Pelican Brewing Releasing Kiwanda Cream Ale in 12-Packs

Inspired by one of America’s traditional indigenous 19th century beer styles, Kiwanda Cream Ale is a nod to founding brewmaster Darron Welch’s love of history and reputation for brewing beers as they are intended to be. Pelican is the first known craft brewer to honor the early American beer.

“When we first started producing Kiwanda 20-years ago nobody in the US was brewing a pre-prohibition revival kind of cream ale—I really wanted to imagine what cream ales from the 19^th century might have been like,” says Welch. “I have an ongoing interest in history—the story of how things got to be the way they are–—and I wrote my college thesis on the pre-prohibition era in the state of Oregon. I like to go back in history and ask ‘what was the beer like back then? What was the beer’s purpose?’ And if we’re going to call this pre-prohibition cream ale, it better be true to the style.”

According to an Imbibe magazine article that salutes Pelican’s trend-setting brew, the cream ale style gained popularity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries as ale breweries in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic region looked to compete with ascendant lager breweries. By fermenting ales at cooler temperatures, brewers created crisper, cleaner, less fruity beers that were more in line with pale lagers. The hybridized specialty soldiered on after Prohibition before largely falling out of favor by the 1970s and ’80s.

Made of all local, hand-sourced ingredients, Kiwanda Cream Ale is pale gold with a fruity, floral hop aroma, golden color, refreshing body and clean, snappy finish. Two-row malt, flaked barley, Mt. Hood hops, CaraPils malt, pure local water and pure ale yeast combine to make Kiwanda Pelican’s flagship and fastest selling brew:

· ABV: 5.4%

· IBU: 25

· Plato: 12°

“Kiwanda cream ale is an example of how it’s possible to have an aromatic floral, flavorful beer that has great character and balance while still maintaining a real refreshing quality, a clean dry finish and a very high drinkability factor,” says Welch. “We are always looking for the floral aroma, clean light malt flavor, dry well- attenuated finish to provide hoppy balance and the very clean drinkability that always invites another sip.”

Kiwanda has been ranked as one of the top beers in the world by both Draft magazine and Men’s Journal. According to Men’s Journal ‘‘not long after coastal Oregon’s Pelican Brewery opened in 1996, brewmaster Darron Welch decided to re-create a classic, pre-Prohibition cream ale—a style that was practically dead. His modern interpretation, pale gold and refreshing, lightly sweet with fine floral, fruity aromatics, has since become one of the brewery’s most beloved beers, the past transformed into a modern classic.”