Guinness is pouring its first light lager in decades. We taste-tested it.

The big deal about Blonde

• The color. Guinness doesn't often trifle with lighter-colored brews, but they have in the past. (Guinness Brite is the most well-known of St. James Gate's ill-fated amber offerings, but there have been others.) The fact that they're producing a lager that clocks in 80% lighter than the brand's iconic Draught is special.
• The brewery. In a nod to the country that kicked off the craft craze (AMERICA!), Guinness Blonde is brewed at Pennsylvania's Latrobe Brewing Company by a second-generation master brewer.
• The yeast. For Blonde American Lager, Guinness exported its 125-year-old yeast culture to the US -- the first time they've ever done so. After more than a century in Ireland, the bacteria didn't take well to the Northeastern climate at first, but they eventually sorted it out.
• The "Discovery Series". This light lager marks the first edition in the brand's planned foray into experimentals. There's an "innovation team" of Dublin brewers that've been chomping at the bit to make something other than stout. Expect additional non-stouts in the future.

Enough with the facts, dammit! How's it taste?

• Crisp. The Blonde American Lager is super refreshing in all the ways a stout can't be. For one thing, it actually feels cold -- something Draught barely ever does, to me -- and it bites with a little citrus on the way down.
• "Fast". That's how master brewer Joe Gruss describes the Blonde's finish. He means the aftertaste vanishes almost immediately, leaving your palate clean for the next sip. After a bunch of "next sips", I humbly concur. The man's a wizard.
• Guinness-ness. It's odd, but in each sip of Blonde, there did seem to be an echo of that wholesome taste Draught is known for. Gruss calls that "Guinness-ness". Blonde's finish, he says, is "biscuity". Unfortunately that doesn't mean you get a biscuit every time you finish one. Go ahead and grab another beer instead.