Sierra Nevada Estate Brewers Harvest Ale

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

Excellent, very refreshing ipa. probably the best offering i have had from sierra nevada to date. pours very nice, nice copper color, excellent dense creamy head with great lacing and retention. a modest swirl generates a 1 finger head at any point. smell is of hops and california air. taste is delectable, light and refined. an excellent ale, paired with the fact that it is sustainable and estate made, makes this one of my new favorite ipa’s.

Light orange copper color with a tallish manila folder colored head. Heavy sheet of lace. Big pine and citric aromas. Ever so slight hint of dark caramel. Earthy malt and hops in the flavors. Actually quite sweet, but enough bitterness to balance. Some phenols in the middle. Biting pine and grapefruit in the linger. Strong bitter, hoppy flavors. I appreciate the effort, but I’m not to keen on the expenditure.

KING OF BEERS!!!! I was a little shocked to hear that a 24 oz of this stuff was going for $9.99 @ BEVMO... but I had to take a test drive! I’ve been waiting a while to taste this one. Wow! It pours a rich coppery color with a perfect head. Hop flavor... Yep it’s there and a whole lot more! Flavor hits well with a balace of the different malts! Well done Sierra Nevada! I think I have my favorite brew... as long as I save money for the weekend or if I don’t have any Pliny the Elder stocked in my freg

Snifter at Brouwer’s Hopfest ’09. Pours a murky copper with a mid-sized dense head. Lots of hops, but this one is incredibly well-balanced. Resiny hops on the nose, balanced but not overshadowed by caramel malts. Big mouthfeel, maybe just a tad stale. Really nice, though.

Bottle at Chris’ grill party. Pours a clear light amber with a small head. Tiny chunks. Light sweetness. With a moderate bitterness. Citric hoppy aromas with hints of resin. Has a light alcohol touch. Medium bodied with a slightly oily texture. Medium carbonation. Bitter and dry finish.

24oz bottle, 2008 vintage. Poured hazy reddish-orange with a creamy, sticky cap of off-white head. The aroma picked up biscuit, caramel, and grapefruit meat sweetness with earth and resiny pine hoppage surrounding.. definitely lost some of its hop profile with age. The flavor had caramel and biscuit sweetness (more of the biscuits) at the core.. earth, grapefruit, and pine bitterness around, and it increased as the brew warmed up.. sticky-sweet malts, resiny bitterness, and mild oxidation on the finish. Medium-bodied and well-carbonated on the palate.. OK flow, but the emerging cardboardey oxidation tackied it up a bit on the back.

Bottle from Craft. Pours turbid coppery with off-white head and spare lace. Nose is piney hops, caramel malt, citrus, peach. Solid aroma. Tastes hoppy, resiny, with some peppery spicy and a solid malt bill. Give me more of these any day of the week.

Bottle thanks to ericandersnavy. Pours a beautiful amber color with a white head, huge oily big bubbles, and laces the glass superbly. Already I want to love this beer. Nose doesn’t live up to how good it looks. Predominantly just hops here. Grapefruit and citrus. The taste follows the nose, way too bitter with no sweetness to back it all up. This one is unbalanced. Given how much I usually like the SN hop profile I wanted to love it, but just didn’t. Mouthfeel was even lacking on this one because of the lingering bitterness, but the carbonation and weight were perfect.