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!"
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