Falls Blonde Ale
Falls Brewing Company

A: Pours a clear honey amber w/thin head.
S: Strong honey, earth tones and chalk, malt, corn, faint esters.
T: Good lord. At first, there's faint and agreeable sweet fruit bouquet (light citrus-lemon or key lime, & slightly mealy red delicious) that immediately surrenders to heavy medicinal characters that dominate the rest of an arduous journey. There is an unpleasant light metallic sensation at the end that blends w/faint hops that fail to cleanse the palate. The tongue is left with a disagreeable blend of dirt, mineral, tart, and medicinal traces that have no harmony. It's hard to believe, because it actually smells decent.
M: Although I can't stand the flavor, I have to be fair. The mouthfeel is fine...body is medium, and carbonation is at a decent level.
D: Glad to have tried it, but I don't know what caused the flavor issue. I will try other offerings from Falls, but I will stay away from this one.

A-A slightly darker version of Corona yellow. The head is tightly packed and virtually unseen after settling. Body is very clear with tight carbonation.

S-Foul manure-like aroma. Behind the manure smell lies a rough DMS corn mishap. Not pleasant!

T-Totally off-balance and synthetic tasting. Definite oxidation leads to the wet, rotten cardboard taste. There are so many off flavors going on in this that is hard to concentrate.

M-The sharp sourness in this (not Lambic sourness) takes over the entire mouthfeel.

D-Never again!

This brew pours fairly clear, light golden with a thin white head. The aroma is moderately sweet, some apple fruit esters and a very faint hint of floral hop. The flavor is moderately sweet, a little apple flavor and low hop bitterness. The carbonation is medium-high and body thin. Overall the beer is ok, nothing really stands out. I know this is a blonde ale, but a bit more body and some more hop in at least one aspect, bitterness, flavor, or aroma would be much appreciated and should fit into style. Don’t go out of your way to buy.

After having the Falls IPA, I was pretty wary of another offering from Falls (their IPA was an abomination), and while this beer was not attrocious, I can't say I'll be purchasing it again. It is a non-distinct and lightly corny beer more reminiscent of a pale lager than a blonde ale. There is not much to recommend it, but not a tremendous amount to indict either.

It pours a rather unattractive pale hazy pale yellow color, with some attractive and durable head. Aroma lightly sweet and corny. Flavor is some additional malty sweetness, with some lingering chemical-ness. Mouthfeel is slightly sticky.

As I said, I wouldn't recommend this beer, but it wasn't terrible. However, it did little to change my opinion of this brewery.

Label reads: "Dirty Blonde"

Pours a clear yellow/orange color with a foamy white head.

Aroma is effervescent. A sweet malt smell tickles the nose, along with some honey.

Flavor tastes like crackers sweetened with some honey and lemon. Sadly, all of this is ruined by an unmistakable tonic water flavor from what I can only imagine was a bottling disaster during carbonation.

Mouthful should be sub-categorized into throatful and chestful, as the over-carbonation fizzes and foams out into painful air pockets.

Could be drinkable. Should be drinkable. But the carbonation slows the process down. If you were to drink a 6 pack and go jog a mere 1/2 mile, you would explode like Mentos & a 2L Coke bottle.

This is the first Falls Brewery bottle I got from a reliable, "new" source. The problems I had with their previous beers is still apparent in this one. In fact, if I didn't know better, I would have guessed this tasted exactly like their Pale Ale I had. They're changing their names up to cash in on crude sex appeal.

Butternut squash gold with a wee infusion of orange. Atop the beer sits a quality cap of parchment-colored foam that is beginning to deposit a pretty fair array of lace in shotgun-blasted sheets. Not a bad start and certainly an improvement on the rather generic looking label.

The momentum is maintained on the palate. A sweet maltiness is evident and reminds me of maple-less pancake syrup or honey (the website is unclear as to whether honey is actually used). A somewhat musky German hoppiness contributes something of value. This is one of the better smelling blonde ales that I've run across.

Never judge a book by its cover. Give every beer a chance no matter how bland looking the packaging or how unheralded. Falls Blonde is good beer because it's flavorful and because it's different from most other cookie cutter versions. Although it doesn't taste like honey per se, something is giving this beer more sweetness than light caramel and/or wheat malt is capable of providing. A certain wheaty tang is a nice contrast.

I'm unable to completely zero in on the secret ingredient, but I'm fairly certain that lemon peel has been added; or at least a variety of hop that gives off lemon esters to the exclusion of all else. The flavor profile is becoming a little unsteady as the beer warms, but this is one instance where I feel like granting a taste score that is in relation to other versions of the style rather than relative to all beer.

I have no quarrel with the body/mouthfeel. It's solidly medium and is more full, more expansive and more creamy than any blonde in recent memory. A minor burst of carbonation hits on the finish, giving each mouthful a shot of excitement when it's needed the most.

I'm not sure if Falls Brewing Company has changed the recipe or if they've just changed the name. Their website now lists Dirty Blonde Ale instead of Blonde Ale. Adjacent to a blonde with an interested look in her eye is the new tag line, 'Dirty Blonde... give her a taste this summer'. I just did and she... er, it... tastes pretty good.