Alliance Brewing Company | Citra Blonde
I love crowlers. This beer has been sitting in my fridge for exactly a week and it poured with a great head and excellent aroma, as if they filled it today. While I’ve enjoyed growlers – and I still keep a few on hand – the fact that you can purge a can with CO2, as Alliance does, and keep all light out makes for a well preserved beer. I’ve heard of people taking them even longer than that. 2 weeks has been about my maximum so far but really, I don’t see why they couldn’t go longer. Alright, enough of that, let’s check out this beer!
On deck we have the Citra Blonde from Alliance. Ever since I took a BJCP course I’ve had a new respect for blonde ales. Honestly I gained a new respect for a lot of styles that I had kinda turned my nose up to – boy was I wrong. This beer pours with a yellow to deep gold color with a terrific head with great retention. It is slightly cloudy as well. On the nose I find a bit of white bread and a lot of citrus notes. On the palate this beer is a wonderful blend of malt, bready sweetness and hop accentuated fruit notes. I’d call this pretty well balanced if not a bit in favor of the hops with a medium to low dry finish on the palate.
Final snobs: Holy cow yes! This is a perfect beer for the mild weather we’ve been having. It quenches my thirst, checks all the boxes for the style and is just flat out tasty. I’d do another crowler of this.
Prost!