Sierra Nevada India Pale Ale

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

(Bottled January/13/2006) My Friday the 13th brew is just what I didn’t expect. A nice interplay of malt and hops, but this brew is cut from SNBCs more balanced beers ala stout and porter. It is good to have an IPA with a malt backbone.

Bottle. Pours a cleazy orange amber color with a medium sized white head. Aroma is pine, floral. Flavor is malt, some pine and grapefruit. Palate is medium to light, bitter finish. Is this a joke, an IPA? Wow, this is a poor offering from SN. This is less hoppy than their pale.

Bottle. This India Pale Ale lacks the boldness I’m used to in other quality IPAs. Light aromas of herbs, cookie and dough, with notes of brown sugar and nutmeg. Color is clear amber with a fizzy off white head which is mostly lasting and has good lacing. Flavor is lightly acidic and fairly bitter to start and finishes lightly sweet and acidic. Palate is between oily and dry and carbonation is lively. It finishes dry. Definitely not a bad beer, just misses the point of an IPA

This one didn’t nearly live up to my excited expectations. I even came back to this after my original sampling to give it another chance. I was also disappointed to learn that though new to me, this brew has been around at the brewery for years. Pours a sparkling clear orange copper with suspended floaties. The rock solid creamy tight off white head is mostly lasting with light lace. Though fresh hints of perfume, flowers, and spice are present in the nose too much subtlety exists for the style IMO. The brew needs to be far above refrigerator temp for the flavor to be apparent. Once warmed sufficiently, the decent complexity unfolds and the one dimensional character fades. Slight sweetness turns to moderate acidity and finishes with burnt bitterness. The medium dry palate is soft and finishes astringent. Not bad, but nowhere near SN’s fine offering embodied in their Celebration Ale.

Bottle. Dark amber/copper with a moderate frothy off-white head. Islets of lacing. Aroma of floral and orangey hops atop light caramely malts. Caramel and toffee malt foundation laced with zesty citrus hops. Sprucey, though not overly resiny hop finish, with a lingering mild hoppy aftertaste. Solid, firm and well rounded malt-hop structure. Medium to full bodied with mild carbonation. A very good IPA, all the more impressive considering the mass production and distribution.

Bottel.33cl. Ok bitternes, but not to die for. Nice color, good head. It need´s more aroma of hop´s, more like the Pale Ale. this one is not the best of Sierra Nevada.

On tap at Fox & Hound. Definitely not an over the top IPA with loads of bitterness, but unique in that it is not. Good hay like aroma, very fresh flavor with a good finish. I don’t get "thin" on the palate, but compared to Celebration maybe so. Great in the English style.

Dark amber color. Smell of spice, citrus and hops, but just hints of it. Taste of spicy hops and malt with a horrible bitterness. This really doesnt taste like an IPA. The pale ale tastes better.