Blondine
New Braunfels Brewing Company

From a 750ml bottle. Pale golden color with white lacing. Sour aroma with a hint of apricot. Light body and a slick feel. Moderate sourness with notes of wheat, banana, and apricot. Pretty interesting

Aged for about 4 years. Never had it fresh so I don’t know what it tasted like before this matured version. Froth for days on the gentle pour. Slight honey, cereal flavor, with Belgian band aid creeping in at the end. Fresh and clean tasting with cracker throughout. Love everything I’ve had from NBBC.

Having tried more Wilds than I should have, I now rarely drink Wilds... unless it is from a brewer I've never had before. So it is with Blondine as I see her sitting alone on the shelf @ Total in Naples. No real point in my reviewing her, but note that the wheat helps make the style drinkable to me.

But, I will give New Braunfels a micro-review... They have a sense of humor. The founder has a book and podcast entitled "How not to start a Damn Brewery." They also have a consumer's club called the Sour Junkie Society in which members get the limited releases and first dibs. Power to them to find enough Wild devotees in a small town between Austin and San Antonio. Having survived their mistakes for a decade, New Braunfels can start to think about getting new dimensions correct.

Pour is lightly cloudy with a huge, off white fluffy, dense head. Excellent retention. Good lacing.
nose is lemony tartness upfront, followed by hints of clove and banana
Taste follows. Lemony - tart upfront, followed by more subtle banana, clove, funk, hay, straw, green apple
Clean, and crisp. medium high carbonation

 

 

 

This is an excellent beer. Very nicely balanced for a sour, the wheat seems to mellow the taste.

Poured from a bomber into a tulip glass. Clear golden yellow color with a great foamy white head initially then good lacing. Fruity, grassy smell. Lemony taste, pepper, earthy. I will buy it again.

 

 

 

 

 

a neat sour saison, sort of like a sour or partially wild hefe, being obviously wheat based and pretty funky too, estery on the yeast front but not entirely belgian to me which is cool, and not nearly as sour or intense or sharp as some of the fruited variants on this that we had in the same session. i think its nice as a base for something like the clementine or the grape one, but i dig its yeasty uniqueness on its own too, like it isnt like others, not bretty or cultured or anything, actually wild, but as much as its cool because its new to me, its also a little sloppy and homebrewy, maybe its just what is ambient there, but maybe also it could have been handled a little differently, maybe cooler, its tough to say. good acidity, lemon notes, faint banana and creamy wheat, some hard italian cheese character in the nose, rindy and well aged, but strange and im not sure how much of this i really want, despite being intrigued by it. some wood and some white wine and some apricot, tangy and even a little spicy and some hefe elements back again at the end. cool beer, i wish it was a little better refined, which was the theme of all three of these, but its interesting enough to be kind of good to me...