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I remember sometime in the late 90s trying Sleeman cream Ale for the first time and loving it. It was among my first divergences from the-usual-two-macro-lager type brews.

Fast forward into me being a mediocre but improving Homebrewer and learning more about water chemistry and water sources: I'm having a Sleeman Cream again for the first time in many many years and I can't tell if it's a glorified memory, a recipe change since being bought out, a staled batch, or just straight up water source change from whatever "original" version I had 20ish years ago.

Anyone have any insights?

I hate it when new knowledge ruins previously good things....

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Lol. I don’t think it’s a recipe change ...I used to drink Sleeman Cream during my stint in ON back in the late 80’s and 90’s and its introduction here in NS. It gave me such vile gas that people threatened to vomit after several expulsions. I loved it lol. I did try a Sapporo made tall can within the past couple years and it seemed the same. There are other iterations on the market now that I enjoy more eg. Saltbox’s Nun on the Run, Boxing Rock’s Three Sheets, and Nine Locks Cream. I’m trying to get some Genesee Cream Ale as a traditional benchmark for Cream Ale. It’s likely that your palette is a little more refined that has thrown you off.

I pretty much got into craft beer and brewing from Leffe which is a Belgian beer. I bought that stuff most weekends for a couple years and eventually brewed a clone of it for my first AG batch. Today I cannot drink it for its way too sweet. After trying many other Belgians and realizing that the dryness is what makes them enjoyable, or “digestible” as the monks say, it’s really hard to go back to Leffe and not focus on how filling and cloying that beer is. So we are going from a person enjoying a beer so much that they decide to make it a priority in life to learn how to recreate it to a person who cannot even enjoy it.

Your palette is evolving, however I don’t think it’s a continuum where what you’re enjoying now you’ll not enjoy later. From here on out it’s subtle refinements. I find music to be the same, Norwegian Black Metal just doesn’t cut it for me anymore.


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Yeah Sepultura Kviek Cream might revive your flagging interest though...

Yeah Sepultura Kviek Cream might revive your flagging interest though...oops..Hellhammer as the previous might make you want to drink Brahma....