Irrelevant except I once was very blonde and very young.
I’ll admit one of my prime annoyances is the marketing of blonde ales as if the beer is a woman you can “have”. “Skinny blondes like to have a good time” being the most recently obnoxious example of this.
According to the press, Brew Dog’s Trashy Blonde has come under fire from feminists. This beer happens to be my favourite offering from Brew Dog, and that’s saying a lot.
It’s a pretty lantern-orange color. The big fruits (lychee dominates) and hoppy bite are fresh and juicy, and they ask little from the drinker, save that you pair it with something tasty. Anything really. I won’t say it’s easy going because then I would be anthropomorphizing this beer.
The marketing of Trashy Blonde is so OTT and really kind of poignantly satirical, it’s hard to be offended. Once a friend of mine read the label out loud. “You know you shouldn’t…A titillating, neurotic, peroxide punk of a pale ale. Combining attitude, style, substance and a little bit of low self esteem for good measure; what would your mother say?” She and I, both avowed feminists, cracked up.
If we could just drop the blonde’s “e” it could be talking about the forbidden boyfriend, about a person we know or used to be. It could be, my my hey hey, the story of blond Johnny Rotten.
Good beer is sexy. Can we find a new way to talk about this yummy aspect that doesn’t demean women? Irony is one place to start but it’s going to be, as most things worth doing, a very tricky business.
Impy Malting 
