Coast Range California Blonde Ale

Formerly brewed at Coast Range Brewing Co.
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Gilroy, California USA

Clear gold/amber color. Thin fizzy white head. Very odd vegetal or maybe stewy fermented alfalfa. Maybe some wet reefer too. Sweet caramel and dry wheat bread crust comes out too though. Unattractive nose, basically. Nose carries into taste, but is pretty sweet. Not too hoppy to me. Maybe some wet grass and apple core. That stuff, fermented, vegetal alfalfa stew... I have no idea what it is, but may be something about the hops. Like they were picked, left in a pile in a silo, and then used a few months later. Smooth palate though, not watery or overcarbonated.

[At Stockholm Beer Festival 2005] An orange beer with a disappearing white head. The aroma is sweet with primary notes of caramel, but also notes of barnyard and straw. The flavor is sweet with notes of straw and caramel, leading to a dry hoppy end.

Bottled. Clear golden. Fruity apple aroma. Sweet and medium bodied, hard mouthfeel. Foregettable, except perhaps for those green apples in the nose.

Blondes, why? Small white head, fair retention and lace. Clear gold color. Bland, grainy nose. Light bodied. Dry malt flavors, faint hop grassiness. Finish is dry, quick and a touch cidery. Thanks Stephen!

(12 oz bottle: BevMo in La Jolla, CA) This is such a worthless category of beer. So many golden ales are just generic, entry-level beers, and here we have another fine example. The mild hops is lightly bitter, but fairly spicy, balancing the obvious sweet grain/corn maltiness. The bitterness is most prevalent in the finish, though let’s not confuse this with a hoppy beer. The nose has a strong aroma of corn/grain. Light to medium bodied. Well-carbonated, mildly crisp on the palate from the spicy hops. Pale to medium yellow color is really light for the style. Small, off-white head quickly fades to a cirrus cloud film, plus some bubbles around the edge of the glass. Just a few small patches of lace are deposited on the glass. A generic, ho-hum beer.

I've only literally "drain poured" a handful of beers and this was one of them. I can't think of anything decent to say about this beer except that it has a nice label. However, judging from the other reviews, maybe I bought a bad/spoiled bottle.

Apricot-like fruity aroma, buttery yellow hazy appearance. Fluffy, pillow like white head. Zesty, crisp, hoppy flavor with some mellow maltiness to round it out. Back end has a bit too much hop bitterness though that does not match up well with the amount of hops in the front end - or this would be an excellent blond. Still a goo dsummer refresher.

Nice butter malty aroma. Good label, ding for the twistoff. Light fruitiness, crisp hops and light malt sweetness give a good balance. Nice medium body, good fizz, light medium-long finish and good acid level on the backend. A good summer cooler, probably a good food complement.