Mission Blonde Kolsch-Style Ale

"Blonde" is the grade A standard beer for the "I don't know what I want. What is your lightest beer?" spineless ones that either stumble or are dragged kicking and screaming into a brewpub. The beers are so ubiquitous that you could take a brewpub tour from San Diego to Santa Barbara, and probably find at least a dozen Blonde Ales -- including 3-4 "Beach Blonde" references, from the likes of Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, etc. Oh so clever, no?

But this sort of beer does have a purpose, if you think of it not as a faux "Golden/Blonde Ale", but as a Germanic Kölsch. As I've mentioned before, even the finest examples of the kölsch style don't light my world on fire, but that's okay. I know what works, and what doesn't.

This?

It works.

Can I elaborate on that earth-shattering pronouncement? Sure, I suppose.

Slight estery thing in the nose, that might be mistaken for a wheat-ish strain if you didn't know better. But the yeast is too well-behaved to be anything but SoCal's Standard WLP001, if I were a betting man. The aforementioned esters strike me more along the lines of simply warm(er) ferment temps, really.

At the same time, the pitiful head formation/retention shoots down the idea of any wheat in the grist.

So, I've said what this beer isn't. Can I discuss what this beer is?

Sure. Namely, I can see this hitting the spot in the Summer here in San Diego, where it's seemed as if each year it's gotten hotter than the year before. (Relax, all you rabid pro- and anti-Global Warming debaters -- just an anecdotal observation, nothing more!)

Rather training-wheel'ish, by design, but just refreshing enough to make it a go to when it's hot and hellish outside.
//TB