It’s been said that younger generations of drinkers in Japan just aren’t that into beer anymore. With them opting instead for cheaper and sweeter cocktails, good old ale (or ale-flavored stuff) is gradually being pushed aside.
However, our intrepid reporter Meg has found a way to reinvent beer to younger folks appealing to their sweet-tooths. It comes from South Korea where it’s called “Saengkeulim Maegju” or “Cream Beer” and is basically beer with some whipped cream on top. It’s so easy you can make it at home…so we did!
Meg recently heard rumors of young Koreans putting whipped cream on their beers for what they called a “sweetly delicious” and easy to drink alcoholic beverage. It’s said to have started a few years ago among the youth of the Hongdae area of Seoul.
Thinking it was probably a joke, she checked online but sure enough, it was very real. Not only that, but it didn’t look half bad. Meg figured that if it had been around for a few years it must have some appeal. If it sucked surely they would have abandoned it long ago. “Heck, it might be the greatest drink ever!” she thought and set out to make some.
For her taste test Meg purchased two types of beer: a bottle of South Korea’s Cass and a can of Japanese Yebisu. First she’d try a Cream Beer with its native brew to see how it normally tastes. After that she’d try to recreate it using a Japanese beer to see if it has potential in this country too.
First, she poured a glass of Cass and shot out a generous helping of whipped cream on top. It looked kind of cute, Meg noted. All that was left was to taste.
“Hey, that’s not bad,” Meg found herself thinking right after her first sip. Not a stellar review but there was a lot about Cream Beer that she could appreciate. It was very similar to a cream soda or float with the mixture of carbonation and cream complimenting each other well. Also, much like adding cream to coffee, the whipped cream takes a lot of the bitterness out of the beer. As a result some of the richness of the beer could be more easily tasted among the frothiness of bubbles and cream.
Just to be sure, and because doing so would mean drinking more delicious beer, she tried again using Japanese Yebisu. Though she got results, Meg noted that the Yebisu was slightly more bitter than the Korean Cass. Overall it wasn’t mind-blowingly delicious but it was good, kind of like cream soda. Because of this she dubbed it the “Adult Cream Soda.”
Having been around longer in Korea some more experienced Cream Beer drinkers have taken to adding chocolate shavings or fruit to enhance the flavor. You can expect results to vary widely depending on the beer as well so best to start off with the basic beer and cream combo before going all out. So why not give it a try? You might very well have the ingredients lying around as you read this and want to have the not-so-amazing-but-pretty-good taste experience that Meg did.
Source: Beer2Day (Korean)
Original article by Meg Sawai
Photo: RocketNews24
▼ It’s said that Korean beer tends to be thinner, which might make it a better pairing for cream.
▼ “I don’t know about this Yebisu and whipped cream. I know! Let’s get Mr. Sato. He hates everything.”
▼ “He likes it! Hey, Mr. Sato likes it!”
▼ For special occasions why not add some cute sprinkles?
[ Read in Japanese ]