Leffe Blonde, Leffe Brune, Hoegaarden, and Stella Artois. Seemingly a varied selection of beers for the 2012 Epcot Food and Wine Festival’s Belgium booth. While they all are Belgian beers, they are also all owned by AB-InBev. While I have nothing against these particular beers, I also feel like Disney didn’t really try; they just called up the AB-InBev distributor and said “Give us some Belgian beers.” Belgium has a long and storied brewing history; it is home of six  [ Read More ]

Last week I took a week off from work and spent it in New Orleans. Among many other things, my wife and I got together with some friends and went out to The Avenue, a beer bar in the Garden District of New Orleans. This was my first visit (something Katie probably didn’t know when I told her to go there when she was in New Orleans a couple of months ago), so over the next several days I’ll be  [ Read More ]

Happy Independence Day! Today’s review is one you won’t find in a Disney park, but it’s one that I’ve been personally interested in trying for a while because Tin Roof’s home is Baton Rouge, LA. Baton Rouge is also home to my alma mater, LSU.  Tin Roof was founded in 2010, after I had graduated, but Blonde Ale has an interesting story. Blonde Ale was originally known as Bandit Blonde Ale with special can art and everything. Why Bandit Blonde? It  [ Read More ]

Samuel Adams Griffin’s Bow is part of a series of limited release beers from the Boston Beer Company. The local grocery store had a bunch of the limited release beers in stock so I picked a couple up. Griffin’s Bow is an oaked blonde barleywine. Toasted oak was put into the beer when it aged to add the wooden flavor. The nose reminds me more of an IPA than a barleywine with floral and fruit notes. Color is somewhat copper,  [ Read More ]

In our initial article on all the 2011 Epcot Food and Wine Festival beers we accidentally overlooked this one. Oops! Good thing we noticed, because Leffe may be the jewel of the Belgium booth. Leffe, according to the brewery website, was originally brewed by the monks of the Leffe Abbey. The abbey was flooded in 1460 and suffered numerous other disasters in the years to follow. Eventually, the abbey closed until the early 1900s and brewing of Leffe resumed in  [ Read More ]

Shiner Blonde is the third beer I’m trying out of the Shiner Family Reunion six pack (previously tasted: Shiner Bock and Shiner Bohemian Black Lager). It’s a pale lager that to me doesn’t impart a whole lot of flavor. It’s a little sweet, a little malty, and a whole lot of meh. There’s nothing wrong with it, but not really anything right with it either. With every sip I find myself wondering what the next Shiner I try will be.  [ Read More ]

Light, smooth and a bit of a bready flavor, Firemans #4 from Real Ale is very easy to drink. It would be good to cool off with on a hot summer day. This blonde ale is somewhat similar in flavor to Kona Longboard even though this is an ale while Longboard is a lager.

Here is Redhook’s Blonde offering!

I have a Friday night date with a hot Chicago Blonde!