Atwater Dirty Blonde Ale

Brewed by Atwater Block Brewery
Style: Wheat Ale
Detroit, Michigan USA

12oz bottle–pours a disappearing white head and hazy straw yellow color. Aroma is musty grain/bread, yeast, fruit-apricot, lemon, peach. Taste is tart fruit-apricot/lemon/peach, musty grain/bread/light malt, yeast-touch of coriander. Easy drinking. Thanks to Joe-jwc215 for sharing.

Draft sample at MBGF Summer08. Poured hazy orange color with an average frothy white head that diminished slowly and produced fair lacing. Moderate sweet & sour citrus aroma. Medium body with soft carbonation. Moderate sweet sour citrus flavor with a smooth citrus acidic finish of short duration.My expectations where met.

Hazy gold pour with off-white head. Nose is grainy pale malt, hopcitrus. Tastes of pale malt, some fruit, wheat, orange zest, with a citric and spicy finish. Not terribly complex, but pretty smooth and not bad for a hot spring day.

Bottle. The name is appropriate ... at least visually. Thin to no head. The aroma is vaguely sweet, tinged with spice. This drinks with a hint of grist, but mostly sweet, I’d say. (#3743, 11/15/2009)

Draught and bottled samples at Sunset Grill, Summer 2008.
It’s stuff like this that gives blonde ales a bad name. Dirty, not in the sense that the brewers were looking for, but in the sense of unclean, with glaring brewing flaws (diacetyl, metal, a dirty yeast blandness...) and almost no malt character. Tastes like you’re chewing on a handful of dirt and wheat. Some light citrus seems out of place on the end and the beer just tastes stale, cardboard-like and nothing remotely refreshing-like. Extremely poor aroma strength, maybe a touch of vanillin and old, crusty bread. Watery mouthfeel, though somewhat ameliorated by the wheat in the grist. Horribly boring yeast lacking any character.

Bottle [12oz]. Pours a hazy yellow-gold with some tiny floaties and an average size diminishing white head. Aroma: I get wheat and oranges first followed by yeast and light hops -- not much herbs though. Flavour’s slightly watery and could be more flavourful, nothing bad about it though. It’s mainly wheat, oranges and light spices and with a mild sourness in the finish. Light to average bodied. It’s a fine beer and easy to drink, it’s just nothing special.

12oz. Bottles: Aroma of wheat, lemon, grains, fruit, light Sprite. Poured yellow in color with a large, fluffy, white head that diminished but lasted throughout. Cloudy. Very sparkling. Full of small, medium, and large-sized particles throughout. Flavor is lightly sweet. Tastes of grains, wheat, citrus, slight hops, slight Sprite, and slight yeast. Medium body. Tingly, then lightly dry texture. Lively carbonation. Wheat, citrus, and light lemon finish is lightly dry.

Bottle: The aroma consists of some light wheaty citrus notes, lemon, bread, and some grass. It pours a dull hazy yellow with a small fizzy white head that quickly fades to a thin ring around the edges of the glass. The flavor starts with light citrus that quickly turns to light-moderate sour lemon with just a hint of mustiness and grass in the finish. Light bodied with a slightly fizzy mouthfeel.