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Excellence in the Sublime: Brewing Blonde Ale with MadeWest

MadeWest Brewing in Ventura, California, won GABF gold in 2018 and silver in 2019 for its flagship blonde ale, Standard. Mike Morrison, cofounder and head brewer, sketches out its origins and lays out the schematics of this extraordinary ordinary beer.

Mike Morrison Jun 1, 2021 - 7 min read

Excellence in the Sublime: Brewing Blonde Ale with MadeWest Primary Image

Photo: Courtesy MadeWest Brewing

Before opening in 2016, we knew we wanted to launch with a light, approachable, crushable beer that anyone could enjoy. We wanted this to be a gateway beer, but also one that appeals to those who ask for the lightest beer on the menu—we knew that would be a big thing in our town. We knew that the average Ventura beer drinker would assume that nothing is going to please their palate like Coors or Bud Light.

Being a hophead brewer, I don’t think I was ever anti-blonde—but I got a bit hung up on wanting that beer to be a pilsner. When we launched in 2016, we had three core beers. Stone Distributing was ready to add us to their portfolio, based on my homebrew and them wanting to rep a local brand in the area. (I was just crossing my fingers that my 10-gallon recipes scaled up to 30 barrels were going to resemble the beers they were stoked about.) I knew we weren’t going to be able to tie up our four 60-barrel tanks with a lager. So, to me, the next best thing was turning that pils into an ale.

So, we played with how cold we could ferment that beer, to get the cleanest, crispest version of an ale, but with a German-ish pilsner hop profile and a prominent malt character that finished dry and refreshing.

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