Sierra Nevada Estate Brewers Harvest Ale

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

Picked up at Stateline... Fatboy bottle, 1st edition. Dark orange color, decent head with lots of small bubbles. Good lacing left on the glass. Pine and fruit aroma but not over whelming. Fresh beer taste? Taste is a well balanced IPA. Malty and hoppy at the same time. Piney bitterness to it. Medium texture, easy to drink. Overall another winner by SN, but why is the one more expensive than their other harvest ales?

Beer pours a beautiful orange color with a totally retained, off white colored head. Aroma is very hoppy, piney with some nice bread malt aroma. Flavor is nicely citrus, hoppy bitter with some nice malt cereal flavor to keep things balanced. There is a freshness to the hops that move this up the ratings classification for me. Bring on the Celebration!

Pours bright clear amber into a shaker. Beige head with good retention leaves spider lacing as it recedes to coat surface. Orange, melon and resin aromas. Thick and sweet upfront with dark caramel turning to sharp pine and resin in the lasting, syrupy finish.

Hazy copper pour, thick ring of lace - a very smooth and balanced wet hop ale - every element tastes extraordinarily fresh, and the barley has a wonderful sweetness that mixes well with the resiny, earthy hop character - the hops have that grassy, spicy, herbal, peppery character I have come to expect from the SH wet hop ales - it’s awfully tasty, but it isn’t any better than the other SN harvest ales, which makes it not worth the price - in fact, the Southern Hemisphere is actually better that this.

Thanks to GandGKevin for this one, First release 2009. Pours clear amber in color with full foamy tan head. Aroma citrus hops, hops and piney. Taste grapefruit, citrus hops and mild malt with bitter finish.

24oz bottle. 2009 1st release. Pours a crystal clear, copper colored body with a two-finger width, foamy, white head that dissipates slowly and leaves a lot of sticky lacing. Aroma is medium sweet caramels with a moderate amount of floral fruits and hops. Strawberries, melons, and oranges with a light wood and fresh pine needles. The malts give off a slight bready character along with the caramel and the hops have just a slight earthy spice as well. The flavor has lots of spruce hops with a medium level of bitterness. Moderately sweet caramels and a touch of bread up front before all the hops come in. Flowery oranges and some melon with a somewhat dry, woody flavor towards the finish to accompany all the fresh spruce and pine needles. Dries and lingers with more and more growing hop flavor as well as a trace of caramel. Really nice aftertaste. Body is lighter, but really smooth and well balanced. Overall, a very tasty IPA. Lots of fresh spruce hops with a balanced, moderately sweet caramel body. The flavor keeps growing into the aftertaste and finishes really well. I like the lighter, smooth body and feel it really works well with this. $10 a bottle may be steep, but it was nice nonetheless.

24oz "1st release" Bottle. Pours clear mahogany with rising bubbles and 2 finger white foamy head. Nose is mostly piney hops with some earthy notes as well. Flavor is surprising much more sweet, smooth malt than the nose would suggest. Taste also has a very nice fresh pine hop taste and is clean tasting throughout. Very nice concept, and excellent brew.

Big-assed bottle. Looks good - fairly deep clear amber with a solid lasting tight fizzy-foamy off-white head. Solid, if unremarkable dry aroma - leafy/grassy, decently bitter, a touch scorched, with mild fresh grain backing, no alcohol on the nose at all. The taste followed, dry conifer resin, quite bitter, a hint of sweet burnt toffee sweetness, and an almost mealy earthy quality; very lively mouthfeel, dry, a wisp of astringency, a little alcohol warmth in the finish, with a slightly leafy/loamy aftertaste/coating ... I quite liked it.