Diamond Bear Brewing Company - BLU Golden Lager

This pale lager from Diamond Bear is named in honor of a bear featured in a prominent mural on one of the brewery’s exterior walls by artist Nancy Griffey Jordan (who’s produced art for several of the brewery’s cans). The beer presents a bright, pale, golden hue with just a hint of haze, capped by an effervescent crop of white foam. On the nose, we picked up inviting notes of pear and apple skins along with a crackery, lightly bready undercurrent overlaid by some herbal, spicy, and mildly woody Nugget and Sterling hop notes. Look for the theme to continue in the flavor, which comes across really well balanced among that simple bready core malt character, the herbal hop notes, and tree fruit impressions. Fairly low hop bitterness combines with a good dose of effervescent carbonation to easily keep this beer nice and dry. Balanced, tasty, and super easy to drink, this sessionable lager can be enjoyed by itself – one after another – but it’ll make a nice accompaniment for lighter foods, as well, and fried foods with some breading. German sausages with soft pretzels and spicy mustard, fish & chips, fried chicken, and a salad with grilled chicken or shrimp sound good to us. Cheers!

Built within what was once a Studebaker dealership, Diamond Bear Brewing Company (the name invokes a couple of Arkansas’ many historical nicknames: the Bear State and the Diamond State) became the first production brewery in Little Rock in more than 15 years when it opened in the fall of 2000. For a state that was not known for its craft beer culture, this small brewery became quite a treasure trove for lovers of good beer. With multiple gold medals from the World Beer Cup and Great American Beer Festival, Diamond Bear managed to put Arkansas on the craft beer map, ushering in the era of better beer that Arkansans can now enjoy today.

Arkansas has Germany and Russ Melton, the brewery’s founder, to thank for the beer oasis that is Diamond Bear. It was during Russ’ four year stint in the military in Germany that he picked up a taste for high-quality beer (a story we’ve seen repeated numerous times with other craft brewery founders). In 1999, Russ and his wife Sue, both Little Rock natives, developed the idea for a local microbrewery. With the help of seven other owners, Russ and Sue built the brewery and began production in September of 2000. Their mission statement: “To provide the people of Arkansas and the surrounding region with their own local brewery, which produces great, premium, all natural beer products, which reflect favorably on Arkansas and the surrounding region.” In 2013, the team moved production to a new, larger facility in North Little Rock, and opened an on-site restaurant, the Arkansas Ale House (now called the Diamond Bear Taproom & Pub), the very next year. The brewery currently produces about eight beers, four hard seltzers, and a root beer made with real cane sugar. To learn more about the brewery, visit them at diamondbear.com.