Ringwood Ale

 Born and bred in Toronto, Ringwood Ale comes from the venerable Granite Brewery & Tied House. It’s a 5% blonde ale made to star the Ringwood strain of yeast. The beer is golden in colour and slightly cloudy, under a sudsy white head.

Ringwood’s nose is a blend of toasty and malty, with a vibe that is slightly metallic and also a wee bit fruity. The flavour is initially sweet, with apple cinnamon notes. The back end is a bit toasty, still sweet, and it has a modest bitterness.

My outstanding spouse used a can of Ringwood to create a truly outstanding loaf of beer bread and the result was bangin’. The yeastiness and balance really hit the spot.

Blonde ales are seldom my favourite, because they tend toward moderation and milquetoast-iness. Ringwood had considerably more elegance than the average blonde ale, and I thought it was pretty good stuff. I’d have liked a bit more hops presence at the finish, but otherwise it was pretty solid.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Cold Brew 2.0

Cold Brew 2.0 hails from Newport, Oregon, where it’s brewed by Rogue Ales. Billed as a “blonde ale blended with cold brew coffee”, the beer incorporates cold brew coffee from Stumptown Coffee Roasters. A 5.6% alcohol, 30 IBU ale, the beer comes in flashy 355mL cans.

An ale with a hazy orange hue and little head, CB2.0 exudes a hefty java odour that belies its light colour. To my mind, the flavour awkwardly pairs interesting cold brew with a dull blonde ale, with a result that is bitter, but unimpressive.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

Food Truck

Brewed in appreciation of Toronto’s gourmet mobile sustenance vendors, Food Truck is a blonde ale that, according to the copy on the 473mL can, is intended to pair nicely with chow. A product of the excellent Henderson Brewing Company, Food Truck is a low alcohol offering, at just 4.8%. It’s a a clear brass-gold ale that pours with an enticing off-white foam.

FT has a grassy, lager-like nose that features grainy notes and a touch of sweetness. The beer has a pretty nondescript taste that moves from slightly sweet to slightly bitter, with a grainy initial vibe and a finish that is sweet, yet fairly crisp.

This grog is very much a blank canvass that absorbs the colours and flavours of the accoutrements it comes with. As a result, it is wildly inoffensive, but has little character of its own. Not boring, exactly, but FT isn’t a particularly remarkable brew. Rather, it’s the background scenery in a local theatre production. A touch too sweet, but otherwise innocuous, FT isn’t much like Henderson’s other, more rambunctious offerings. It’s a fairly well-balanced but forgettable ale, waiting on external flavours to enhance its vitality. I liked it fine, but won’t remember it tomorrow.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10 (no photo because I'm not smart).

Sanguine Siblings: Blood Light

Lest anyone belive from the first three installments of Sanguine Siblings that Blood Brothers Brewing deals only in IPAs, Blood Light is a low alcohol blonde ale from the midtown Toronto brewery. At just 4.2%, this brew is straw yellow in colour; hazy with a bright white head. I reviewed this one with the Bitter Wife, fresh from the source.

 

Bitter Wife:

Smells like beer, with a thin but citrusy note. Smells like eating a grapefruit under a sprinkler on a summer day.

Tastes thin, but crisp, only for a microsecond. Frothy in texture, with a bit of a buried maltiness. Flavour is gone in a wink. There are mass-produced pale lager attributes, but with a refined flavour. Mostly, though, it's gone in an instant. Very little finish.

6.5 out of 10, but based on the Bitter Wife's harsh rating scale.

To my mind, this beer had a yeasty, slightly fruity scent. More flavourful than its low percentage should allow, this ale tasted slightly yeasty, over top of some strawberry notes. There was almost nothing on the finish, though, which let the beer down.

I liked the stuff OK. It was light and crisp, yet flavourful, except for a wispy finish that fell short of impressing.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Swing Bridge Blonde

Swing Bridge Blonde found its way into my refrigerator by way of my generous pal LW. It's a blonde ale from Little Current on Ontario's Manitoulin Island. Named in honour of the bridge that connects the Island to the mainland, Swing Bridge comes in 473mL cans and contains the standard 5% alcohol.

Hazy, pale gold in colour, and topped with a thin white head, Swing Bridge has a nice aroma that swirls fresh grain and honey. The flavour has a similar profile, with sweet honey tones and some subtle floral notes. The weak link in the Swing Bridge chain is its too thin mouthfeel, which lacked the crispness needed.

A fine effort from a brewery that is new to me (Manitoulin Brewing Company), Swing Bridge is an interesting little blonde ale. I might not seek it out, but if I had the opportunity to quaff it again, I'd certainly be game.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Bodacious Blueberry Blonde

Bodacious Blueberry Blonde is an alliterative blueberry flavoured ale from the Broadhead Brewing Company in Ottawa, Ontario. Sold in 473mL cans that describe a ninja-inspired "blueberry infusion process", this little clocks in at a standard 5% alcohol and an innocuous 12 IBUs.

BBB is a hazy golden-orange beer that pours with a layer of tight white head. It packs a powerful blueberry aroma that cloaks just about everything beer about the nose, other than a faint graininess. The flavour is a bit too far on the sweet side and there is almost no bitterness, but it has a very nice blueberry quality and a smooth mouthfeel.

A nice take on the blueberry ale, I'd buy this stuff again, though I'd be more inclined to drink it again in the summer. A bit more beery bitterness would also help a bit.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Glutenberg Blonde

Brasseurs Sans Gluten's Glutenberg Blonde takes the "blonde" part of the name very seriously. This gluten-free millet and corn brew is extremely clear and extremely pale--it's a very light gold colour. It's quite well carbonated, but pours with only a slight coating of loose white head. This Montrealer brew is quite light-bodied, clocking in at just 4.5% alcohol. It's sold in smart-looking but very hard to read 473mL cans.

Glutenberg Blonde has a dry and grainy nose. It has an agreeably beery mouthfeel--fizzy and crisp like a pale lager. Like most gluten-free brews I've quaffed, not many drinkers would mistake this stuff for a conventional ale or lager; however, its grainy flavour with faint notes of apple is none too shabby. 

The beer is dry, crisp, and refreshing. It's certainly not the can of beer I'd reach for on a regular basis, but if (*knock on wood*) I ever become gluten intolerant, I'd certainly be glad that good gluten-free beers like GB exist.

Rating: 8.0 out of 10.

Cause & Effect

When I see a beer can with a phrenologic theme, that's a beer that is bound to interest me. When you factor in some of the thought centers being "hoptimism" and "odd notions", my interest increases. So it's little wonder that I was quick to purchase a 473mL can of Cause & Effect, a blonde ale from Burlington, Ontario--aka a sweet spot between Toronto and Hamilton. C&E is brewed by Nickel Brook Brewing Co. It's a blonde ale that contains 19 IBUs and 4.7% alcohol. It's an almost clear brew, pale gold in coloured, and capped with a fairly thin, white head.

Malty, grainy, and grassy through the nose, with more of the same on the palate, Cause & Effect tastes good. However, it might not taste enough for some drinkers. I found myself yearning for a bit more bombast, particularly up front, where the flavour is a bit sparse. The finish, though, contains a pretty healthy measure of floral and dry noble hops to make C&E a beer worth the price of admission.

If you've a hankering for a nice summer brew, and lagers, saisons, radlers, and wits aren't to your taste, Cause & Effect Blonde is a pretty respectable choice. Although it doesn't compare to other, stronger Nickel Brook offerings like Headstock IPA, Bolshevik Bastard, and the stalwart Naughty Neighbour, I'll certainly be buying it again.

Rating: 7.0 out of 10.

Blonde du Quai

Blonde du Quai comes from my home province, New Brunswick, where it is brewed by Shiretown, in Charlo. It is sold in hand numbered 500mL bottles and contains 5.5% alcohol. This is a cloudy, golden ale, topped with a very thin layer of white head.

The aroma has considerable blueberry volume, as well as some slight yeastiness--this gives it a nose not unlike blueberry pie. It has a very thin mouthfeel and a mild, fruity flavour. There is very little aftertaste to speak of.

Blonde du Quai is an interesting and easy drinking little beer with a decent flavour. I'd have liked a bit more intesity in the flavour--this stuff was too mild tasting for me to really get behind.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10.

True North Blonde Lager

From the Magnotta Brewey in Vaughn, Ontario comes True North Blonde Lager, a sparkling straw coloured brew topped with a crown of fluffy white head. TNBL is sold in 341mL bottles and contains the standard 5% alcohol.
 There is a fairly sweet, malt forward aroma that contains some grassy notes. TNBL has a crisp mouthfeel. It as a sweet, grainy initial taste and is slightly toasty with a moderately bitter backbone.

True North Blonde Lager is delightfully affordable. For the price, it's a reasonably reliable Ontario lager. Cheap and enjoyable do not always go well together, but in this case they seem to. The brew might not knock your socks off, but it won't let you down either.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.

Iron Spike Blonde Ale

This nice looking, clear ale is produced by the Railway City Brewing Co. of St. Thomas, Ontario.  It's sold in stylish and edgy 473mL cans.  Iron Spike contains a modest 4.3% alcohol.  It pours a rich gold colour and is topped by a quickly dissipating cloud of white head.  It doesn't have a lot of carbonation or lace.

Iron Spike has an aroma that is relatively malty and sweet, featuring the autumn-y scent of apples.  It has a very mellow flavour that moves from sweet to bitter.  There is a nice smack of apple and a short, bitter aftertaste that is slightly metallic.

This brew has a nice flavour combo.  It is easy drinking and highly sessionable--a craft beer that you can put away with gusto.  I'd like it to have a bit more carbonation and a higher alcohol content, but Iron Spike is a beer worth looking into.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10.