Blonde ales are a bit of an enigma to me. When you start getting down into the weeds of German styles, you tend to get a lot of wheat-based beers like hefeweizen or dunkleweizen or even gose. The line between what a particularly wheaty pilsener is and what a blonde is confounds me at times. I think this is just my inexperience with the styles themselves, and I only do this as a hobby, so I just don't devote enough time to the minutia. If I thought I could make money off of my meager discernment abilities while tasting beers, I'd probably quit my job and drink nothing but beer for the rest of my life. But I'm just not that good.
True to form, the beer is a pale yellow color with a bit of mist to it and a formidable head that is nothing but short lived medium-sized bubbles. The remaining, scattered bubbles on top of the beer really don't provide much visual stimulation. The aroma is wheat, lemons, and coriander. The rather pedestrian appearance of the beer is one of those things that could endear the style to me or could make me bore of it fairly quickly. So far, the presentation is lackadaisical.As I said, the appearance of the beverage could be endearing, depending on what you're looking for in a beer. The taste follows this workaday mentality and is forthright and unapologetic for it. The solid yeast and wheat foundation is topped off very nicely with the lemon zest, and the beer comes off as thirst quenching and simple. I don't mean simple in a bad way, though, as the brewers clearly went through some effort to produce a vehicle for the thirst quenching ability of a non-tart lemon.
Tip-in is moderate carbonation tingle with lemons and wheat bending toward the sweet end of the spectrum. The middle is full and solid with wheat, white bread, yeast, lemons, and coriander. The finish is surprisingly dry with a mist of yeast and grains left in what is otherwise a relatively arid place before the lemons come back for the trail off. Despite the dry finish, the drink is still very quenching.
Bottom Line: A damn fine blonde.
4.0/5