Traditional Scottish Ales Big Blonde

Brewed by Traditional Scottish Ales
Style: Golden Ale/Blond Ale
Stirling, Scotland

Serve in English pint, Shaker

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On cask at Dead Poets Inn, Holbrook. Pours golden, fruity but overly so, syrup maybe. A dry finish. It’s only April and I’m now bored of average golden ales!

Bottle pours a clear light gold with a slender head. Aroma of malt and lemon. Taste of malt citrus and mild bitterness. A pleasant drinkable ale.

Bottle, Tesco. Good clear golden colour, thin patchy white head. Nose is as expected, nicely malty, with good citrus notes, best thing about it! Medium bodied (not that big really!) initially nice malty sweetness with a bit of hoppy acidity, this fades rather too quickly tho. An ok blonde, struggling to get above average.

Cask at Salt Cot. Pours pale, cloudy yellow with thin white head. Very slight lemon aroma but not much else. Tastes flat and watery. Slight watered down taste of citrus and again nothing much else. Like a watery lemon tea only with less flavour. Very disappointing.

Never one to write a brewer off, I decided to give TSA the benefit of the doubt and tried this at LP Paisley after reading brewery notes.Citra hops! How could it go wrong? It has. Absolutely no discernable citrus on nose,palate or taste.Instead, the usual TSA metallic,bready yeast dominates. Just poor all round. I live in hope.

Tasted this in the Salt Cot, Saltcoats (JDW) in March 2013. Cask, handpump dispense. Pump clip graphic looks like a blatent trademark copy from Brewdog? Crystal clear pale straw in colour with a thin white creamy head. Slight dusty hop and grapefruit zest in the short citric aroma. Very thin and watery mouthfeel. Poor lacing throughout. Pale malts deliver a very weak malt base with zesty kiwi and tart gooseberry notes, there is a hint of cereal biscuit in this but very fleeting. Dry lemony hops impart a weak insipid bitter aftertaste with herbal and grassy notes just about evident. Finish is very weak and dilute with citric zest fading fast in the mouth as it runs out of steam. This is a very poor Blond Ale and a terrible effort from TSA, luckily there are loads of better examples out there.

Blonde ale. Nice hoppy aroma. Very little head. Light carbonation. Overall this is a good blonde ale.

Half pint, hand pulled cask at New Oxford, Salford. Filmy, white layer at the top of a clear golden body. Lacework at the upper part of the glass. Juicy malts to the nose. Malt-fruity taste, hints of grapefruits. Short ending. Light to medium bodied. OK (Greater Manchester, 22.01.2013).

500ml bottle from Tesco. Clear golden yellow colour, good head. Sour resin malt aroma. Cereal resin malt flavour. Smooth but a bit insipid with slightly sour lingering aftertaste. A poor blonde beer.

Bottle from Tesco. It pours light yellow with a medium white head. The nose is sweet pale malt, dough, straw and restrained citrus. The taste is dough, straw, pithy lemon, grapefruit, some bitterness and light spice with dry finish. Light-medium body and moderate carbonation. Easy drinking for sure, but fairly unexciting. They should have been more generous with the citra.....