Big Hill Blonde
Fitzsimmons Brewing Co

Appearance - Pours a dark honey gold with a finger of bubbly white head.

Smell - earthy, leafy, floral, and weedy hops, apple, bready malts, and earthy yeast.

Taste - earthy, leafy, floral, and weedy hops upfront. The apple and bready malts come through next. The earthy yeast rounds out the brew.

Mouthfeel - Medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Finishes smooth with the malts and hops lingering.

Overall - An engageable version of an American blonde. For my first offering from this brewery, it's a respectable brew but nothing really stands out as this may be one of those brews that are perfect for those new to craft beer.

473ml can - I presume that there is a 'big hill' somewhere in Airdrie?

This beer pours a slightly hazy, medium golden yellow colour, with three fingers of puffy, finely foamy, and somewhat creamy off-white head, which leaves some decent flock of seagull pattern lace around the glass as it slowly sinks out of sight.

It smells of grainy and bready cereal malt, a touch of pome-like fruitiness, some mild earthy yeast, and equally subtle leafy, weedy, and floral green hop bitters. The taste is crackery and doughy pale malt, a bit of dried apple peel, an ethereal yeastiness, some damp minerality, and more understated earthy, leafy, and musky floral hoppiness.

The carbonation is adequate in its palate-placating frothiness, the body a solid middleweight, and generally smooth, nothing really extant here that might cause any sort of interference with a good time. It finishes trending dry, the crackery and biscuity nature of the malt holding court in the lingering arena.

Overall - this comes across as a well-made, clean version of the style. Easy to drink, nothing to distract, and an obvious gateway brew for all those macro lager legions still out there. Yup, I almost wish that my lawn was green enough for me to designate Big Hill Blonde as a you-know-what!

If you'd told me 10 years ago that Airdrie would have its own microbrewery, I probably wouldn't have believed you. With the explosion of craft brewing in Alberta in the past few years though, it came as no surprise to hear a microbrewery was opening in my hometown. Welcome to Airdrie, Fitzsimmons Brewing!

Started seeing their 473ml 4-packs popping up around town, as well as one of their seasonals which I have yet to try. Nice looking can here--simple, refined. They've chosen as their logo grain elevators, which are, alas, no more in Airdrie.

This blonde pours with a great big frothing white head, and I am pleasantly surprised to see the beer is quite cloudy. Indeed, it almost looks like a hefeweizen. Golden colour, with some soft copper hues as well. The lacing sticks around, and so does a fine layer of head. Hey, looks great man.

A malt first aroma, lots of bready goodness in there. Fresh dough, and even a little funk from the yeast shows up. A slight floral hop presence peeks its head in, but is not showcasing here. It's simple, but well done. Soft, clean malting--very appetising, and highly sessionable smelling.

The taste follows up on what the aroma promises. We have here a simple, full-flavoured blonde ale. Yeah, lovely bready, biscuity malts, a tinge of hoppy metallic zip, and a somewhat dry finish. As I said: simple, but well done. Light to medium bodied and exceptionally quaffable.

I mean, I wasn't expecting something super complex for their first brews--you have to make a business feasible first, so rolling out something simple and flavourful like this is a good way to get the ball rolling. All the parts are here in excellent proportions. To be honest, it's been a while since I just wanted to stop thinking so much about the beer, and just, you know--drink it.

Yeah. Simple. Nice. Well done.

Glad to have these guys in my hometown.