Knotty Blonde Ale
Old Yale Brewing Co.

Poured from 12oz can into a dimpled mug.

Appearance: pale golden hue with a bit of haze and a finger of frothy ivory foam atop. Nice looking, but the head dissipated pretty quickly.

Smell: lightly sweet malt with some light honey character and even a bit of earthy hoppiness. Actually not too bad for a blonde ale!

Taste: light malt with a rather yeasty character. There's kind of a fruitiness here that doesn't quite seem to fit. Bitterness is moderate. It's decent but not great.

Mouthfeel: medium body with a decent level of carbonation and creaminess.

Overall: you know, if you're gonna have a blonde ale, you could do a lot worse than this one. I wouldn't put it at the top of my list but this could be a pretty decent cookout beer.

Slightly hazy and with a bright but deep yellow in color, very heady with over three fingers worth of of an active, bubbly off-white head that has fairly poor retention too it, though the carbonation does keep a small skim of head on top, and what lacing there is runs down the glass in watery patches.

Aroma is nice and light with a lemon/ orange citrus note to it.

More malt forward then I was expecting imparting a noticeable sweetness as well, almost giving it a saccharine quality to it. Finishes with some hints of cilantro and very faint citrus peel bitterness on the back-end.

Medium/ light bodied more malt heavy then most golden ales I'm familiar with, all in all it leads to it being a bit over sweet tasting in my opinion but a fairly high carbonation to it helps it somewhat, though that dissipates quickly leaving a lingering sweetness and slight orange flavor on the aftertaste

 

 

 

 

1L howler from Sherbrooke Liquor store. I guess the consensus around here is that these re-branded Old Yale offerings are new beers. So be it.

This beer pours a somewhat hazy, pale golden straw colour, with one finger of foamy and somewhat bubbly dirty white head, which leaves a few sloping arched arena vistas of hopeful lace around the glass as it readily recedes.

It smells of mildly sweet, grainy cereal malt, some prominent white grape mush fruitiness, a bit of sugared lemon juice, and edgy grassy, leafy, and herbal hops. The taste is semi-sweet, grainy pale malt, wet saltine crackers, stale lemon rind, a plain white grape mustiness, a wee bit of neutered citrus fruitiness, and some tame earthy, leafy, and soapy floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is a bit testy up front, but settles to a supportive frothy, if dull hum for the most part, the body an adequate medium weight, and kind of indecisive in its middling smoothness. It finishes barely off-dry, the lingering cereal malt fighting the good, if futile, fight against the regrouped pithy citrus and musty, grassy, and leafy hop bitters.

A sort of upbeat, and more noticeable blonde ale than is the Canadian norm - sure, it's malt-heavy, but the underwhelmingly ingenious, and admittedly assumed (based on location) inclusion of west coast hops goes a long way in mitigating that long-held bias. Anyways, toss in a bit of vinous left-hooks, and I suppose that I'm more than mollified. Easy drinking, with an agreeable enough sassiness to keep me from being distracted by, oh, something shiny - 'RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT' - thanks, little buddy!

This is an extremely solid Blonde Ale - I'm not sure how much different it is from the previous Old Yale Blonde, but hey, I like blondes. What I really like about this beer is how composed and substantial it is. The bready malt character remains true, even if the beer warms up.

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

Smell - grassy hops, bready malts, straw, hint of lemon.

Taste - A well-balanced flavour of bready malts and grassy hops with a pleasant light bitterness. Touch of tartness from lemon at the finish.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Crisp finish.

Overall - A refreshing tasting blonde ale from Old Yale. A brew that stays true to the style with clean flavours and aromas.