Sierra Nevada Harvest

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

Beautiful, rich, sweet flavor. The hops are not overpowering. This might be the best beer of all time.

A- Pours a deep caramely orange color with a huge, thick, off white head that leaves tons of lacing and sticks around for quite a while. Low to medium carbonation apparent. S- Big, hoppy smell with a sweet citrusey scent that is almost an afterthought. T- Starts off sweet and continues on piney and a bit bitter with huge grapefruitey citrus notes. M- Thick but inexplicably a bit watery feeling with lots of carbonation. D- Fairly drinkable brew. I love the grapefruit, citrusey qualities but it might be a little bit on the bitter and thick side to be very drinkable for a pale ale.

Bottle. A good solid IPA with more caramel present than average. Well rounded beer- creamy and hoppy. Easy to drink and one of their better beers. Well crafted.

Pours a clear dark brown with a frothy off white head. Aroma is certainly hop. Tastes of caramel, huge presence of bitter hops. Palate is medium to light bodied with a super bitter aftertaste.

The fresh hops add the floral/piney/earthy note you would expect, but not as "bad" bitter as hoppy beers can be. It is is a light fresh bitter. As a self-confessed hop head, this is different than I expected. More grassy and earthy than the usual super hopped offerings. A well balanced beer with a strong malt base. As with most beers that have dried hops, pellet hops, etc, this one has much more hop character, but not as much hop presence as some hoppier beers. With some of SN’s beers going a bit downhill as they become more mainstream, this one takes it back to the roots of good craft beer.

Bottle from Alaskanwarren, shared with Fin, Loz and Traci at our American beer tasting night. Copper, nice tan head with maybe a touch of green. (Maybe my imagination.) Fresh green bright hop aroma, a bit of the smell of wild marijuana trampled underfoot, almonds. Soft manderine orange flavor, warm and sweet. Once I taste the orange, I smell them too. Quite a lot of pith, a little agressive to begin with, but blends in a bit after a few sips. Very lively, and a much more funky sort of beer than SN usual brews. A little bit unrefined in that way, but tons of good flavor and a really interesing beer. Thanks Brian!

Pour was pale copper with thick lumpy head and great lacing. Aroma was soapy citrus. The flavor was sweet bready malt with a perfect level of citrus and some earthy hop. A full and creamy mouthfeel made this an enormous pleasure to drink. A top notch IPA, to be sure.

Bottle shared with Casey, Tracey and Loz at a great American tasting evening 11-04-08 hosted by Casey and Tracey, cheers mate! Wonderfull hoppy aroma leaps out at yer’ much as you would expect really I suppose, but with a nice freshly cracked sweet nuttiness as well. Has a lazy persisting tanginess to this and there is a stubborn bitterness which whilst ok at first becomes a bit unwlecome. The hoppy bitter bite forces through and this beer looks very good lest I forget to mention it’s appearance, amber clear and with a white bouncy head. This beer may have fared a little better maybe if it had not been sampled in such a quality line-up of beers. A nice beer from Sierra Nevada but it could have been even better.