Botanical Blonde
Bent Paddle Brewing Co.

 

another rad version of their blonde ale for the summer. you have to like them pungent, this is herbaceous as can be, overly botanical driven for most palates, but i kind of like it being intense. alpine sage, apple mint, juniper, pine, hay, citrus peel, and pineapple are all evident in the nose and taste, and it ends up almost more like a health tonic than a beer, with some bitter vegetal elements and a lot of highly aromatic and fragrant springy medicinal herbs. they could scale it back a little, i could see this ruining a draft line, but the freshness and the balance of all these elements is cool. some floral thing here, honey and lavender and clover and blossoms, its very fresh and alive. subtle licorice and anise here too, its an awful lot going on and an awful lot of it, but there is still grain and yeast flavors underneath it and i find it oddly refreshing for how pungent it is. maybe i am in the minority, i have heard some less than favorable clamour about this one, but i thought it was fun and original. looks like there might be a barrel aged version in the gin barrels that inspired it... i need to be a part of that...