Gentlemen Rarely Prefer BlondesJun 05 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Craft brewers' answer to light innocuous lagers are the light innocuous blonde or golden ales. Here's why...
Craft brewers get an awful lot of press in the U.S. for their flavorful, high-quality beers, yet these products still constitute only a small percentage of the overall beer market. Part of the problem is that there are an awful lot of people who don't give a hoot what goes into their mouths. Let's face it, this is the country that gave the world McDonald's hamburgers -- not caviar and champagne. Blonde ale (also called "golden ale") is the American craft brewers' gift to millions of average American beer drinkers who are perfectly happy drinking pale yellow lager beers. When a brewpub has a blonde ale on tap, and a guy comes in who says "Give me something that tastes like Bud," the bartender can pull the blonde ale tap, comfortable in the knowledge that the customer won't be offended by excessive taste and quality. Blonde Ale Versus Pale Lager Most U.S. craft brewers operate ale-type breweries, meaning that they lack the refrigeration equipment (or at least refrigerated capacity) needed to make light pale lager beers. Industrial breweries also have additional equipment that is not usually found in craft breweries, such as cereal cookers, row after row of refrigerated lagering tanks, and micro-fine filtration units. Craft brewers don't have this kind of equipment -- and probably shouldn't. Craft breweries are like other gourmet food producers, they're like that European bakery downtown or the organic farm out in the country. Craft brewers do not focus on excessive processing and religious adherence to specs, but rather in bringing flavorful, more natural products to discerning consumers. Their aim is not to be the biggest producer, just the best. Yet they still need to make a buck... While craft breweries don't want to offend that mediocre consumer, even the lightest bitter or wheat beer is sometimes too flavorful for a mass market, and the inability to appeal to a large number of potential customers (and their dollars) sometimes hurts small brewers. The American craft brewers' solution to this dilemma is the blonde ale style: a beer that looks like a pale lager and whose balance will probably not offend most average Joes. What Is a Blonde Ale? Blonde Ale is essentially a pale ale brewed without specialty malts (no colored or crystal/caramel malt) and with a low hopping rate. It is usually fermented with a neutral yeast strain (1056 is pretty commonly used) that does not produce a distinctive signature. A typical blonde or golden ale will be made using only pale malted barley so that the beer's color will be as light as is technically possible without adjunct grains. Hops will usually be restrained (maybe 20 BU or so) and will be used primarily to balance the malt sweetness rather than to provide distinctive signatures. Usually a brewer would use a general workhorse hop with a subtle earthy or slightly peppery smell to it. He would probably avoid very distinctive varieties like the Cascade and its ilk which produce easily identified citric smells. Noble hop hybrids, such as Mt. Hood, might be a good choice for a beer like this. After all, this is Joe Sixpack's beer -- not Joe Hophead's beer. Most important to craft brewers, blonde ales are ales so they can be made using normal brewery setups found in every brewpub or craft brewery in the United States. There is no need for elaborate refrigerated storage schemes. Tasting Blonde Ales In the glass, blonde ale looks very much like an average American beer. It will be the same color and have about the same carbonation level. While blonde ales are about as light and innocuous as an ale brewer can make, they are still likely to be a little more characterful than a Bud drinker will be used to. The body will be a little firmer, the malt will taste a little cleaner and fresher. But the beer will be balanced, and it won't taste strongly bitter nor strongly sweet. Buying Blonde Ales A decade ago nobody had ever heard of blonde ales. But today, these kinds of beers are commonly available in brewpubs, and there are some good bottled brands too. Keep an eye open for seasonal summer beers; these are sometimes blonde ales. On the east coast, I recommend trying Blue Ridge Golden, which has a little more malt sweetness than some brands, but that has a very nice firm malt body to it when you get fresh six-packs. In Texas, Shiner Blonde is widely available, but it is a bit different than craft-brewed examples in that Shiner is actually a lager rather than an ale. Some craft brewers use the blonde ale style as a jumping off point for doing fruit or spice flavored beers. The best known example of this is probably Pete's Strawberry Blonde, which is widely sold in much of the United States. Why Gentlemen Don't Prefer Blondes Blonde Ales are almost never the preferred style of brewers or beer critics. The mass-market appeal of the style demands that it not be assertively characterful in either malt sweetness nor hop bitterness, and its balance and low levels of fermentation by-products demand that it not cry out for special attention. Yet this innocuous character is exactly the reason why brewers make blonde ales, and why there will always be a market for these beers. People who were weaned on average American pale yellow beers are not accustomed to flavorful products. They like bland flavors. Among the beer geek crowd, blondes are looked down upon as "chick beers" or "kiddie beers" or "training wheel beers" but never as beers to be taken seriously. That's not always justified because some blondes are quite well-made brews and there are always times when a balanced light-bodied beer is just what the doctor ordered. In fact, it's 90 degrees outside here in Houston. Sure sounds like the right time for a Shiner Blonde to me! Care to join me for one?  |
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