BREWERY: Long Trail Brewing Company
STYLE: Blonde Ale
ABV: 4.3%
PURCHASE: Draught (60-oz. pitcher), $8.00
SERVING: Said pitcher, poured into pint glass. Very heady from the tap to the pitcher, initially producing over four full inches. A standard pour from pitcher to glass led to a little over an inch, a result almost equaled by a slower pour. A faster pour (ten seconds) resulted in two full inches and change. Outstanding retention. So outstanding, that some of the head after the final sip of the final pour (see photo below)!
APPEARANCE: Foggy but translucent golden-straw color. Rocky white head. Excellent lacing.
BOUQUET: Grapefruitly hoppy with malty undertones. Hop factor is sharp but not off-putting; rather inviting, actually. I'm not sure if "grapefruitly" is an actual word.
PALATE: Light-medium body with very little in the way of carbonation. Mouthfeel is one-dimensional; it's too hoppy for its own good. This is supposed to be a blonde ale, and it comes off as an IPA. Hops dominate from start to finish. Some citrus notes emerge at the back, and there's even a slight yeast factor. But they seem to fight for their lives against the Almighty Hops. It gets better (more rounded) as it warms a bit, but still comes off as too sharply hoppy.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: This is one of those brews that looks better than it tastes. Not that it tastes bad. But it looked like a champion. It turned out to be a beer with an identity crisis: The looks of a blonde, the character of . . . something else. This is for you, though, if you like hops and hardly anything else. Knock yourself out.
GRADE: C+
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| An entire inch of head . . . after more than an hour of drinking. |
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