Blonde Ale
Tofino Brewing Company

 

Tofino Brewing 'Blonde Ale' @ 5.5% , originally tasted on tap at IBF'14 , now served from a 473 ml can May2022
A-pour is gold from the tap/can to clear gold in the glass with a small white head leaving a spotty lace along the pint
S-mild use of hops
T-crisp & clean tasting blonde ale
MF-ok carbonation , medium body ,
Ov-just an ok beer
prost LampertLand

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tofino Blonde Ale is goods as advertised: this glossy golden beer is fair but has high-beam radiance - you could navigate country back roads at night with a glass of this stuff! The highlights stay forever bright but the batteries on its head die out quickly; all the foam from the pour disappears within minutes.

Craft consumers always want what's new and shiny. I'm guilty of it too. And while I love having my tooth enamel stripped off by alpha-acids and my palate turned inside out by puckering, funky yeasts as much as the next guy, every now and then I just feel like a having a beer. Something wet and yellow...

Of course, there's more to the criteria than that - standards are a funny thing, once you have them they can't be ignored. Yes, I want something relatively simple and mindless to drink but it must still have good, assertive, wholesome flavour - just like the kind exemplified in Tofino Blonde Ale.

Those familiar with the beers of Cologne know this brand of cracker-y, fresh-out-the-oven bready malt and "my glass is empty already?" drinkability. This is clearly made with patience (proper conditioning) and high quality ingredients (you don't get this maltiness from second-rate grain or adjuncts!).

It's easy to take Tofino Blonde Ale for granted given its simplicity and the effortlessness it takes to appreciate it. The style is familiar, however, few beers in this vein are comparable in terms of quality. This is an offering that can legitimately lay claim to misused terms like 'balanced' and 'smooth'.

 

A- This pours a modestly yeast hazed golden color with a thick white head that starts out about 2 fingers thick, and has excellent retention....it is soapy white in color and texture. The lacing of this one is not the best, with the foamy goodness swiftly sliding back into the liquid. Carbonation appears to be zingy, with many columns rapidly rising to the top...we shall see! It looks quite nice!

S- Very nice sugary sweet caramel malts are dominant, with toasted raw like grains, biscuity yeast....slight citrus hints, soft hops on the finish. Overall there is some sort of slight peppery spice too that just hits the back of my nostrils....its pleasant overall.

T- This is very nice in flavor....lots of toffee/caramel complexity in the malt, light fruitiness such as banana and apricot kernel, bready yeast/biscuit, very slight clover honey, soft spice and a mild hopped finish, that lingers only for a short time, but overall this is clean!

M/O- Light to medium in body and surprisingly the carbonation is soft and velvety, yet borderline zingy. This is a very sociable beer that is perfect to enjoy while watching the waves roll in on Long Beach! Would pair well with a lemon cake or banana bread, or with a dilled salmon dish as the main course! Will buy again! Nice work by this brewery!

650ml bottle, part of a decent swath of this brewery's offerings to suddenly appear on our Albertan bottleshop shelves this past week.

This beer appears a clear, pale golden yellow colour, with a stupidly teeming tower of puffy, rocky, and mildly foamy eggshell white head, which leaves some broad, chunky alien invader ship lace around the glass as it evenly subsides.

It smells quite agreeably of peppy biscuity and crackery pale malt, white pepper spice, less than aggressive lemon rind fruity notes, dry field honey, and prominent leafy, earthy, herbal, and grassy hop bitters. The taste is semi-sweet, crackery and bready pale malt, a twinge of wheat and caramel adjacent sweetness, muddled pome and weak citrus fruit notes, and an equally mild earthy, weedy, and grassy hoppiness.

The bubbles are fairly persistent in their equally frothy and fizzy ministrations, the body a decent medium weight for the style, and sort of smooth, that otherwise awesomely pervasive biscuity character unfortunately taking things down a peg or so here. It finishes off-dry, the biscuity and subtly fruity esters keeping it real for this one, yeaaaaah!

I'm sorry (but not sorry - thanks, Stone!), but my expectations of this style are so freaking low, that when I come upon one with some sort of real gumption, I'm hard put to make any real sense of things. Gah. Anyways - whatever these folks out on the island WAY on the west side of, well, Canada, have done, I gotta say, keep on doing it, and all will be well, especially come next summer!

Appearance - Pours a straw gold with two fingers of foamy white head.

Smell - Biscuity and bready malts, hint of lemon, earthy and leafy hops, hint of grassy notes.

Taste - Biscuity and bready malts followed by the earthy and leafy hops. The hint of lemon and grassy notes help to round out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes crisp and dry.

Overall - A well executed brew that stays true to the style. It tastes fresh and it sets out what it intends to do. A sessionable beer that can be enjoyed at anytime.

 

Pale gold, minimal head. Light, floral, sweet.