i just got home from walking dogs all morning and it’s a beautiful spring day outside, warm but not hot with a cool breeze. my landlord was fixing my wooden gate that leads to my apartment around the back of the house. the gate fell off one of its hinges yesterday, making it hard to open/shut, so i was glad to see him working on it. we had a lovely chat. i came home to the delivery of my latest impulse purchase from athletic brewing – the irish red (no longer available, one of the pilot program brews) – so a few of those went right into the fridge. but i was dreaming of a beer on the way home, so i decided to pop something that was already cold but new to me, the bravus blonde.

hmm. i’m not quite sure what i think of this beer. i am quickly realizing that all bravus beers have a unique and common aroma/taste that i can’t quite put my finger on – is that the hops they use? the malt? something about their brewing process to achieve non-alcoholic beer? i really don’t know. i’m not skilled enough of a taster to isolate or know what it is. all i know is that sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. in the case of the peanut butter stout, it REALLY works. in the case of the oatmeal stout, it sometimes works but appears to be a delicate balancing act that can go horribly wrong. in this blonde, i’m not sure if it works.

it poured a nice light golden color (they call it straw yellow but that doesn’t seem very complimentary) and had a little sudsy head to it. i get a little sour, funky smell that isn’t really pleasant to me. upon taking a sip, it’s pretty thin and the carbonation is light, so mouthfeel is a little weak but it is smooth. i’m getting a little citrus (though that might just be that i ate an orange when i first came home and the acidity is still in my mouth), a little banana (though not much). it’s got a light malty sweetness to it. i can’t quite decide if i like this or not. it’s not so bad that i won’t drink it but i’m not sure i will feel like i want to reach for this again anytime soon. and i feel like “blonde” as a descriptor doesn’t really work because this doesn’t taste like any blonde beer i’ve ever had before… though i really don’t know what i would call it.

i’m grateful i had a chance to try it. maybe i will experiment with mixing this with their raspberry gose and see what happens! but i don’t think, on its own, that this beer is for me.