to medium bitterness. Low hop flavor and aroma.