Sierra Nevada has been releasing a series of 30th Anniversary beers this year.
All have been very good, but I have to give it to them for the most recent release.
This is a big brewery. While they still fall into the micro-brew category, Sierra is pumping out a lot fermented grains these days. I've always enjoyed the beers. The Pale Ale is a good, clean, and piney hopped ale, which can be argued, created the American IPA style. When you get this big it gets that much harder to keep the quality level high. Sierra has. But that's not what this post is all about.
What I'm, slowly, getting at is Sierra's willingness to still take some pretty big chances. The 30th Anniversary series has been crafted, with the help of other well-known beer brewers in the industry, by taking some big chances with the final beer. For a big brewer, this can backfire pretty quick if experimental beers you create don't deliver.
Well, the last release of this series delivers. A blend of oak-aged Bigfoot barleywine, Celebration, and Pale Ale thrown all together with a few more dry hops. This could easily be a complete disaster of a beer. Fortunately, it is delicious. It needs some time to open up, and would probably benefit from 6-12 months aging, as the different parts are still noticeable. But this brewski is intriguing, constantly evolving in the glass, and obviously a style that you don't get to drink every day.
Sierra Nevada - Congratulations on having the testicular fortitude to blend a bunch of stuff together that could have been downright horrible, and the blending skill to know that this would come out as a damn fine beer.
No comments:
Post a Comment