Strawberry Blonde Ale
The Tin Whistle Brewing Company

 

Appearance- Pours a golden straw with a half finger width of bubbly white head that fades quickly.

Smell- fresh strawberries, grains, sweet malts.

Taste- The wheat and grains are more predominate followed light hint of strawberries.

Mouthfeel- Light to medium bodied with moderate carbonation. A bit of a dry finish.

Overall- A decent fruit ale by Tin Whistle. I was really hoping for more strawberries especially since the aromas suggested real flavours instead of artificial. Would still make for a refreshing summer sipper.

A - clear straw golden, thumb of head retained decently
S - starts with strawberries and fresh cream, followed by grainy and light leafy aromas
T - bready and grainy maltiness is big up front, a sweet and dry stawberry flavour builds, has a bit of a wine like quality
M - light body with medium carbonation, mildly bready, a tad prickly
O - very light and refreshing, not a great fruit beer but a solid effort, made for summer sipping

650ml bottle, a cartoonish, vaguely Germanic farmer proffering a surprisingly luscious-looking basket of the titular berries.

This beer pours a hazy pale golden orange hue, with one skinny finger of foamy, creamy ecru head, which leave precious little in the way of persistent lace. Boo.

It smells of jellied breakfast toast - strawberry jam, toasted pale grain, a tad biscuity, with a bit of sweet caramel wedging its way in. The taste is frozen strawberry restrained fruitiness, sweet bready malt, some creamy nuttiness, and very soft earthy hops. I am reminded of a certain friend's homemade fruit 'wine', but in a better way than that camping trip last summer.

The carbonation shows itself in but a few small pinpricks, the body medium weight, aided by the inherent fruitiness, and generally smooth. It finishes sweet, certainly - the strawberries are in it for the long haul, gently soused, and rarin' to go, with the soft grainy malt riding shotgun.

Yes, the similarity to fruit wine is hard to dismiss, but the integration here with a nice, even blonde ale helps this one's case immensely. The booziness is more of an idea, or memory, than a present reality, unlike the fruit, which is the real deal, and causing weird temporal connection gaps in my 'I like this!' data callbacks. Anyway, good stuff, Tin Whistle, this is a deftly straightforward fruit beer.

Thanks to Jim at Sherbrooke for the sample. From a 650 ml brown bottle. Pours out a clear pale golden hue, tall frothy white head that recedes slowly.

Instant aroma of sweet thawed-out frozen strawberries the moment the beer is poured, faint biscuity malt in the background.

The first sip gives off the impression of fruit extract, a warming somewhat boozy strawberry character, quickly accompanied by a smooth bready malt, finishing with more fruit. That warmth is around for the whole time, and the strawberry develops a character somewhat reminiscent of some kind of underfermented fruit wine.

Medium-bodied mouthfeel on the fuller end, smooth yet heavy texture makes it seem much bigger, low carbonation.

Comes across as a much bigger beer than it is, or should be for a Blonde Ale. Fruit is boozy rather than fruity, and doesn't gel at all with a rather decent malt backbone, disharmony in the flavour. With some tweaking this beer could work much better.