Bad Weather Migration Review

Name: Bad Weather Migration Review
Style: Blonde Ale
ABV: 5%

Today I'm reviewing a beer from a fairly new Minnesota-based brewery called Bad Weather Brewing, which opened it's doors during the second half of 2013. As you may have guessed from the name, most of their beers have a weather-theme to it; After all, we Midwesterners love to talk about the weather! Heck, they were even featured on the Weather Channel this past winter, which you can view on the brewery's website.

For this review, I'm looking at their Migration Ale or Migration Fair Weather Ale if you want to be technical. It's a Blonde Ale brewed with rose hips which, according to Wikipedia, is the fruit of a rose plant. I had no idea that roses could produce fruit, let alone have nutritional value unless you so happen to be a rabbit.

Migration pours a hazy golden color with some moderate visible carbonation. The head is ghostly white and thin and the lacing is quite soapy with no retention.

The nose starts off with a pretty yeast-forward scent with some fairly pungent floral hoppiness, some fruity sweetness which must be from the rose hips and a nice pale maltiness. Even though I have never tasted rose hips before, I can already tell that this isn't your typical Blonde Ale.

Sure enough, the flavor starts out with a fairly strong yeast and floral hop profile, but the fruitiness brought on by the rosehips is unlike anything I've ever seen in a Blonde Ale....and it works out very well! The aftertaste is primarily yeasts, some mild hoppiness and pale malt sweetness.

The palate is considerably light body and heavy in the carbonation department. Though I would've preferred the carbonation to be milder to help one enjoy the flavors, it does provide a nice crisp feel.

I don't consider the Blonde Ale to be a beer style that is most likely to break the mold, but I found this to be very good! The rose hips in particular make this beer stand out amongst others of the same beer classification. If you're ever in Minnesota and so happen to come upon this, then I would highly recommend you try this out!

Bad Weather Migration - 9/10