Sierra Nevada Summerfest

Brewed by Sierra Nevada Brewing Company
Style: Premium Lager
Chico, California USA

~Pours a slightly cloudy gold color with big fluffy white head. ~Sour malty scent with a good amount of dusty hops. ~Sweet malt flavor quickly dominated by citrus hops. Kept light, pleasant and crisp. Berry like, rasberry. ~Light and crispr feel. Good hop finish. ~Taste more like a light pale ale. Very good. great summer brew. Light and refreshing.

Bottle: Came in a Sample Pack from Bev and More. Light I can see how this would be a summer beer; light easy to drink and thirst quenching. Food Paring: pizza and pub grub.

Poured a golden yellow with a slight head that disappeared quickly. Refreshing with a slightly citrus taste, but overall too watery and simple to make it an everyday summer beer.

Bottle, 2009 offering. Pours a clear gold with a medium white head. Esters and hot grain on the nose. Medium bodied, slight sweetness and touches of citrus. Finishes very grainy, and a touch metallic. Passable outdoors sort of thing, but nothing fantastic.

Situation: Celebrating the halfway point of summer school... Glassware: Ayinger willibecker... Appearance: golden yellow body; steady, busy effervescence beneath bright, white, foamy head; looks to be a lager/pilsener tweener... Aroma: nice balance of hops and malts--with a floral overlap that pleases; malts are sharp, hops are lowery... Palate: light-to medium-bodied; slightly available early with a buzz at the throat; only twinges are detected at the tongue... Taste: pleasantly restrained in its maltiness--a toned-down pilsener indeed, but definite dimensions to its profile... Overall: a six-pack session beer for the summer, as advertised... not as big (Bigfoot), professional (pale ale) or awesome (Wet Hop) as their more memorable offerings, but smooth and agreeable...

Aroma has some orange and wheat grain. Appearance is golden, well carbonated with a foamy head. Flavor has a healthy dosing of Saaz which gives it an orange\lime taste. Palate is lively and creamy as dissipation occurs. A well done lager, but that is akin to winning the award for "best Brussel Sprouts."

12 oz. bottle. Pours a crystal clear gold with a moderate white head that lasted through the first quarter of the glass and left no lace. The aroma is initially fairly skunky. I took a look at the label to make sure this was a fresh bottle and not something that had been sitting around for a while. The label says this is the 2009 edition, so it couldn’t have been sitting for that long. Thankfully, the skunk fades to a more tolerable level revealing some lager yeast aroma and a bit of earthy breadiness. The flavor is thankfully absent the skunk and is lager yeast and some earthy, bready malt. Medium-strong bitterness at the finish, more bitter than one would expect in a lager. Not real crazy about this one. I’ll take a Yuengling, thank you.

I though this was a little blah until I realized it was a lager, then I said "Fuck Yeah." This is up there with Brooklyn Lager (though not as good) and drinks pretty damn good. An easy swallow with decent hop representation and chewy enough backbone to keep you on par. Bottle at Abraxas, Miami Beach.