Cahaba Blonde — The Beer Birmingham Orders on Autopilot

The Review

There’s a certain kind of craft beer that doesn’t announce itself. It doesn’t have a punny name or a maximalist hop bill or a write-up in some national magazine. It just shows up cold, goes down easy, and becomes the thing you order without thinking about it.

Cahaba Blonde is that beer for Birmingham.

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Founded in 2011 by a group of friends who bonded over homebrewing and the Cahaba River, Cahaba Brewing has always had a knack for approachable craft beer. Their Blonde is the purest expression of that instinct. It pours a clear, pale golden with a clean white head. The nose is light and floral, with a touch of European malt sweetness. On the palate: crisp, clean, subtly malty — just enough hop character to keep your interest, never enough to scare anyone off.

At 23 IBUs it’s not trying to prove anything. It pairs with warm Alabama summer days, floating the Cahaba, a baseball game, a porch swing, a food truck. It is, as Cahaba proudly describes it, their most notorious beer — and they’re right to be proud of it.

Cahaba moved to their current 51,000-square-foot space on 5th Avenue South in 2016, and the taproom is worth a visit on its own. But whatever you order after you settle in, you probably started with the Blonde. Everybody does.

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