Sierra Nevada India Pale Ale

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

Bottle. Like many SN products - very good, very consistent, very accessible. A good IPA but nothing noteworthy. Nothing particularly to think about - pretty straightforward, slightly above average IPA. Try it - just don’t buy a six pack.

Strong alcohol warming. Sweet aroma. Quite carbonated. Color was good, head ddin’t last.

2007 bottle. Pours amber with a thin, mostly receding tan head. Aroma of pine, spicy peppery hops. Taste is light caramel, toffee, with a piney and earthy hop flavor. Defintely not an aggressively bitter beer, which I prefer. Tends more towards the spicy, peppery dimension of hoppiness, which is unique. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and slightly resinous with lively carbonation. Enjoyable but forgettable.

SECOND TRIAL: I have a lot of respect for Sierra Nevada given their place in the history of craft brewing, but they’ve been pretty overshadowed by their successors. This IPA is a good example of that. It’s not bad, it’s just not especially good (although I’m guessing it’s quite a bit closer to original IPA’s than those from more recent California brewers). The beer pours a nice copper with a quickly diminishing head. The aroma is faintly clean, but the taste is actually a slightly earth hop, with light bitterness and just a touch of sweet malt to balance it all out. Truth be told, I actually prefer the subtle citrus that comes along with Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale over this. Still not a bad beer, just not especially good.

12oz Bottle 2007: Deep orange pour, with plenty of clarity and a thin white head. If poured warm enough there is some light lacing. Citrusey aroma, with apparent mandarin and lemon. There’s also some funky residual yeast hints. Citrusey hop characteristics in the flavor. Orange peel, mandarin, with more bitter, resinsy notes in the finish. There’s just enough malt to hold up the body. A traditional and simple, but decent IPA.

Goes into the glass a luxurious gold. White, quickly disappearing head. Aroma is subtle hops. First impression is huge bitterness. Eventually mellows out with some sweetness and good hop flavor. Body is good for the style. A great, probably misunderstood beer. I wish there were an "English IPA" category, because I have a feeling this would fare a lot better there. Such are the changing expectations we all deal with, though.

Bottle. Pours a golden amber with a white head on top. Aroma is quite non-existant for an IPA, mostly caramel malts coming through with hints of the traditional Sierra Nevada pine hops. The flavor of the beer on the other hand is more hoppy than the aroma. Grassy hops are coming thorough mostly with a hint of caramel. This is a pretty bitter IPA. Leaves a long lasting bitterness on the palate. I don’t like this beer much at all.

12 oz bottle thanks to drewbeerme. Golden amber in color, with a tall soapy beige head and lots of lacing. Malty hop aroma that’s rather light. Light carmel malt flavors, piney (bigfoot-ish) hops, some bitterness becoming a little cloying and a little unpleasant.