Ramming Speed! (Part the First)

Ahh, travel. Broadens the horizons, presents new vistas...discovers new beers. Well, my travel does, anyway.

This is the multi-part tale of a trip to Lake Oswego, Oregon. In this idyllic setting we find a branch of Ram Brewing. Ram is a chain, covering five states and many locations. Generally, chains tend towards more...generic beers, although this isn't always the case. How is it with the Ram, then?

Today, we'll start with Ram's Blonde ale. Blondes are a really varied bunch of beers, from thin, insipid, yellow fizzy water to heavily hopped, high-impact beers that fall short of IPA only in colour. Ram's blonde, unfortunately, falls towards the thin-and-yellow end of the spectrum.

It's thin bodied, has little head, and lacks much in the way of flavour and aroma. The major nose component that I perceive is DMS--not ideal. There really isn't that much other flavour--and there should be, in my opinion. The DMS lingers long after you swallow, and for me that is the final shovel on the grave.

Now, you ask, why on earth would someone brew beer like this on purpose? The answer to that is...it sells. Blondes are generally considered "gateway" beers, used to convince drinkers of mass market American beers to buy something from the brewery rather than go somewhere else or to demand their yellow fizzy water of choice. Let's face facts here: house beers have a bigger profit margin than outside beers, which is why you rarely see mass market American beers at brewpubs. As much as we want this to be a labour of love and art, in the end you've got to pay the bills if you want to open the restaurant again in the morning. If we could do that more easily by selling, say, Budweiser or Coors, we would. Since we don't want to do that, we make beers that will appeal to those customers. The trick is to make a beer that will do that and appeal to beer connoisseurs. There's a fine line there, and it's really easy to fall off it. Ram falls, at least on this beer.

Tomorrow: Hefeweizen--the Yellow Peril, or a Miracle of Cloves and Fishes