Blood Orange Blonde
Anchor Brewing Company

 

 

 

 

Okay now this is waaaaay better than their mango sh*t. This tastes like a real beer (a golden ale) made with real fruits (blood orange instead of "mango flavor") - I mean come on, you can even see the pieces of the fruit lingering around in the beer! And there's nothing unnatural. Nothing unpleasant. Nice, drinkable ale that you want to keep backing down. Oranges give it a natural sour overtone that you maybe realize only in the aftertaste that hey these had been real oranges! Nice.
Overall I would score it up because all the constellation of these strange thinfs comibg together and making such a desirable beer makes it awesome. Feels great!

I love Anchor Brewing! I was stationed at N.A.S. Alameda from June 1987 to October 1989 & it was the best 2.5 years of my life. My uncle was a professor at SFSU & I had a key to his apartment so I was in SF many nights a week for various and sundry. He & his friend, the late Jack Fleiner, were making homemade wine & we took the Anchor Brewery tour on several occasions. I am happy to add this one to The CANQuest (tm)!

From the CAN: "From America's First Craft Brewery."; "Ale made with Blood Oranges".

I Crack!ed open the vent & once again got a bit of foaming coming through the vent. A tad bit of calming time revealed yet another brimful craft CAN! I decided to go with a slow, light, gentle Glug as I had no idea of what might be coming next. I was pleasantly surprised as it began slowly & suddenly overcame whatever vacuum was holding it back, Glugging a little too quickly for my taste, so I immediately backed off & down. I was rewarded with just under two fingers of dense, foamy, bone-white head with good retention that left nice lacing in its wake. Color was solid Gold (SRM = 5), causing another impromptu visit from The Gelt Gang of Croesus, Mammon & Midas. Man, the nose was simply redolent with orange! The site's style guide mentions a "subdued fruitiness", but I am going to allow this to slide since it was clearly an intrinsic adjunct in this beer. Mouthfeel was medium. The taste was less pronounced in terms of its orange flavor, but since it was an adjunct to begin with, it would be wrong-headed on my part to dun it for being closer to style. It did not taste precisely like an American Blonde Ale, but it was not overwhelming in its orange flavor, either. It was very refreshing, though, and quite pleasant to drink. Finish was semi-dry and remained very refreshing.

 

 

Poured to a BrewDog taster.

A: The body is coppery with some orange hues. Head is white, minimal retention and minor lacing. The body shows tons of deposit.
S: The aroma is a bit weak, not sure how fresh this beer is, but I can almost only sense the light roasting of the malts, some minor toffee. There's really no yeast, no citrus, no nothing.
T: Taste starts off with a very small sweet flavour incoming from the roasted malts, jumping directly to a bitter finish without pushing yeast, crisp malts, citrus touches, earthiness, bitterness. This is really empty for the beer it is. Not expecting it to be so bland.
M: Body is way to light. Carbonation is actually spot on. Alcohol is unnoticed. Bitterness is non-existent. Sweetness is mild.
O: This is, by far, the worst Anchor beer I've ever had. Looking forward to try this fresh for comparison.

Weird. Blonde and blood orange does not work for me obviously. I understand that some like it and others not. It is a special flavour that might appeal to some

 

Tasty blonde

 

From Saveur Biere. In Teku glass. Playing Cube Runner. Light orange notes like in a refreshment but without an excessive carbonation and with a soft bitterness. Well executed but nothing special