Do You Like "Just Plain Beer"? Try Abita Golden
Written: Mar 28 '02
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Light and refreshing, very cleanly brewed
Cons: A little *TOO* light -- needs more "ooomph"
The Bottom Line: Abita Golden will never have a permanent place in MY beer fridge! It's too light and too much like ordinary mainstream lagers to interest my palate.
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Abita Golden |
I've been drinking a lot of big beers lately, so as I rooted through the beer fridge to find something interesting to go with my lunch today, I figured I should probably go for something a little lighter and a little softer. Something that seems to match up well with my grilled chicken sandwich, and something that just feels right for a warm day like today...hmm...looks like one of these Abita Goldens might be just what the doctor ordered!
What I Look for in a Good Golden Ale
Golden ale (a.k.a., "blonde 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 or golden ale tap, comfortable in the knowledge that the customer won't be offended by excessive taste and quality.
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 that does not produce a distinctive signature (1056 is pretty commonly used).
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. See my essay on the style here on epinions if you want more details about the style and how it is brewed and evaluated.
A Glass of Abita...
Let's pop the lid off this bottle of Abita Golden and take it for a test drink, shall we?
Appearance:
Extremely pale yellow color -- light even for this style, which is supposed to be as pale as you can brew. I'd guess that this beer comes in at about 3 on the SRM color scale. It pours with a nice vigorous head that dissipates fully about halfway through the beer. The beer is well conditioned, but not excessively gassy. Brilliant clarity without even a trace of protein haze -- a very pretty glass of beer.
Aroma:
Do you know how you get a strong sugary scent from beers like the big Trappist Tripels? Well, Abita Golden has the same kind of raw sucrose scent, but its much lighter and more subdued. Still there though, even on a second pass...definitely a sugary smell. I also get a light hint of lemon and some light grassy hops.
Flavor:
This is an extremely light-bodied, quaffable beer. It has a slightly sweet malt flavor with a light earthy hop aftertaste, but nothing lingers on the palate and nothing offends (other than just a little bit of the DMS corn signature). It is basically a very straightforward beer that tastes much like your slightly above-average quality mainstream American lagers. By the time I get about halfway down the glass, I'm really thinking that this beer is too watery for me (or for anyone else who is really looking for an interesting craft beer).
Verdict:
Too light! Needs more malt, needs more hops.
Yeah, yeah, I know golden ales are supposed to be average-tasting poundable brewskis, but in my opinion, Abita carries it too far with this beer. When I think about the best golden ales or blonde ales available in the U.S., I can think of an awful lot of brands that I prefer over Abita Golden. On the east coast, I'd probably go for the maltier tasting Blue Ridge Golden. In the southwest, I'd opt for Shiner Blonde over this one -- both are a bit firmer and more distinctive than Abita's foray into the style. Not a bad brew, and a definite step up from your mediocre industrial lagers, but still not anything I'd write home to Mom about...
About Abita Brewing
Abita is one of those craft breweries that you don't always hear a whole lot about, but that quietly go about making good beer and catering to their local market and growing their business. Abita is one of the old-timers of the craft brewing industry, having gotten their start back in 1986. Over the years, they've expanded to the point where, today, they are poised to become one of the largest independent breweries in the U.S. (they recently purchased a 100-barrel brewhouse from Canadian equipment fabricator DME -- the largest brewhouse DME ever built.)
Abita likes to stress the purity of their water as the defining element that sets them apart from the pack. They claim that the natural water sources at Abita Springs let them brew without doing any mineral adjustments before brewing. Natural spring water -- that's what Abita says they use.
While Abita's stronghold is the Louisiana market, their beers can be found in almost every state in the U.S. today. I know that it's available in the Texas and Washington D.C. areas, and I see from Abita's web page that they have distributors just about everywhere else too, from Connecticut to California, so this should be a beer that's not too tough for most folks to get their lips on...
If you're in the New Orleans area, drive across Lake Pontchartrain to Abita Springs and check out the brewery. They do tours Saturday and Sunday afternoons. More info is on their web site: www.abita.com
Related Reviews:
Abita Bock
http://www.epinions.com/content_58282970756
What is a Golden Ale?
http://www.epinions.com/content_1622515844
Recommended:
No
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