Style Details

Name
Bel­gi­an Blond Ale
Cate­go­ry
Strong Bel­gi­an Ale
BJCP Style Code
25 A
Appearance
Light to deep gold color. Gene­ral­ly very clear. Lar­ge, den­se, and cre­a­my white to off-white head. Good head reten­ti­on with Bel­gi­an lace.
Aro­ma
Light ear­thy or spi­cy hop nose, along with a light­ly grai­ny-sweet malt cha­rac­ter. Shows a subt­le yeast cha­rac­ter that may include spi­cy phe­n­o­lics, per­fumy or honey-like alco­hol, or yeasty, frui­ty esters (com­mon­ly oran­ge-like or lem­o­ny). Light sweet­ness that may have a slight­ly sugar-like cha­rac­ter. Subt­le yet complex.
Fla­vour
Smooth, light to mode­ra­te grai­ny-sweet malt fla­vor initi­al­ly, but finis­hes medi­um-dry to dry with some smooth alco­hol beco­ming evi­dent in the after­tas­te. Medi­um hop and alco­hol bit­ter­ness to balan­ce. Light hop fla­vor, can be spi­cy or ear­thy. Very soft yeast cha­rac­ter (esters and alco­hols, which are some­ti­mes per­fumy or oran­ge/­le­mon-like). Light spi­cy phe­n­o­lics optio­nal. Some light­ly cara­me­li­zed sugar or honey-like sweet­ness on palate.
Mouth­feel
Medi­um-high to high car­bo­na­ti­on, can give mouth-fil­ling bubbly sen­sa­ti­on. Medi­um body. Light to mode­ra­te alco­hol warmth, but smooth. Can be some­what creamy.
Over­all Impression
A mode­ra­te-strength gol­den ale that has a subt­le frui­ty-spi­cy Bel­gi­an yeast com­ple­xi­ty, slight­ly mal­ty-sweet fla­vor, and dry finish.
Typi­cal Ingredients
Bel­gi­an Pils malt, aro­ma­tic malts, sugar, Bel­gi­an yeast strains that pro­du­ce com­plex alco­hol, phe­n­o­lics and per­fumy esters, Saa­zer-type, Sty­ri­an Gol­dings, or East Kent Gol­dings hops. Spi­ces are not tra­di­tio­nal­ly used, alt­hough the ingre­di­ents and fer­men­ta­ti­on by-pro­ducts may give an impres­si­on of spi­cing (often remi­nis­cent of oran­ges or lemons). If spi­ces are pre­sent, should be a back­ground cha­rac­ter only.
Histo­ry
Rela­tively recent deve­lo­p­ment to fur­ther appeal to Euro­pean Pils drin­kers, beco­ming more popu­lar as it is hea­vi­ly mar­ke­ted and wide­ly distributed.
Comm­ents
Often has an almost lager-like cha­rac­ter, which gives it a clea­ner pro­fi­le in com­pa­ri­son to many other Bel­gi­an styl­es. Bel­gi­ans use the term Blond, while the French spell it Blon­de. Most com­mer­cial examp­les are in the 6.5 – 7% ABV ran­ge. Many Trap­pist or artis­a­nal Bel­gi­an beers are cal­led Blond but tho­se are not repre­sen­ta­ti­ve of this style.
Com­mer­cial Examples
Aff­li­gem Blond, Grim­ber­gen Blond, La Trap­pe Blond, Lef­fe Blond, Val-Dieu Blond
Ori­gi­nal Gravity
1.062 - 1.075 SG
Final Gra­vi­ty
1.008 - 1.018 SG
Color
4 - 7 SRM
Alco­hol
6.0 - 7.0 %vol
Bit­ter­ness
15 - 30 IBU