Beer 391 - Sugar Hill Gold (3 stars out of 5)

Brewed and bottled by The Harlem Brewing Co, Harlem, New York, NY.  Drunk at the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met) with lunch the in the Met cafeteria.  We spent the morning of our last day at the Empire State Building, then took the subway north to meet Mari, who was visiting New York for a medical symposium.  After a slight hiccup we met up with her and took the subway again further north, then walked three blocks west and three block north to get to the Met, where we found we could “negotiate” the price of admission.  We wandered through several galleries, mostly of Egyptian artifacts until we found the cafeteria in the rear of the museum, where we ordered sandwiches, chips and this beer.

The web site: http://www.harlembrewingcompany.com/about.html

The web site says “TASTE: Sugar Hill offers an unusually rich, smooth character, well-balanced taste and uncompromised artisanal quality. A refreshing complement to any meal or special occasion. The medium body, golden ale is known for its drinkability and has a subtle citrus accent with a finish of hops and malt flavor.
INGREDIENTS We use only the classic and all natural ingredients to brew Sugar Hill, select barley for a very rich character, choice hops blended for jamming accent, pure yeast and crystal clear water. Brewed with pride, Sugar Hill is uncommonly great beer... the absolute finest we brew.

The bottle says “Legend has it that during the Harlem Renaissance a special brew was being brewed uptown in Harlem that was the rave! It was the brew of choice fir musicians artists and locals alike. Named for that swinging neighborhood made famous by this period. Sugar hill golden ale sings with flavor.”

I enjoyed the beer, it was pleasant in an unambiguous way. Perfect perhaps for the Met, in that it did not overwhelm the senses in any way, but nicely complimented the sandwiches in the snack bar. The best part was seeing Mari again and seeing how happy Sofia was to be with Mari.

The 40 raters at BeerAdvocate.com ( http://beeradvocate.com/beer/profile/1484/3944 ) were mixed as usual, with an average rating of 3.41 giving the beer a rating of B- = worthy.

The 53 raters at RateBeer.com (http://www.ratebeer.com/Ratings/Beer/Beer-Ratings.asp?BeerID=15780 ) were not so kind.  They gave it an average score of 2.6 which puts it in the 21^st percentile overall and in the 17^th percentile in its style of Golden Ale/Blond Ale.