One of the brews in this collection was the Dirty Blonde ale pictured above. As you can hopefully see the beer has a light, straw color, which is typical of American blond ales. There was a slight fruitiness in the aroma.
The body and flavor of the ale followed the color as they were on the light side. That was not unexpected as the label on the bottle tells you the beer is only 4.5% by volume. There was a definite malty flavor with hints of spice. A prickly sensation tickled the tip of the tongue with the first swallow. This made me suspect there might be some wheat in the ale, and a later check of the description of the beer on Atwater's web site confirmed that wheat is indeed added to the mix.
There was a hint of orange in the aftertaste, but it was very subtle. As the beer warmed in the glass I found that the spiciness and the orange tones became more pronounced.
Overall though I found the beer pretty average and uninteresting. It was just too light. Now it was nicely balanced, with no bitterness, yet not overly sweet or malty either. The Dirty Blonde Ale was easy to drink and swallow. Dare I say the Dirty Blonde went down easy? But in the end it was just too easy.
I give Atwater's Dirty Blonde ale 5 mugs out of 10. It is not a bad brew. There are just more interesting examples of this style out there.