Second in the 25th anniversary series. Collaboration with Gigantic. I do like a Mezcal barrel. I've come to learn that. Tangerine colored pour (appropriately enough) with a modest white head. Retention a little below average. Nose and tastes do exactly what is says on the tin. Medium tangerine notes build from the beginning and break across the tongue. The citrus element has a nice sweetness to it. Orange continues to ramp up down the glass. Salty notes accompany the very, very, very light...
Notes on beers in the style
American Blonde Ale
Sand Creek Golden Ale
12 oz single, thanks to Kevin for the chance to try this beer. Pour is a strange, hazed and cloudy pour with a butterscotch color. This is a sweet, grainy, musty beer which frankly is pretty unimpressive. Some notes of cardboard and a mixture of lemony sweetness come together to produce a beer that is a prickly, fizzy, bland and watery concoction. Not good, and I'm not sure what this is trying to be, but either way - no thanks.
Three Beaches Honey Blonde
12 oz bottle, typical Tyranena presentation. Bottom line is that this is not a very good beer. The appearance is odd. It has a macro feel about it in as much as it comes with a huge number of small bubbles clinging to the inside of the glass. It looks highly carbonated, but the beer seems largely lifeless and there is no head or any retention. There is a darker color than a typical macro would give which I suppose is from the honey element. The nose and taste do deliver a little sweetness from...
Skinny Dip
12oz single, Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. Clear, honey golden pour with a decent frothy head. Nose has some acidic malts, but not much else. Tastes are very neutral to me. High level of carbonation gives a mineral like, sodium hydrogencarbonate taste as if I was drinking an antacid. The mineral base and large carbonation does give a lively mouthfeel which I like. Finish leaves a touch of bitterness and more of the lingering dissolved salts. Very odd beer for me and I can't get past the odd,...
Chatoe Rogue First Growth Single Malt Ale
Simplicity on the pour with a nice, orange body hat sits underneath the white head. Some lace, but not much to speak of and the head fades rather quickly. Nose has plenty of grain character but the threat of extra hop presence also wafts into the nostrils. The tastes confirm that exact combo with the hops taking too forward a role for me (at least in terms of the style). Finis is interesting since it imparts a fairly significant dry, cracker like ending that I wasn't expecting and again seems...
Bad Monkey Chimp Chiller Ale
12 oz single from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. OK, not really what I'm looking for in a label, and a quick visit to the website and seeing this is contract brewed, immediately makes me realize that this 100% about marketing and very little about the beer. Pour is a macro yellow body with the typical characteristics of non-retained head and hardly any lace. Average carbonation. Slightly sweet, corny like nose and tastes and although largely unoffensive it could still be just about any, low...
Hoptober Golden Ale
12 oz bottle from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA as a single. A lovely, golden body with perfect clarity and some excellent wispy, fine lace. Bone-white colored head. Carbonation is medium. Good color, and the fact that the name includes the word "Golden" seems appropriate. Nose and tastes reveal a very subtle, but potent hop profile. This is VERY reminiscent of a wet-hopped beer. I don't know if it is ACTUALLY wet-hopped but it certainly smells and drinks that way. Decent malt backbone holds it...
Farmhouse Summer Ale
Thanks go out to Jim for the chance to crack this one. 12 oz bottle. Mmmmm, strange. An alarming, crystal clear pour with a macro like color and a carbonation to match. Looks "ultra" filtered! Nose and tastes reveal soft malts and some grainy sweetness. This is categorized as a Saison?? It looks like (and has the mouthfeel) of a macro lager. It does have a nose and taste that gives more than that, but not a huge amount more and the experience is subtle to say the least. Some light, estery...
Endless Summer Ale
64 oz growler from Bruisn' Ales. Thanks J & J. Opens with an encouraging release of gas with a loud "pphhtt"! Crystal clear, light golden pour with a very nice head. Some decent lace as well. Carbonation is on the high side, but completely in line with the style. Nose reveals a touch of grassy herbal hops. Tastes are quite bitter. Almost a Saaz like pils finish as well. Finishes dry and bitter too. This is a surprisingly bitter beer which is not necessarily a bad thing. It has more character...
Slim Chance Light Ale
16oz "pint" at Taco Mac, Douglasville, GA, USA. I REALLY wanted to like this since at 3.9% this kind of beer is just about impossible to find in the US. Unfortunately it was DIRE. Appearance was just the usual, nasty macro, ho head, no lace, watery pour. Again, nose (virtually nothing) was as expected and par for the style/course. Mouthfeel was from the same stable, but again not to disappointing since, (a) it supposed to be somewhat like that, and (b) that was what i was expecting, however...
Celts Golden Ale
$3.99 (I think) from Hop City, Atlanta, GA, USA. 22oz bottle. Bought this specifically to quench a thirst at the beginning of an Atlanta summer. Pour is bright with a touch of haze and exhibits a definite, dark golden color. It looks substantial unlike some others in the style. Nose has a touch of sweetness and some caramel malt presence. There is a crisp, hoppy bite and some good, sweet malts to compliment it. Tasty, simple and quenching, I like this a lot. Not especially complex, but at the...
Beach Bum Blonde Ale
More marketing nonsense from the big guys. I saw this maybe two summers ago on Hilton Head Island on draft at Mellow Mushroom. At the time I avoided it thinking that it was just another nasty, macro product. A little investigation proved this to be the case, and I have avoided trying it until now. This 12oz bottle came from Total Wine, Kennesaw, GA, USA as a single. "Born On" (WHAT BULLSHIT) May 2nd 2008, this is a positively ANCIENT A-B product! Over carbonated and a lager like body that has...
Samurai Ale
$5.25 from Taco Mac, Marietta, GA, USA. 12oz bottle. Cloudy, lemon colored pour that has some chill haze - looks a little Hefe-like. Sweet, mild honey like tastes with little or no distinguishable, nose. Some pepper creeps into the finish. A really odd beer this one that seems to me to be a collection of many different styles rolled into one. Some macro lager, light lager, Wit and even a little Saison. Strange, but drinkable and tasty but HORRIBLE (even in a bar) value!
Summer Solstice
Taken from notes, Summer 2007. Drank a couple of pints of this at The Bear in Esher, Surrey with my good friend Dave - thanks Dave! Striking light colored pour that the name would suggest. Thin head. Another of the ever popular English "Golden Ales", I think this should be added to the BA database as a style, despite the fact that I don't really care for them much! Light freshly mown grass in the nose, and a distinct yest note that carries over to the taste. Although not a "hoppy" beer by ANY...
Oregon Golden Ale
22oz bomber from State Line Liquors purchased under the Sharktooth moniker. I think it was $4.99. Golden/Orange hazed and cloudy pour. Head and lace are unimpressive. Nose is a light lemon. Some noisy, and prickly carbonation. Quite bubbly in the mouth. Body is Hefe like. Tastes are interesting with a yeasty background with some citrus notes. In fact, if I had to sum this up I would call it VERY reminiscent of a typical British Lager Shandy. Lots of lemonade (British, NOT American), which...
Haymaker Extra Pale Ale
12oz single from Tower on Buford, Atlanta, GA, USA. Macro lager colored pour with a much better head retention and lace than the similar looking brew. Carbonation is not huge, but is persistent. A lot of malt character, quite sweet. Despite that it maintains its integrity. Tasty with a very low key, underlying hop character. Smooth, clean and refreshing. I enjoyed this. It's VERY simple, but tasty and a nice summer quencher.
Summer Blonde
=== Updated Review 06/08 === A bit better than a year ago - not much, but a bit. Same, darker than average oour and same dry finish, but this time with a little more of an IPA hop note. Still flat looking with no head, but at least there was some lace this time. drinkability had improved. === Original review 06/07 === Well, they called this a "Golden Ale" and named it Blonde, and it's so dark it can't possibly be either! It's basically Amber in color, but the IPA and the Raspberry Wheat were...
Southend Blonde
The funny thing about this beer is the fact that the brewery offers a Light version of this! Good Lord, anything lighter and we'll have water! Anyway, typically macro in so many ways, all the way from the piss weak color, the lack of aroma and the utterly pointless taste. Non-offensive with no skunk is about the only good thing to say, although there is a pseudo hop bitterness that appears in the finish but is gone almost immediately. Don't bother with this. Rather too predictable me thinks.
Fleur-de-lis Restoration Ale
Not my favorite style, but the more I drink this type of beer, the more it grows on me. It seems to improve down each glass too. Very much a golden color with some initial head, but the head and lacing are gone soon. A lot of freshly mown hay and grass in the nose, and this is reflected in the taste. Soft and rounded in the mouth with easy drinking written all over it. Light and creamy, this has obvious summer session potential A little reminder of a Pilsner in the finish.
Shipyard Export Ale
As others have a noted, a buttery, malt taste about this beer, with a definite thin feel in the mouth. However, there is a nice hop balance and a lightness that makes this very drinkable. Hops are small, and this definitely on the APA side of IPA, with not much bitterness to speak of, but it does provide a decent drinking experience as long as you know what you are getting and, importantly, what you are not getting. Golden, attractive pour and a nice head and decent lacing. There is a...
Red Brick Blonde
Pretty pale Pilsner type appearance with a small head that disappears to leave some decent lacing and some surface cream. Carbonation is good and "tops up" the surface head nicely. Some fruit acid type character or pepper in the aroma. Interesting tastes that lie somewhere in the Pilsner/Cream Ale range. Definite initial dry hop bitterness, but this fades quickly to give a creamy dryness in the finish. Finish is quite long and there is a pronounced dry/bitter aftertaste. A little malt in the...
Carrollton Ale
Hazy, cloudy pour with a small head that left quickly. A lot of unidentified particles (yeast?) at the bottom of the glass. Amazingly strong aroma of apples, and an acidic taste led me to believe that this was more like a rustic English cider. In the end it resembled some kind of weird hybrid of cider, saison, wit and hefe, and was just about as far removed from the Pilsner label that the brewer had put on it that you could imagine. Watery mouthfeel, and a lingering acidicly bitter aftertaste....
Pete’s Wicked Rally Cap Ale
Slightly above average, light colored, easy drinking beer with a refreshing thirst quenching effect but little else to write home about. Standard macro lager looking pour but with a better head than usual, but unfortunately this disappears quickly. Moderate to light body with a little citrus in there. Mouthfeel is simply ordinary, in fact the whole beer is rather average - I could be drinking almost any of 1000 beers!
Golden Ale
Very deep golden color, with a little cloudiness in the pour. Good head, but this overshadowed by the exceptional amount of sticky lacing that is left on the glass - truly some of the most extensive lacing that I have seen. Sweet, sugary aromas and initial tastes, but this very quickly gives way to a dry, crisp, slightly bitter, hoppy finish. An unusual combination of tastes that makes for a very pleasant combination that is both refreshing and satisfying. Nice, simple beer, very drinkable,...
Molson Golden
Six pack, twist top. An aggressive pour gave this a full two fingers of head, with large bubbles at the top and smaller ones as you look down through the head. The head itself was foamy in appearance but disappeared quickly to leave a very small amount of lacing. This is a pale golden colored brew that is rather bland. Having said that it was fairly refreshing. Unlike some nasty bland macros this didn't leave an unpleasant aftertaste and the overwhelming aroma and taste was NOT simply alcohol....