What is the deal? Used to be I could walk into any micro/brewpub and have a couple of good American Blonde ales… now they seem to somehow faded the style into a bad hybrid version of a fruity/dank/floral hops close to an APA. Silly hop Junkies… instead of a malty not quite sweet but almost, the amazingly balanced and quaffable ale. Or they come across like a Kolsch, lager conditioned and taste like hay or straw. What is it about the style that is just missing aisle after aisle, or bad example after bad example.
You can thank this rant to sailfish brewing company - brought to you by “1/2 a glass full of shame Blonde Ale”
I married an American Blonde, we have three children, and I want that beer to remind me of how great American Blondes are. because I married one, and sometimes it is hard to remember…
The problem is with styles in general. First you need beer.
You also have 5k+ craft breweries trying to make money and do what sells. Hops and macro lagers sell lots of beer. Craft beer is first about money, then about beer. Thank Koch for that or God - whomever you bastards worship.
Dont have the answer, but I do know that the good news is you’re here. You can brew your own. One of the biggest draws for home brew is to make something you love but cant get locally/any more. Should be plenty of recipes on here in the wiki. Try one or all of them and tweak as you feel they need. Good luck on the journey to find your second favorite American Blonde
I think in part the Blonde Ale acted as the gateway style and now people are more open to craft beer in general. I like blonde ales, but only if done well.
I think breweries used to use the American Blonde as the gateway to Craft beer. Most people are familiar with what craft beer is by now so maybe breweries are less inclined to brew that style. That’s my hypothesis anyway…
EDIT - looks like Stevie and I are on the same page…
I’m not a hop head, and I love a lot of simple styles, but they should at least showcase something interesting. When I think of most old school brewpub American Blonde Ale’s, I think of:
Briess 2-row with some crystal sweetness
1056
Light hopping, little to no aroma.
There’s just not a single ingredient here I’d want to taste on its own. Not saying that they can’t be made to be interesting, but most weren’t.
I’m not a huge fan of blonde ales, but I was thinking the same about ambers recently. Once upon a time every microbrewery (back when they were still called that) had an amber (often just called “X Brewery Ale”), and every brewpub had a blonde ale. These were the flagships of the 90s craft beer scene, and they have largely vanished the way of Pete’s Wicked Red.
I’m planning on brewing an amber for summer cookout season for nostalgia’s sake, although I will probably use some modern hops in it to make it “mine”. That’s the cool part of homebrewing - we can resurrect extinct beer styles whenever we want, whether they’re 15 years old or 150.
I make mine as mentioned above except I hop them a bit more late. I like a nice 0 minute addition to get hop flavor and aroma without turning it into a pale ale.
PS. There are a lot of styles that don’t sell. I love a good bitter but those are hard to find commercially in the US.
Sure, but most brew pubs and smaller breweries weren’t offering these 10 years back. Maybe this is due to ease of maintaining a single yeast or lack of lager skills/equipment/capacity?
OP, I know what you are saying but like everything in the brewing world it, things change and tastes evolve. Years ago, a Blonde Ale would have been something a BMC drinker would drink when first trying craft brew. In all honesty, I’m confused on where it fits in. It has to be light enough not to be in Pale Ale territory, it’s not a lager, so brewed as an Ale it has a different character. It could have either American or Noble hops. If it’s brewed with American hops I think it’s hard to do well since everyone would have different expectations for the style. If brewed with Noble hops, it can be more lager like but not intended to be…I think as simple as the style is, it’s hard to do well. And lets face it, there’s much more demand for big, bold flavorful beers…especially hoppy ones.
Never been a fan of the style myself, as mentioned I rather have a Kolsch. Instead of Blonde Ale, I think Cream Ales have become more popular as is American Wheat. That’s what I think it comes down to is popularity.
I keep a blonde ale on tap at almost all times. Serves as the perfect beer for propagating yeast for all my other beers. Serves as a great beer for anyone who is more of a BMC drinker… and, who am I kidding… I like it too. Low alcohol, easy drinking - especially on a hot day, and more flavorful than BMC.
I brew mine to about 1.042 or so.
Vermont IPA/Conan Yeast
1oz. liberty at 30
1oz. liberty at 5
45% Golden Promise
45% Rahr 2 Row
2.5% each of wheat, flaked barley, cara 20 and Honey Malt
Water is pretty moderate with 50 ish Ca, Sulfate and Chloride and a pH of 5.35 or so.
It is probably the beer I brew second most after a session IPA. Like I said - it is a great beer for harvesting yeast because it is low gravity and low on hops. Nice and clean. I agree, it is a nice style.
I feel the clean lager flavors would dominate the BMC drinkers out there forever if they could. If anything the blondes I often find are just missing the characters of a quality ale. To me the cream ale, kolsch, helles, Bohemian Pils and Cali-Commons are the most approachable Segway from BMC to craft brews. For the clean lager fermentations but opening up the grain bill to something other than pale straw little to no hop or malt character shining through.
Bier de Garde with toasted malty toffee sweetness, spicey hops but mild, subtle apricot, and a rich full bodied ale yeast character beer out there would send them running to PBR before they would pick up the next 6er. (now I want a Biere de Garde like my last one- Schlafly’s) And believe me, not knocking American lagers BMC or Pabst. They all have their time in the sun, on a sandy beach, with a perfectly grilled ANYTHING. I would not recommend the BMC drinker to open up their mind with to craft beer then pour them a Hefeweizen, or a fruity Saison, Flanders Red ale or a Lambic. So I get your point about a blonde being more approachable to the BMC drinkers. Helles and Kolsch are for the “clean lager” beer drinkers. And please don’t get me wrong guys, I love a good lager. But when I pull up to a brewpub, order some fries and an American blonde give me that golden blonde easy-drinking beer with a perfectly smooth simplistic malt and hop character that complement one another. It is an American classic known for its simplicity but not lacking complexity.
Clean, refreshing, and drinkable, with notes of toasty, bready, biscuit malt, English ale yeast flavor and a slight fruit aroma. Light Cascade, Willamette, or Saaz hops make this beer an everyday drinker for me. It should be as sweet as American clove honey on a fresh biscuit in the south with southern lemonade on a hot Georgia day. Give me a cool keg, an unmowed lawn, untrimmed hedges, and a corvette to swap to iridium-tipped spark plugs and change the oil.
