Dirty Dirty Girl

On the way up to Panderies a little bit ago, we stopped over at Santa Fe Brewing to fill up one of the numerous growlers that we had. I had not actually been to the brewery itself, having just tasted the Santa Fe Brewing beers from whatever has been bottled for distribution. When I bellied up to the bar and noticed that there was a beer I hadn't seen before, I figured it was worth a try.

The Santa Fe Brewing Dirty Blonde was an interesting beer - like you'd expect out of a blonde, it was a pretty light beer and took a number of them to change a light blub. Everything about this beer was pretty light - light, crisp malt scent; light fruity taste; light body. Nothing really stood out about this beer and while that is ok with type of beer, I don't care for "eh". I like beers that have characteristic identity, be it flavor, scent, appearance, whatever.

Now before I get any judgments (and in the immortal words of Huey Louis, "eff you for judging"), I did not have any glass containers in my travel trailer. So, the plastic wine glass with a bunch of grapes on it was going to suffice. Really classes up the beer, don't ya think? Actually, we threw some of the Dirty Blonde into some OJ and made a pretty tasty Brass Monkey.

Appearance - 3.0/5.0 - Light golden as expected, but nothing that distinct about it.

Scent - 3.0/5.0 - Light fruity aroma, but not much else.

Taste - 3.0/5.0 - Crisp, freshing taste, but not much beyond that. Pretty much an average tasting beer.

Feel - 4.0/5.0 - Refreshing, which was really nice. Even though nothing distinctive about it, did not leave any weird aftertaste or anything.

Drinkability - 2.5/5.0 - While this was a good enough beer, I wouldn't order it again given the choice. However, would mix it in orange juice....

Freakin' American Airlines

I love to travel - but I'm very particular with who I fly with. Southwest Airlines is reliable and I know what I'm getting. Anything else (especially Delta...ahhh I hate DELTA!) is a crapshoot at best. There is no telling when some random-ass technical issue/luggage delay/etc.. is going to get your butt stuck in Dallas overnight after traveling for 12 hours already.

Which is what happened to me a bit ago - coming back from the 20/30 National Convention, my plane got delayed in Cabo, then got into Dallas and through customs with 5 minutes to get through security AGAIN and run to the plane. Thanks to American Airlines employees, who said "I don't think you have a chance to get there, so here's your voucher" - I ended up staying at the Westin somewhere near the airport. Getting to the hotel, I wanted nothing more than to eat and have a good cold beer.

Fortunately for me, the bar/restaurant in the hotel was open and did have more than just Coors or Bud. I ended up with the Fireman's #4 Blonde. It had a really nice crisp flavor, with a little hint of honey or some sweetness that blends into a sharp malty taste at the end. Boy, did this go down smooth after an awful day of travel. With a low bitterness (thanks to 21 IBUs) and decent alcohol content (5.1%), I was ready to hit the sack and get up at the buttcrack of dawn to catch my flight. I think the beer was the only thing that saved me from having a whole bunch of pent-up anger for the flight. Had that happened, I probably would have ended up like Ben Stiller in Meet the Parents....

Isotopes Triple A Blonde

Leave it to Albuquerque to base their minor league baseball team after an episode of the Simpsons... "Mesquite-grilled onions. Jalapeño relish. ... Wait a minute, those are Southwestern ingredients. ... Mango-lime salsa? That's the kind of bold flavor they enjoy in ... Albuquerque!" Of course, since baseball is the American pasttime, it's very important that you honor that holiday with beer.

With Mrs. D, Mama D and Brother D in tow, we headed to 'Topes Stadium to enjoy the Isotopes hopefully beat New Orleans. The odd thing about the Isotopes beer venders is that if you get Coors/Bud Light you end paying like $6.25 per beer. Buy something "fancy", such as Blue Moon, Fat Tire, etc..., you're up to $7.50. If you're bold enough to go for Guinness, plan on shelling out $8 for that beer. However, if you're smart and head to the west side of the stadium, you can get a nice microbrew made especially for the Isotopes for the nice price of $6.25 - take that Coors!

I got the Isotopes Triple A Blonde for the game. It's got that perfect blond coloring and malty, refreshing taste that you would expect from a blond ale. There's a light sweet finish, with no aftertaste. A warning, though - I think that the vendors don't have the beer at the coldness that I appreciate. The beer got warm pretty quick, which made the beer a little tougher to enjoy and not nearly as refreshing. Not to say you should suck down the beer to enjoy it while it's cold, but with that said, you will probably WANT to suck it down.

The Isotopes also offer their Slammin' Amber, which we'll take a look at in a future post. Both the Slammin' Amber and Triple A Blonde are available at local stores, such as Smith's, Albertsons, Kelly's, Quarters and the Triangle Grocery in the east mountains.