Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale

This is my favorite seasonal beer! It has a wonderful taste. Just be careful how many you have, it may sneak up on you!

As I am not a huge fan of ipa’s I have to say how amazing this one is. Strong hop presence on the nose and taste but not to much. Most ipa’s have to much hops for me but this one to me is perfect.

12oz bottle. Pours a deep, cloudy copper - beautiful color with lovely highlights of orange and red. A very thick, soft, big-bubbled, light tan head pours - shrinking slowly into a large-bubbled, soapy-looking foam cake. The aroma is vinous, resiny, and "green" with hops. I can almost feel the hop tar coating my nostrils and wind pipe as I breath in. The hop aroma is very spicy and really intense with pine - perfumy, almost shampoo-like. There is a bit of breadiness and toast in there along with some caramel malt, too. But this is a hop-focused beer. The flavor starts bittersweet - a nice, sweet malt complements and manages to balance (barely) a big hop flavor with lots of pine, some spice, and a little citrus. The malt character is hard to find - some sweetness, hints of honey - because of the massive wave of hops. By mid-tongue, the bitterness is really strong. The beer feels incredibly dry and bitter at this point - although not astringent or unpleasant, as there is a slight maltiness and sweetness paired with it. The finish is exceptionally dry and long with lots of grapefruit and pine. The mouthfeel is a full and tingly with carbon dioxide, but turns into a delectable, creamy texture after swishing it around to release some of the suds. Overall, this is a nice, hoppy, American IPA. But I personally prefer ones that bring a little more malt sweetness to the table to balance the intense bitterness - this one is a little lop-sided.

Bottle. Creamy off-white good mostly lasting head. Orange colour. Powerfull hoppy grassy perfumed aroma. Powerfull heavy bitter flavor. Very dominated by perfume and flowers. AVerage finsih. Oily palate. Messy beer but very powerfull.

Amber color with ample head and lacing. Nice hop and floral nose. Gorgeous mouthfeel that makes this pure pleasure to drink: chewy and soft and textural. The taste is sublime--the perfect pocket of IPA-dom. Not too thick, not too thin. Like mama bear’s porridge, this one is just right.

Lots of amber malts and some hops, but the flavor is dominated by spicy citrus. I would not have guessed this was an IPA.

Bottle. Pours beautiful dark copper with reddish highlights when held to the sun. The head is medium height with a thick consistency and is an orangish off white. The head slowly recedes to a thick coat of lacing that stays throughout the drink. The aroma is mostly pine some lemon zest and fresh cut grass. Taste is semi-sweet malts on the tip of the tongue, to oily medicinal hops to a nice, but not over done, bitter bite at the end. This beer is very slick and oily in the mouth with a medium to thick body. Pretty low carbonation enhances the mouth coating effect. I liked it. I wonder why Sierra Nevada’s normal IPA isn’t more like this brew instead of being such a weak example.

Amber color; big malt aroma. Rich bold flavors of rich malts, spices, citrus, big, bitter hops. Mellows a tad when it warms up or with aging. I’ve bought this for man years and recently had it on tap at Pizza Port Carlsbad. A lovely monster.