Sierra Nevada is one of my favorite breweries. It was established in 1980 by Ken Grossman and Paul Camusi, and is based in Chico, CA. It is the second best-selling craft brewery in the United States after Sam Adams. The Pale Ale is world-renowned and their best selling beer (as a side note, it is Paul Rudd's (best comedic actor currently working) favorite beer). One of the coolest facts about Sierra Nevada is that they turn all of the waste product that goes into the brewing of their beers into biofuel, which they use to fuel their delivery trucks!
Sierra Nevada releases the Anniversary Ale every year to commemorate the opening of the brewery, and each year is bit different than the last. The 2009 Anniversary Ale is an American style India Pale Ale (IPA). The difference between a regular pale ale and an IPA is that the IPA is much more heavily hopped. During Great Britain's colonization of India, the English brewer George Hodgson sought a way to comfort the homesick British Colonists. He set out to find a method to make his pale ales survive the journey around Africa. He realized that the beer would last longer if he added more hops and alcohol to the brew, and thus, a subset of beer was born.
I'll spare the history lesson and give you the goods!
Appearance: pours a gleaming bright copper color. The head is very thick and lasts quite a while.
Smell: The aroma is hop-enriched and smells distinctly of pine. The Chinook hops that SN uses in this beer gives the beer its hoppiness and pine scent, while you can detect slight citrus notes from the Cascade hops.
Taste: This beer packs a delicious punch! You're hit right away with pine. It is strong, but it is not an unpleasant kick in the mouth. The taste mellows as the malts in the beer take over, and it ends with a nice citrus finish. Once you become familiar with SN, you could tell that this is one of their products while blindfolded. Their pine/hops/citrus combo is unmistakable.
Mouthfeel: This beer is lighter on the palate than its strong hop content would suggest. It isn't a bitter beer and goes down quite smooth. The head retains throughout drinking, so you get a bit of the fizzy as well.
Drinkability: This beer is rated at 5.9% ABV and about 46 IBUs, so it's not an overwhelming beer by any means. It is a very sessionable beer, as my future brother-in-law and I were able to down the whole six pack before heading off to Halloween Horror Nights* a few weeks ago, and we grabbed another sixer for the Blink 182 concert and promptly tossed those back, as well. Those were two nights that I don't remember very vividly...
Rating: This is a fantastic beer. It's one of the most well balanced beers that I've experienced, while also retaining its complexity. The pine aroma and taste is a bit imposing at first, but it lends to a very flavorful brew when you get accustomed to it. This is a beer that I would love to have permanently stocked in my fridge, but it will soon be off the shelves and I'll have to wait until next September for the 2010 Anniversary offering.
Score: 93/100
*Halloween Horror Nights this year was some lame shit. I would be generous in saying that the Wolfman and the Saw houses were the only good ones this year. A sewer system haunted house with mutant frogs? Really, Universal!? At least the Bill and Ted Show is still "Excellent!"
In Yasinskas’s latest Tampa Bay mailbag post, Pat shits a little bit more on Josh Johnson and further provides me with more ammo against his credibility as a contributor to “the worldwide leader in sports.”
JRozz in Tampa writes: "Josh Johnson is the real deal if you look at the game and how many drops Clayton and Bryant had he would of had an even better one he stayed in the pocket as long as he could to find open guys and scrambled when he needed to.”
To which Patty replies, Hey, I also like some of the things I’ve seen out of Josh Johnson. But, seriously, what have you truly seen out of him to make you think he’s the starter for this team for the next decade? I think he’s shown he can be a very nice backup quarterback and he may even develop into a quality starter down the road – somewhere else. How can you judge Josh Freeman before he’s ever taken a snap?”
Now I’m not going to go ahead and say that JJ is our franchise, because it’s too early to even consider it. The problem I have with Yasinskas is that he’s gone and out made the call on him already, while saying that we can’t judge Freeman. Hypocritical much, Pat? When you wrote this, Josh Johnson had only two starts in his career and one of them was against the heavy blitz of the Philadelphia Eagles. Yeah, he threw a couple interceptions, but it was his second career start and he also made some really nice plays. He was able to develop a really nice connection with Kellen Winslow, and that should prove to be a very valuable relationship, because a reliable tight end is the QB's best friend, outside of a strong running game.
This week wasn’t as impressive, though. I think he was worried about his interceptions last week and held on to the ball for too long, which ironically caused a few potential turnovers and an actual one as well. He still showed some poise in the pocket, extending the play and waiting until the last second to take off and run. Even if my quarterback can run a 4.40 second forty yard dash, I want him to throw the ball before he runs.
I think Josh Johnson’s got the football smarts to go along with all of that athletic ability and make a difference on this team, but he’ll never reach that point if we don’t give him the chance to. Unfortunately, I think next week in jolly old England against the Patriots will be his last start. We come home from England to our bye week, and that seems like a logical time to put in “the future” while the team will likely be 0-7. Josh Freeman is our 1st round quarterback, but he shouldn’t be given the job by default; it should be an open competition, because we need to find some stability at the most important position on the team if we want to sustain success. I don’t care if it’s the 1st rounder or the 5th, as long as they get the job done.
Pat Yasinskas has already offered his opinion on the Bucs’ QB Josh Johnson’s NFL future, after only two games. Yasinskas, with his years of pro scouting and talent evaluation under his belt, has entered negotiations with the Glazer family to be named the new “Executive Consultant” of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, all because he’s been bold enough to say this…
”I’ve liked what I’ve seen out of Tampa Bay quarterback Josh Johnson in his first two NFL starts.
He’s shown a live arm, some running ability and some intangibles. He’s also shown signs of being a late-round draft pick who is still very early in his career development. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say the Bucs have found their backup quarterback of the future.
Yes, backup.
There have been no miracles since Johnson took over. The Bucs are still a bad team. They have no running game, receivers drop passes and the defense isn’t very good. Johnson’s been far from Tampa Bay’s biggest problem, but he’s not going to stay in the lineup much longer.
It’s just logical. The Bucs are 0-5 and there really haven’t been any signs of progress. Raheem Morris has some time because the Bucs don’t want to fire a coach they just hired. But 0-16 or 1-15 without any signs of hope is enough to get any coach fired.
Morris had a plan when he took this job and it’s got to start showing through just a little bit. The Bucs are a very young team and they’re going to get younger before too long. Morris started his regime by drafting quarterback Josh Freeman.
The Bucs want to bring the rookie along slowly, but that’s going to change. Johnson will keep starting for now, but the Bucs play New England in London on Oct. 25. They’ve got a bye week after that before hosting Green Bay on Nov. 8.
That seems like a logical time to start the Freeman era.”
Obviously, this dork is writing a blog for ESPN instead of being in a front office for a reason… but he’s made some valid points. I just don’t agree with him.
Josh Johnson has played admirably. He didn’t look anything like a 23 year-old starting in only his second game. He’s faced two of the heaviest blitzing teams in the league in his first two starts, and he’s shown the kind of poise and comfort in the pocket that a veteran would. He doesn’t play like Michael Vick (let’s not get into that big mess...), he looks for the pass first, and then the run. He’s a QB, not just an athlete playing the QB position.
The first thing that stands out to me is JJ’s accuracy. When he sets his feet and steps into the pass, he puts the ball right between the numbers. It’s pretty normal for him to want to throw off of his back foot because of the defensive pressure, but with more game-time experience he will get more comfortable with throwing into the pass - and usually - a defenders facemask.
Speaking of accuracy, the last I checked in today’s game, our receivers had 6 dropped passes. SIX DROPPED PASSES. Holy Santa Claus shit, that’s unacceptable. That’s almost taking away a touchdown per game, because many of those passes were for first downs. I can’t believe how bad our receivers were today. The only two guys who actually showed up were Kellen Winslow Jr. and the rookie Sammie Stroughter.
Michael Clayton: you flat out suck. You suck on such a massive scale that I can’t comprehend how you still have a job, let alone a $25M contract. Looking back, I would slap Mark Dominik (General Manager) right upside the head when he offered you that deal. Your job is to catch the ball, but it seems to always find the ground whenever it’s thrown your way. Your rookie season was fantastic, but you got a huge head after and you got really fat. You’re just another example of a great talent gone to waste by being lazy as shit. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and put part of the blame on Jon Gruden for coaching the talent out of you (which he was pretty famous for doing), but no, you suck regardless of who’s coaching.
One thing that I’ve noticed being readily apparent is that the Bucs are really struggling without who I believe is the MVP of our team: Jeff Faine. That’s right; a center is our most valuable player. I’ve been watching football for quite some time, and I don’t think I have seen one player (outside of a QB) mean as much to a unit or team as Jeff Faine has. In our first game against the Cowboys, we had over 400 yards of total offense; 176 yards rushing between Cadillac and Derrick Ward. Since that game (he was injured in the second half), we haven’t broken 100 yards on the ground and our total offensive rankings have dropped to #26 in total yards.
Dubbed “the strongest IPA in the world,” the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA is an intimidating and complex brew. The “120 Minute” refers to the length of time in which the wort (leads to the fermenting of the yeast/sugar) is boiled during brewing. The hops are added continuously for 2 hours, leading to an extremely high International Bitter Unit (IBU) of 120. By comparison, a Bud/Miller/Coors Lite/Light is rated at only about 5-10 IBU. So this is one heavy son of a bitch. Did I mention that it has an ABV percentage of 18-21% (depending on the year it was brewed)? This is basically a cognac disguised in a 12 oz. beer bottle. And at $8.50 per bottle, it’s almost as expensive too.
The beer pours a dark amber orange with a good amount of head, especially considering the alcohol level. There’s a steady stream of bubbles, but the head dissipates pretty quickly and a thin foam layer is left at the top.
The smell of this beer gives an ominous foreboding of the potency within. It kicks you right in the nose, and your eyes will water if you take in too much. You can definitely tell that this beer is full of alcohol. If you spend a bit more time taking in the aroma, you can catch the generous amount of hops present (it’s amazing that you can barely smell the hops in a beer as strong as this; the alcohol is almost overpowering). Citrus notes are also present.
The taste is, to put it mildly, mind-blowing. At first your mouth is bombarded by the sweetness and the alcohol. If you let it warm in your mouth a bit, you notice the citrus and the generous amount of hops. This beer is so strong that it tastes more like liquor.
Mouthfeel: A beer that is this hopped-up would generally coat your mouth with the oils left from the hops. With this much alcohol, though, it masks the oils very well. However, this beer is thick. It is definitely the thickest beer I have ever drunk; it was a task to just swallow it.
Drinkability: This is NOT a sessionable beer. I repeat – You can not drink more than one bottle of this beer. I was drunk off my ass after a little more than half the 12 oz. bottle. Maybe I’m a lightweight (I’m a pretty big dude, maybe I’m just a wimp!) but this beer knocked me right off my ass. I started dancing around the kitchen and I’m now hungry as hell. So anyone looking for a light drink, steer clear of this one.
Overall, the Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA was one of the “Holy Grails” of my beer quest. I hold Sam Calagione (founder) and his company to a high standard, and they rarely leave me disappointed. Their beers are so complex, yet so drinkable, that I can’t get enough. I wouldn’t make the 120 a regular choice of mine (I can’t, because they’re only released about four times a year) and I can’t say it’s my favorite beer, but it was a fantastic experience and I appreciated all of the work that was put in to this tiny 12oz. bottle.
Now that the Tampa Bay Buccaneers are 0-4, the “casual fans” are out in force, declaring anything and everything related to the Buccaneer franchise a farce and incompetent (actually, they say that the owners are cheap bastards, the coach is a dumbass, and the players are a bunch of *******).
Then, just when I thought TampaBay sports fans couldn’t possibly get any dumber, they drop real gems like this.
We had stability at the 2 most important positions within a NFL franchise. We were competitive year in and year out, despite a lack of the financial flexibility to be players in Free Agency. Allen brought us back from the depths of financial hell, and Gruden was able to keep us competitive despite a lack of talent.
I put the over/under on the Morris/Dominik tenure at 3 years. And then we will be in a perpetual hunt for a new head coach and GM every couple of years for decades...
Trust me I hope I'm wrong, but the writing is on the wall, and I'm just telling y'all to prepare yourselves...
I'll bump this thread every offseason for the rest of the Morris/Dominik era...”
Honestly… what the hell? Do we, as fans, have such a short memory that we can’t forget what happened to this football team last December? We were 9-3, poised to make a push for home field advantage throughout the playoffs.
How did the season end? Monte Kiffin announces that it will be his final year so he can join his son at the University of Tennessee. The defense, still apparently shocked by the news, gives up 299 yards on the ground against the Panthers and are embarrassed on Monday Night Football. We go on to lose the next 3 games in dramatic fashion, going against everything that is sacred in Buccaneer land by playing piss-poor defense. We were beat down AT HOME against the OAKLAND RAIDERS.
The. Oakland. Raiders. The epitome of dysfunctional football franchises since we handed them one of the most lopsided Super Bowl defeats in history came into our house with our playoff hopes on the line, and they make us look like complete frauds, in regards to the first 3 months of the season.
That’s when we knew that Chucky had to go. It wasn’t the 5-11 2004 season, or the 4-12 2006 campaign. It was the 9-7 meltdown that led to his January 16th firing and new coach Raheem Morris’s rapid ascent to being the youngest head coach in NFL history.
Now that the Bucs have gone the first month of the season winless, people are calling for the return of Gruden, or at least damning the Glazers for making the decision to go in another direction. They are saying that Raheem isn’t qualified for the position and that he should be fired at the end of the season in favor of the likes of retread coaches such as Mike Shanahan, Mike Holmgren, Marty Schottenheimer, and Bill “The Chin” Cowher.
This is where I have trouble agreeing with those people. I won’t jump into whether or not Raheem is the right guy for us, because it’s too early to have a clue and I’ll give him the season to show improvement. He’s 33 years old and wasn’t exactly given much help in the offseason. I’m not necessarily happy with what is going on, but I expected as much because of the problems we’ve had the past several years.
I do have a real issue, however, with those people who wish that Jon Gruden was still the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It’s common for veterans of the TB Bucs Message Board to call such posters “Grudenistas” or other lighthearted slurs, because after last season, it’s hard to believe that people are so willing to accept mediocrity. Jon Gruden had 7 years to rebuild this team. He had more years than most coaches are allowed to return to the playoffs and actually win a game. He was allowed to run Rich McKay out of town and bring in his personal GM-puppet, Bruce Allen. He was given anything necessary to succeed, and he failed in fantastic manner.
He was known as an offensive guru, but the Bucs never finished in the top 10 of offensive production while under his direction. He was supposed to work well with quarterbacks, but the only QBs to ever really play well under him were all over 35 years old (Brian Griese’s stint doesn’t really qualify as successful, that guy’s a bum too). He was notorious for killing his young player’s confidence and coaching players down and severely misusing their talents, such as Michael Clayton and Carnell Williams.
Speaking of quarterbacks – Jon had 7 years to draft just one damn quarterback who was worth our time. Instead, he fell in love with one player and made sure that was the pick, no matter what. He hated working with young quarterbacks, so we always signed over the hill vets who never had a future in Tampa. This is possibly the biggest mistake that Gruden ever made – leaving Tampa with no future at the most important position in the game.
How could we expect our current team to not suck when he didn’t leave us with any real young talent? His drafts were always riddled with bad mistakes. One thing that always really bothered me was that Jon would always try for the big homerun in the later rounds, while being ultra-conservative in the 1st round year after year. That led to two things.
1. No elite players.
2. No depth to speak of
Jon and Bruce always tried to grab a late round quarterback and hope that they would “get it.” They tried for high impact picks when you should look for quality backups, and never really rolled the dice when they had the chance in the early rounds. FOUR offensive linemen in the first 3 rounds since 2006? Are you shitting me, Jon!?? No wonder our offense never scored, we were too busy spending all of our valuable high picks on blockers! Good scouting teams find their starting offensive line in the 3rd-6th rounds, but we spent 1st and 2nd round picks on these guys. Now, I love the linemen that we have, but think of all of the pro-bowl talent we passed on to draft OL.
Then, they turn our top 5 picks into massive busts. I absolutely love Carnell Williams; I don’t think there is a single player out there with the kind of heart that he has to come back from back-to-back severe knee injuries. But, with that being said, Cadillac shouldn’t have been a top five selection. He hasn’t had nearly the kind of impact that that pick warrants. That’s supposed to be a perennial pro-bowl type of player, and Jon fell in love and Carnell was all that he saw. Then, you have Gaines Adams – another guy that I personally like (met him at Westshore – super nice guy, he talked to me for a good 5 minutes) but it’s obvious that Gaines is never going to be the dominant pass-rusher that we thought he would be. We could have traded our 2nd round pick along with that #4 for Calvin Johnson (who is going to be the best WR in the league, possibly even this year) or we could have taken the best player in the league – Adrian Peterson. Sure, we had Caddy… but when you have the opportunity to take a player who could be the best in the league, you don’t pass.
There are several more reasons why Jon was rightfully shitcanned, but I’m already far past the word requirement and my fingers have gone numb. I’m sure I’ll return to this topic, because the Tampa Bay Buccaneers Bulletin Board (TBBBB) is full of frickin’ morons who never shut up about Jon Gruden!
