Ska Brewing Company True Blonde Ale
20 Aug 2009 2 Comments
in beer Tags: blonde, cans, ska brewing
Ska Brewing Company is a Durango, CO brewery that recently purchased a canning line from Oskar Blues. For $7.99, I found a six pack of cans of True Blonde Ale at Lukas Liquors, and Lukas also had Ska’s ESB in cans, as well as some other choices in bottles.I haven’t knowingly drunk too many blonde ales, as the style sounds about as exciting to me as “amber,” but you know I’ll try any craft beer in a can!
Blonde ale is a malt-oriented, American style of beer that is designed to be approachable and easy-drinking. Ska’s version poured a hazy yellow-light gold color. Not quite the neon of typical American lager, but not too far different from that, either. The head was white, thin and didn’t stick around for long. True Blonde Ale is 5.3%ABV and has low hops at only 39 IBU’s, as would be expected for this style.
There is not a whole lot of aroma on this beer. Initial aroma reminded me of a pilsner. There is a little malt, but really not much of anything there. The flavor is definitely malty, but not sweet, with hops to balance out the malts, although I never really get any hop aromas or bitterness out of it. The website says local honey is used in the brewing of this beer, too.
This is a great lawnmower beer. It suffers a little from a very thin body, but this is a beer designed to be a thirst-quencher, and I think it meets that challenge nicely. Of the canned craft beers I’ve had lately, I think this is the one I would like to take tailgating, or anywhere else where fairly large amounts of beer would be drunk. It’s relatively low in alcohol, it’s light and doesn’t make you think about what you’re tasting, and it has nice carbonation and a decent mouthfeel. What more could you want when you’re hot and thirsty?
Unfortunately, I’m feeling a little let down by the two canned beers I’ve purchased lately, but they’re a start and hopefully more adventurous offerings are on their way to our local KC area bottle shops.
Aug 20, 2009 @ 20:28:24
My first beer that I brewed was an American Blonde Ale because that’s what came with my original supplies. Since then I’ve learned that this ale is almost the widest range of colors, tastes and varieties. A Belgian Blonde is very straight forward, I urge you try Sweaty Betty, but the American version is terrible to what I have seen and you’re review of this has confirmed that (at least for me). There are too many other good beers out there that I’d like to try, but I wouldn’t mind trying a Ska. Did you pick this up on the KS or MO side?