Purchased at Armanetti’s in Chicago, IL; enjoyed while working for home on a rainy Thursday afternoon. Appearance a very vibrant and slightly cloudy dark orange with a rich, frothy white head that sticks to the glass. Aroma of dirty & grassy hops, a bit of orange peel, a touch of sweetness, kinda smells like an IPA. Taste is pretty refreshing and in all honesty tastes like a slightly less hoppy version of Half Acre’s Daisy Cutter. It’s definitely \"sessionable\", a very smooth, crisp, and bitter easy drinker. Definitely enjoying this one, nothing outstanding but solid.

Sample from a can. Pours a hazy amber color with a medium creamy white head. Good head retention. Aroma of citrus and floral hops, and citrus fruit notes. The taste is bitter hops, citrus, pith. Medium bodied.

Enjoyed on tap at the Boiler Room in Chicago, IL during a power outage hanging out with some friends from Milwaukee who were gonna play next door, but thanks to said power outage we just hung out at this bar. Anyways, aroma was equal parts citrus hops and grassy notes, pretty decent. I can’t really comment on the appearance since there was little light, but it looked like a cloudy bright gold. Taste pretty hoppy for a blonde ale, orange citrus notes, I told someone it tasted similar to Oberon but a little hoppier, and I stand by that. Pretty decent stuff.

Can, at Finch’s. Let me blast my prejudice up front: I volunteered Wednesday to help out at Finch’s canning line. I was paid only in beer. By 5 p.m. we were opening cans that were too dented to sell, So I had this as fresh as you can possibly have a packaged commercial beer. Drinking out of the can didn’t give me a chance to judge appearance, but I’ll make up for that later. I have some problems with Blonde ale style beers that come in too sweet or fruity, but this one showed a determination to be considered as Finch’s "gateway" beer. A basic "beery" smell of light malts with a whiff of hops, the way we think we remember our first beers. A light, slightly toasty malt taste. Not "rich" like, say, a brewpub pilsener, but proper for a lawnmower brew. Hop taste was nicely sharp, with straight bitterness and pepper. Brewmaster Richard Grant confirmed they were Northern Brewer, with, as I recall, some Cascades. Bitter finish hangs just long enough for clueless marketers to think women won’t like it.

Draft at the Loop’s Encore Lounge. Malty smell is thick and like brown bread. All wrong for a beastly hot day like today, but I’m having this anyway. A thin layer of bubbles from, I’m told, a mix of CO2 and Nitro gas, giving a nice, silky oatmeal stout texture. Some doppelbocks taste like banana muffins; this one is more like a carrot cake, with a drizzle of chocolate icing. Nice cocoa and mocha aftertaste, even a note of sweet apple juice. A big, brawny lager.

On tap. Poured a clear gold with a white head that dissipated to the edges and laced. Aroma had a decent amount of pine and grassy hops backed by a smooth grain and bread backbone. Flavor began with light pine that transitioned to a grassy note that combined with the malty notes of hay and grain.

On tap. Pours a clear gold with an orange hue and a white head that dissipates to the edges and laces slightly. Aroma has a good amount of citrus and bitter grapefruit with a hint of backing pine. Flavor starts with grape fruit that transitions to pine that mellows into a resinous finish.

$3.50 draft @ Bavarian Lodge (help ’em blow all their kegs before their summer break!) Outstanding PNW hop nose—the right balance of citrus and pine. On tap,it’s cloudy, but a bright amber, sporting a meringue hat. On my first sip, I’m thinking "hop candy!" But any idea of sweetness comes from the citrus hop, backed by resin. More than a little basic hop bitterness appears after that. The malt has to fight for attention here, and somehow punches a taste of red wine to me. Daring for a new retail brewer to make this hoppy APA its first product; blame the baleful influence of their brewmaster, Richard Grant, former assistant at Flossmoor Station.