In keeping with the blonde theme tonight, we hereby present Revolution Brewing's Cross of Gold. And in keeping with the blonde theme on my head, I'm totally confused by this. I'm twirling my hair and writing in Valleyspeak in my head. Like, totally. The label calls it a golden ale on one part (pictured), another part of the label calls it an English-style summer ale, and BeerAdvocate categorizes it as an English-style pale ale, and RateBeer lists it as a golden ale/blonde ale. Not that I think that BeerAdvocate and RateBeer are 100% right all the time; I've seen them make errors a time or two. I just don't need any help in the blonde department... I can be pretty ditzy, and I'm pretty sure the platinum blonde sank in through my follicles to kill off even more brain cells than I needed to lose. I'm all for pushing the envelope with brewing, but when you come up with four different categories for one beer -- two by the brewer even! -- I'm left twirling my hair and muttering to myself, "Totally radical." The good news is that this beer is listed at 5% ABV, so my remaining brain cells aren't at too much risk.
This pours a pale, hazy, straw color with a white head. I probably should have rinsed out the glasses after the last beer, because the head was thick on the bottom of my glass, and streaked all down the side of Nathan's, leaving that eerie solid foam in the bottom. Alas, I didn't rinse them, and this frothed over quite a bit. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't have been that fizzy otherwise. The head also quickly dissipated, furthering my suspicions. The nose on this is lovely: a light, crisp aroma of vague lemony citrus and faint Cascade hops, lending some pine and citrus notes to the nose. A sip reveals a more complex beer: there's lemon, there's a fair amount of hops to make it citrusy and piney and just a hint bitter, and there's a just enough malt backbone and honey underpinnings. This is deeeeelish. Like, totally tubular on my tastebuds. It's very light and refreshing, and another strong candidate for hot summer nights on a porch or in front of a campfire. It's well carbonated, tickling my throat all the way down, and finishes nicely dry.
My case for Revolution Brewing is strong: I've yet to have a bad beer from them. In fact, I might have to Ro Sham Bo Nathan for the last Anti-Hero in the fridge, which has become a regular in our rotation. At under $5 for the bomber of Cross of Gold, this may be another regular, as far as I'm concerned. It's wonderful, light, refreshing, and yep, totally gnarly. The cads at Revolution have brewed yet another Betty of a beer.
4.65/5 caps
-Jennie
Wow... um... Time for an English translation of all the above 'this is a good ass beer.' To expand on the goodness, I will venture, nay, delve into what I like to call 'drinking beer.' I know, I know, it's a crazy term that will never pickup, but someday, in some lonely bar with 2 other patrons and a bartender who has passed their prime a decade ago, you'll hear someone saying that they're 'drinking beer' and you'll think back to this blog. You'll wonder what the hell happened to us, then you'll preform a google (or whatever search engine has become the go-to) search for us, then get sidetracked by all the random pornographic adverts. At some point you'll realize you should delete your history and cookies, as that's why all the porn is popping up. Then you'll forget what the hell you were searching for and go back to your 'drinking beer.'
And with that, we come to another Revolution Brewing selection. This pours a nice straw color that reminds me of perfect summertime brews, slightly hazy with little white head. I would like to point out that despite Jennie being a bartender, she sucks at pouring growlers and bombers. Suck it woman, I said it. Shit, where was I? Oh yes. The aroma, after warming up (decided to be a gentleman and give the feminine-type lead on both reviews tonight as I had lead on both Flying Dogs from last night). The aroma is lemon, pine, citrus, and some slight hints of fresh cut grass and very faint hints of some sweetness. Huh, interesting. I pictured this as more a Kolsch style with it being called a 'golden ale', but it smells more like a Pale Ale. But now, onto the best part, which you should pay money for, me 'drinking beer.' I say you should pay money for this, that way I can quit my job and make money off drinking beer, it's a flaw proof plan, really, and at some point, I may go into the multi-step plan for making this happen. But, I seem to be getting off topic. The taste. The initial lemon, citrus and pine poke fades and gives way to some slight bitterness. That bitterness tapers off into lemon-esque flavor that is faint and rides the peak of the wave until the flavor fades. The mouthfeel is nice and light, like a Kolsch, with decent carbonation, making it a nice refreshing brew, especially for the upcoming hellishly hot and humid months of what little Summertime we get in Ohio. Yesterday morning, around the freezing point and snowfall in places, tomorrow is high 80s (85-88) throughout most of the state. These are in degrees fahrenheit, as the US has decided to make it confusing with converting degrees, on top of all weights and measurements, with the rest of the world who is one Metric. Metric makes sense, to a degree, but with the US Standard system pounded in my head my entire life, the conversion boggles me from time to time. Much like this beer. I think of a golden ale to be like Tire Bite, but this is more like All-Day IPA.
Good, and great for the price.
4.7/5 caps
-Nathan-
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