Feeds:
Posts
Comments

Posts Tagged ‘fresh hop ale’

Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , , , on December 17, 2010 | 5 Comments »

Basic Info:
Name: Celebration Ale
Origin: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, CA
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.8%
IBU: 65
I drank this: poured from a bottle that I liberated from work when I realized we were down to three single bottles and no six-packs, that Old Chicago didn’t have any, and that if I didn’t grab the said bottles I’d be Celebration-less this Winter, panicked, and bought the beers

Winter wouldn’t be Winter without Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. It’s been a yearly tradition ever since the semester-ending paper grading session wherein a friend of mine and I got a six-pack and drank our way through part of it (warning: *always* check the ABV on a beer you’ve never had before). We noticed something was wrong when we realized that one of us was contemplating making a Saved By the Bell* reference in explaining to a student why student was wrong on some trivial point or other of pop culture. Perhaps needless to say, we stopped drinking and grading or at least we stopped grading and then we definitely rechecked the papers the next day.

This particular friend was also the first of two people to tell me that Celebration Ale tastes like poinsettias. Admittedly, I can kind of see where they’re coming from (even if they’re wrong, because they can’t know what poinsettias taste like, because poinsettias are poisonous) – this stuff, as the internet would say, has a flavor. But poinsettias adorn the label. That’s probably where the association is coming from.

Mostly, this beer is hoppy. Like, HOPS. Fresh hops, actually.

The Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale is a lovely cloudy amber color with a ring of white head clinging to the glass and a bright grapefruit scent. It’s a beer about resin in a lot of ways – the initial flavor is a very resinous grapefruit-hop flavor, and the aftertaste is all warm piney grapefruity resins. This is one of those beers where I’m perfectly aware – in a logical sense – that there are malts here, but I don’t really notice them and I don’t care. The hops are the point; the malts exist purely to provide a backbone for the magical happy hoppiness. To sum up: if you’re a certified hop head, you’ll love this stuff. If you’re not (or if you’re not a fan of Cascades), you’ll probably end up agreeing with the “this tastes like poinsettias” crowd.

If you think this tastes like poinsettias, awesome. More for me.

*Actually, when I think about it, I’m not sure if Saved By the Bell was the show that came up or not – if it wasn’t, it was certainly something of that ilk. Also, there may have been singing of Counting Crows songs.** And also possibly another discussion of 101 Reykjavik – a film about Icelandic lesbians that we’d watched at some point earlier in the semester – but that may have been a different night.***

**With memories like this, it should be clear why I was so panicked about making sure I had some of this beer this year.

***Grad school is just kind of like this. What I’m saying is don’t go.

Read Full Post »

Boulevard Nutcracker Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , on November 14, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

My game with Winter Warmers (the Oktoberfest of the Holiday Season) is to see how close each variety comes to living up to the awesomeness that is the Sam Smith version of the style. You can bet that I’ll be reviewing the Sam Smith the instant I get ahold of some. Until then, I’ll be playing with every other Winter Warmer I can get my hands on in an attempt to review them for you before it’s truly the season to drink them. Here’s the first:

Basic Info:
Name: Nutcracker Ale
Origin: Boulevard Brewing Co., Kansas City, MO
Style: Winter Warmer
ABV: 5.8%
IBU: 38
I drank this: on tap at Old Chicago, OP, KS

I’m never entirely sure what to do with the Boulevard Nutcracker. It has fresh hops as part of the ingredient list, and I’m pretty much 100% a fan of fresh hops always and forever. So that’s good. On the other hand, I’m not really sure what to do with this level of hops in what is an otherwise very malty, slightly fruity-spicy malty ale.

This beer very good head retention – there was foam present for almost the entire time I nursed my way through it. It has a slightly fruity/spicy malt scent. Color-wise, it’s browner than the Boulevard Pale Ale and maybe a hair darker.

The flavor of this beer splits two ways, as I alluded to earlier. It starts off with a really major hop hit from the fresh hops they pour in – it has a really bright, herbal/piney quality. I like the flavor quite a bit, but it’s brief.

The hops are replaced by a very strong, sweet, kind of fruity/spicy malt hit, like they took a bunch of really sweet, sugary malts, added some molasses, and then threw in some nutmeg for good measure. I looked at the ingredients and they don’t list spices as being added to this ale so I think I’m making the nutmeg flavor up, but it’s a pretty prominant note to my palate. What I can say for sure is that the malts are super-fruity-molasses sweet.

I like both the hop hit and the malt hit, but they never quite blend into a cohesive beer to me. It’s not bad (and definitely better than I remember it being a few years ago, when I had one and really didn’t like it), but it’s not my all-time favorite beer either. This is a popular beer, though, so this is one of those where I think I’m mostly alone in my lack of fandom. It *is* a very well-made beer. It’s just not perfect for my particular palate.

Read Full Post »

Boulevard 21st Anniversary Fresh Hop Pale Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , , , on November 10, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

Just to throw this out there – this is a pretty stream-of-consciousness type of review, because I have no notes on the beer and am writing it up almost immediately after drinking. I never do this. I always take notes while I sip the beer and then form them into something coherent later. In honor of Boulevard turning 21 (and sort of in reference to the idiotic ways Americans like to celebrate our 21st birthdays), I thought I’d give you the unedited version of what I really think. Also, I’m pretty excited about this stuff and wanted to get the review out there while y’all have a prayer of finding it. It won’t be around for long. So here goes:

Happy 21st, Boulevard!! We have our occasional differences, I know, but y’all are fabulous, and you’ve made me ridonkulously happy by making a fresh hop ale for your 21st birthday.

Basic Info:
Name: 21st Anniversary Fresh Hop Pale Ale (Smokestack Series)
Origin: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO
Style: Imperial IPA, or as they call it “Fresh Hop Imperial Pale Ale” (which sounds kinda pretentious, but I’ll go with it here – you only turn 21 once, right?)
ABV: 7.4%
IBU: 40
I drank this: poured into a pint glass at home while watching the thrilling conclusion to whatever the hell South Park’s recent comic book/Cthulu mash up has been about

To start out with, I call total B.S. on the IBU level. I’d put it around 75, personally. Maybe it’s just because the hops are fresh, but Ceiling Cat on Toast are the hops STRONG. And this sentiment comes from a certifiable hop head. I finished my last sip of this beer over an hour ago and I can STILL taste the hops. The hops are resiny and piney and have a slight orange kick. So: orange pine resin.

To get a feeling for this beer, take the orange pine resin, add a touch of sweetness and then spread it on perfectly done wheat toast. Then add a touch of honey. And, well, make it amber liquid with a nice white head, light carbonation and a lovely fresh hop scent. And then give it this lovely nutty undertone to go with the orange pine resin. Almost pine nut, really.

But to get to the pine nut-toast part of this beer, you’re going to be searching a bit. I’ve heard of beers being called “aggressively hopped” before and always sort of wondered why the term “aggressive” had to be applied, because, well, you know, HOP HEAD. I am not wondering here. I CAN STILL TASTE HOPS. Right now. Over an hour post-last-sip. HOPS. Lots of hops. Bright, sunshine-on-pine-trees-in-the-mountains-tasting hops. No sour aftertaste, no malts, nothing weird, nothing different than the beer itself. Just. HOPS.

So get thee to a liquor store and find thee some of this beer while you can. They say not to cellar it, so just buy yourself a bottle, pop it open (it’s corked like champagne), and enjoy. It’s a hoppy happy experience.

Read Full Post »

Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

Posted in Beer, tagged , , , , , , on October 27, 2010 | Leave a Comment »

From the “fun beers that I have stashed away in the basement, waiting for a good occasion” files:

Basic Info:
Name: Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale (2009 Harvest)
Origin: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico, California
Style: American IPA
ABV: 6.7%
IBU: not available for 2009 (2010 is 66)
I drank this: poured from a bottle at home. Bottle purchased at a liquor store outside of Chicago last summer

I have been holding onto this beer for something like 16 months. I was really excited to pop it open and enjoy, and was not disappointed. And to Tony, Dad and Ben: you must know how much I like you, since I let you have some. My initial tendency was to hoard this all to myownself. But I didn’t. Consider yourselves loved.

This beer is a slightly cloudy medium amber/orange color with a light, thin head – it resembles many of the pumpkin ales I’ve been drinking lately. The scent is light, bright and citrusy, all orange blossom/neroli-hoppiness with a hint of sweet running through it. I want a perfume of this beer badly. (Dear BPAL, please get on that KTHX)

Taste-wise, we’ll start with the malts. They’re actually noticeable, which is nice. They’re medium-to-light and slightly caramelly-spicy, slightly sweet. They create a nice, slightly syrupy backdrop for the hops.

The hops are the star, obviously. However, the IBUs on this beer can’t be all that high – I’d guess in the 60-70 range (which is probably about right – the 2010 version came in at 66). To translate for non-beer-geeks, this means that the hops are the dominant flavor, but they’re not going to facepunch you with bitterness the way some of the higher-IBU beers would. In the tastebuds of my mouth*, this beer doesn’t taste bitter at all – it’s clean, bright, sunny, citrus-y and tinged with something lightly floral.

To be nonsensically poetic about it, this beer is like drinking sunny springtime.

To be beyond nerdy about it: I’d love to think that this is the beer the hobbits drink in the Lord of the Rings films. Obviously it wouldn’t be so in the books: in the books, the hobbits are probably drinking an Old Ale or something comparable. I like to think of them drinking Wychwood’s Hobgoblin.

Fun note: the hops for this beer came freshly picked from New Zealand, home of my favorite Sauvignon Blancs and Flight of the Conchords. Moral of the story: good things come from the land of the Kiwis. *thumbs up*

*keep in mind that my favorite liqueur is Campari, that I will choose dark chocolate over milk at all times, etc. What I’m saying is that I like bitter things.

Read Full Post »

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.

%d bloggers like this: