Sierra Nevada Anniversary Ale

Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Chico, California USA

Pours a clear copper orange with a big fluffy white head. The aroma is lightly sweet with just a hint of citrus and resin. The flavor is just a bit astringent with medium bitterness and some caramel malt. Finishes long and bitter. Medium bodied, sticky texture.

A healthy pour into my New Belgium globe goblet produces a three finger thick, light tan colored head that leaves nice lacing patterns on the sides of my glass and has a nice, tight texture to it. The beer is a reddish amber hue that shows a brilliantly clear, red stained, full copper hue when held up to the light. The aroma has a nice fresh hoppiness to it that makes me think of pine and a light herbal note somewhat similar to sticky hemp. The herbal hop notes lay on top of citrus hop notes reminiscent of lemon zest, grapefruit zest and bitter orange peel. If you dig for it, some malt aromatics of lightly toasted, crushed saltine crackers mixes with a light lemon note.

The first sip of this has a sharp, herbal, hop bitterness that greets my mouth from the get go and lingers through to a long finish. The beer has a light fullness to it with a malt heft, but it has enough hop character that any sweet malt is hard to notice. Sharp citrus flavors mix with notes of pine and a green, sometimes astringent, fresh hop character that provides quite a bit of bite to this beer. While the malt sweetness is not overly noticeable it does help to accentuate the citrus hop flavors in this beer that provide flavors of grapefruit, some light lychee and a nice bergamot effect. As the beer warms a bit some cracker like malt becomes noticeable as does a touch of caramelized grain character and some toasty malt flavors.

This is an eminently quaffable brew, in fact so quaffable that I never got around to taking notes on the 2007 release six pack that I bought. Three bottles into my 2008 purchase and I figure it is time. It is quite a rare that I buy a sixer of anything (being a homebrewer I have that luxury). Certainly a beer that is better than a sum of its parts would suggest. It is reminiscent of Celebration, which I will always have a very biased soft spot for.

Purchased: Plaza Liquors, Tucson AZ

Tasted somewhere along my trip through the States.
I’ve had the 2008 Anniversary Ale. Very hoppy aroma and flavor. Bit fruity aroma. Some dry, mild hopbitterness.

Served in a tulip @ Brick Store. Something about this beer offended my senses a little. It does not conceal the alcohol taste well. Very hoppy foreground, citrus in the background. I definitely prefer the Pale Ale and the Porter over this.

bottle. pours deep gold with a lacy white head. dominated by grapefruit hop flavors. didn’t really strike me as impressive the first go around but as i’ve had a few more i’ve grown to like it quite a bit. its similar to others in their line (pale ale, celebration) - however, its a bit lighter and drier than those. i imagine the ibu’s are a bit lower than both of those, but the flavoring hops are still there. not too shabby.

Deep golden color, piney and hoppy flavors are predominant, but this is not a real hophead beer. Sort of a disappointment for an "anniversary" ale, which makes me think of something more special than this fairly pedestrian beer that’s really a lot like SNPA.

The situation: I have been working 20 of the last 48 hours.. so I come home and take a nap. I literally woke up, came down for dinner, and Pops literally throws this stuff in my face! Well it sure woke me up! This beer has HUGE hop aroma, with notes of pine and burnt sugar. Upon sipping, the hops are obvious, with a slight citrusy finish. This beer is awesome. Cheers!

bottle.. dark golden pour , decent white head, good lacing. aromas of pine and grapefruit . good malt,biscuit flavors with a nice lightly bitter finish . medium bodied, creamy smooth and finishes dry.