Tap Handle #211: Diamond Bear - Southern Blonde

This is one of my favorite taps. The sculpting and detail are excellent. If you're going to have a toy on a stick, this is the way to go. I also really like (but don't have) the Strawberry Blonde version.

Diamond Bear Brewing was founded in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 2000 by Russ and Sue Melton. Russ Melton was a tire salesman who was exposed to German beer when he was stationed in Germany with the Army in the '70s. In the '90, while living in Kansas City, he was impressed with Boulevard's beer. On returning to Little Rock, he decided to open a brewery in a building that was once an old Studebaker dealership, and stocked it with equipment from a defunct Seattle brewery. The Diamond Bear name is derived from Arkansas having been known as both "The Diamond State" and "The Bear State". The brewery struggled with consistency during its early years, but after a brewer from Abita arrived, the beers started winning awards. Bottling was largely handled by volunteers, but there were frequent problems with the old equipment. To make matters worse, the brewery was being charged for excessive wastewater, despite the fact that most of the water they were using went into the beer.

In 2011 Diamond Bear moved its operations into a 20,000 square foot building on 2 acres in North Little Rock, citing increases in demand and sales, as well as higher loading docks and the problems mentioned above, for the move. The site includes a much larger tap room, a small restaurant, a deck overlooking the river, rental of a special event room/or even the entire brewery for private functions, and public tours on Saturday and Sunday.

Southern Blonde is a golden German Pilsner made to appeal to drinkers of big brewery lagers like Budweiser and Miller. Weighted average on ratebeer.com is 2.54 out of 5.

Diamond Bear Official Website