Legend Golden Ale

Brewed by Legend Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Richmond, Virginia USA

Draught at the Brewery: No aroma. Seriously, I passed it around the table and no one smelled a thing. Golden color. Sparkling. Good, creamy white head which lasted. Tasted acidic. Some hints of caramel malts. Essentially it made me think I was drinking old mayonnaise. Sour finish. Light bodied. Lively carbonation. Not very drinkable, unless you like the to drink sweatsocks. What is this supposed to be? What is was was pretty gross. I’m with Braudog on this one.

22oz Well they dropped the IPA off the end of this one and they might have dropped me off the frequent buyer list. Pours a very light golden color with foamy with head. The aromas are pretty energetic but much less citrus now that it is only a golden. It does have a certain degree of creamy feel in the mouth with can be enjoyable. Overall not a bad quaffable beer from Legend but I remember liking it much better with the more solid hop structure it used to possess.

First Beer from the Richmond brewery. Not a bad ale. It could use some work in the malt department in terms of making the beer a little bit breadier and darker. The hops are pretty good, though not the best I’ve had.

22 oz. Bottle. Fantastic find. Orange color, powerful aroma of a variety of fruit was shocked by the very fresh flavor without any bad tastes or aroma.

Bottle. Pours a brilliant orange ambre with a huge head. Sweet citrus, grapefruit, mango, butterscotch, and almost a slight caramel aroma. Outstanding. Flavor is along the same lines, with a lot of butterscotch up front, followed by a very nice long hop linger. I like this one!

10-Jan-06 (22 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with hopscotch, thanks Eric!) Oh hell yes! I never thought this day would come! I’m rating a healthy bottle of beer from Legend! The flavor shows a fairly grainy and sweet base, balanced by a very grassy and moderately bitter hoppiness, but also an odd barrel flavor. Grassy, grainy, mildly sour, lightly floral aroma. Body is medium, somewhat crisp, nicely carbonated. Pale golden in color, slightly hazy, topped by a tall and long-lasting, fluffy, creamy, off-white head that takes several minutes to gradually settle to a thin but complete layer. Lacing is densely packed in patches, covering much of the glass. Still a pretty odd IPA, but at least this bottle wasn’t infected. Flavorful, certainly unique to me, worth trying once, but ultimately, not a beer I’d buy more than once.

21-Dec-04 (22 oz bottle: Obtained in trade with jasonp, thanks Jason!) Yuck, what the hell is this crap? Golden IPA? I know what color golden is, and this is considerably lighter than golden. How about Yellow IPA? Or Blonde IPA? And the nose is fairly sour. Ack, so is the flavor. Not quite a drain pour, but pretty close. While the color is horrible, the whitish head is also too light, but it has nice size and retention, though if fails to stick to the glass and leave any lacing behind. Since the notes from my trade partner are considerably different and better than mine, I think I need a new bottle to rerate what should be a much better beer than this. (4, 2, 3, 3, 6 = 1.8)

22oz bottle aquired in trade with The_Beer_God (thanks!). Poured a deeper golden color with a larger sized white head. Aromas of flowers, grass with some citrus. Also has a soapy, popcorn smell to it. Tastes of grapefruit, light caramel, grass, and some spices. Mildly bitter. Some lacing left on the glass. Thinner body. Light alcohol in the finish.

Nice gold color with a good pine based aroma. Good citrus flavors with a nice ending. Not as sweet an end as the Legend Brown.