Brass City Blonde Ale

Brass City Blonde Ale
Gifted by the brewer, 4.6% ABV

Nice glass at the “brewery”

bcI just went to Untappd to see what the ABV was on this nice little blonde and noticed someone commented, “I haven’t had a bad Lasting Brass beer yet.”

So I reflected on that for a second. I haven’t either, but I’ve also only had 8 Lasting Brass beers.

And so I reflected on that for a minute. Eight beers from a homebrewing operation that stores empty logs in an unused stand-up shower? All within 6 or 7 months? Actually, that’s damn impressive and chances are one of Ed Silva’s beers wouldn’t pass muster.

But so far, they all do – with flying colors. It’s pretty ridiculous. We all know of commercial breweries with budgets and multiple brewers and more years of experience that would kill to go 8 for 8.

But this was just a blonde ale. On the one hand, how good could it be? On the other, how can you really mess it up?

Lasting Brass Says:

It’s a blonde. Y’know. Whatever.

That’s Ed the brewer talking. I’d visited him with my entire family in tow – because that’s how we roll. Ed had two beers on tap (in the family room near the 80 gallon fish tank) and one was this blonde ale. He almost seemed embarrassed. He tried to steer me away from it in favor of much more complex and flavorful options like his pale ale and porter.

Screen Shot 2014-01-01 at 8.07.09 AMNo. I want the blonde. I don’t like blonde ales and this would be the test. Gimme the blonde.

I gave Hoang the pale ale (which is, simply by style alone, better than the blonde) and Ed kept to his porter. They judged me and my thin looking brew. Whatever, when done right, blonde ales are perfectly fine. Many people make the mistake of equating a well-crafted blonde with macro crap like Corona and Bud Light or whatever.

But that’s not what blonde ales are. The Brass City Blonde is malt forward but with a hint of fruitiness behind that that gives it a complexity beyond its looks.

Speaking of looks, look at this graphic design for this particular beer. I love it. Sexy, cool, minimal, relevant. What more could you want?

Well, I suppose you could want Waterbury to once again become known more as The Brass City than as the Dirty Water, but you know… baby steps.

Overall Rating: B+
Rating vs. Similar style: A

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