Blonde

It's starting to reach 80 degrees and the windows are open, nothing sounds better than a light bodied import with a sweet finish. That's why I reached for a bottle of the Cucapá Honey. It's Mexican and it has a honey right there on the label... next to cerveza, it's gotta be exactly what I'm looking for, a honey flavored beer ... right? Wrong! This beer was full of surprises when I got around to drinking it, and I mean that in a good way...

I'd heard a lot of good things about New Belgium's Hoptober Golden Ale. I was a little hesitant to pick this beer up because of how it has been compared to Pale Ales. I'm very particular about the kind of strong hop flavors I like and considering how this beer is New Belgium's Oktoberfest seasonal I couldn't help but think of a hoppy Amber or Märzen. Neither of those options sounded particularly appealing but I decided to pick up a bottle of Hoptober before I completely convinced myself that I wouldn't like it. So, for starters, this beer isn't a traditional fall seasonal style. It's really more of a summer or spring Pale Ale. New Belgium calls this a Golden Ale which puts it into the Blonde style. The Hoptober's appearance is rather light, you could even go so far as to call it pale... The aroma is very hoppy, it has that tell tale grassy citrus flavor which pushes this beer closer to Pale Ale territory. After taking the first sip of the Hoptober I'm convinced, there really isn't anything Autumn about this beer...

This certainly isn't a session beer. At 7% and smelling like a jar of deli mustard, the Wostyntje Mustard Ale is... different... The closest comparison to this beer I can make would be with a Bière de Garde. Both are copper colored, a little thick bodied and have a pleasant sour tartiness to their flavor. At first, the Mustard Ale tastes like a Bière de Garde with a few packets of mustard powder stirred in. After a few sips the nuances become more apparent. The beers dominant flavor is, of course, the mustard spice. Behind that is the sour citrus flavor that the Belgians do so well. One might expect the mustard to be overpowering, after all - there is a reason you don't see mustard flavored drinks at every store... but, the sourness of the blonde base really keeps the mustard in check. The combination of these flavors works pretty well.

I first had a bottle of Pete's Wicked Strawberry Blonde last winter when I randomly picked one up when I was putting together a mix and match six pack at the liquor store. Being winter, I was mostly drinking darker winter warmer type beers, so the Strawberry Blonde was a quite a change of pace. I wanted to drink the Strawberry Blonde while it was "in season" so I could properly enjoy it. I picked up a six pack of this a few weeks ago and I've finally gotten around of giving it a bit of attention... I remember enjoying this beer quite a bit in the winter and I think now that it had quite a bit to do with being different than the other beers I was drinking at the time.