Trend Alert: Genesee Cream Ale is the New Pabst
I know some will quibble with my assertion, but I truly believe that Genny is on the way in and Pabst is on the way out (no doubt helped by Pabst's current lack of a Brooklyn distributor, as I hear it). The trend-setter is Abilene at 442 Court Street, where they've replaced the erstwhile hipster go-to beer with the raging bandit from Rochester, New York ($2.50 per pint). See the similarities and decide for yourself.
Pabst
1. Tastes like shit unless it's super cold.
2. Makes you the fool of the room (aka, the guy still wearing a trucker hat) if you pay more than $3 for it.
3. Has a cool retro can.
4. Allows easy segue from conversation about the newest artist-DJ-indie rock collective to that time in college when you puked your guts out on this really hot senior.
5. In the spirit of the There's a Category for Everyone Olympics, Pabst has won taste tests, including a bronze medal in the American-Style Premium Lager division of the 2004 Great American Beer Festival.
Genesee Cream Ale
1. Tastes like shit unless it's super cold.
2. Even your grandpa would be embarassed to know you spent more than $3 on the swill.
3. Not only does its can look retro, so does its website.
4. Allows easy segue from the conversation about how your Chuck Taylors are waaaay cooler than that dude's over there to that time in college when you puked your guts out on this really hot senior.
5. You doubt? According to its own website, the brew pulled in a gold medal at the World Beer Competition in that tasty American-Style Lager category.
Let the ironically hip, I-really-want-to-convince-you-I-spent-some-time-in-a- western-Pennsylvania-steel-town beer wars begin. (And I can say this because indeed I have spent some time in just such a small w-PA town.)
Cheers and may the best cheap beer win!
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Genesee has a Pale Ale according to their web site.. Sounds dubious!
I always see cool kids drinking Genesee @ Floyd, so I picked up my first 6pack last week. Bleh! I am in no way a discerning beer drinker (we currently have Natty Light in the fridge), but I have been unable to finish a can of the Genesee.
But if I wanna earn scene points, i must learn to enjoy the swill.
Kudos on this awesomely acerbic post! I will never understand the ironic drinking of bad beer. PBR tastes like the sweat of a homeless man.
Andrew.. I agree entirely.. two words SIX POINTS!
give me local drafts or give me death!
I'm going to try and drink Genesee un-ironically.
Also, what this beer needs is a reference in a twisted movie, kinda like what PBR got in "Blue Velvet" or Rolling Rock got in "Deer Hunter".
See you all at Abilene for fat tuesday!
Bah. Genny Lite is the "pride" of Rochester. Cream Ale is so... trying.
and what hot senior did you throw up on while drinking Pabst in college? I threw up in Trevor's dog dish, but I don't know if that counts ....
I used to drink PBR at the original Village Idiot at 1st Ave. and 10th. Back then - early 90s - it was all straight up and non-ironic. We drank it because it cost a buck and because so we could tip 100 percent and buy one for Tommy the owner who would shake it up and bite right into the side of the can. The good old days ....
ugh....
American-Style Lager=low grade checkz pislner
blech.
used to see 6-packs of pabsts for $3 from time to time in cali, so i was seriously weirded out by disphits palying big $$ for it in bars.
why can't it be cool to hang out at burp castle and drink dogfish head? cuz, hoo-boy, i'd be cool!
i really do know how to spell.
honest.
"Disphits," I like it!
/noun/
The name given to hipsters who foolishly pay too much for low-grade status-enhancing beer.
EYE SEE LITE?
Start a fight!!!
if you can find it, genny regular is more palatable than cream ale. i got my first raging drunk on cream ale ("screamers") when i was in 11th grade. my dad was so proud.
one thing it has going for it--genny continually has great graphic art. it's so simple and striking i have built my band's entire aesthetic on it--see the following:
Click Here
Erin -
I'm curious as to what beer you drink. Genny Cream Ale is a very nice beer -- for the price. There are many very popular beers out there that don't even come close and which cost considerably more. Since GCA is a modestly-priced beer which is very palatable, I can't see your assessment as being valid at all. You say "Tastes like shit unless it's super cold." So what do you say it tastes like when it's super cold? Super cold shit maybe? Anyone who uses a phrase like "tastes like shit" is of dubious credibility from the git go. Anyone who opines that a beer tastes better when "super cold" is likely a moron. Temperature surely affects the overall experience but not the actual "taste" of a beer. I suggest you get a life and grow a brain. Have a nice day.