Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest

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

Hazy copper body with a frothy small bubbled tan head. Loads of citrus up front with sweet malt in the background. Smooth malty body with bitterness building till the end. A little rawness from the fresh hops but not too much. One of the best Fresh Hop beers I’ve had.

Bottle. Poured a clear reddish-amber hue with a fluffy off-white head that retained nicely and left decent lacing. Spicy, floral hop aroma with some soft fruitiness including soft apricot and a light pineapple. Spicy, floral hop entry with some undertones of soft tropical fruit transition into a leafy, earthy hop hit with a hint of pine and moderate bitterness. Pretty nice fresh hop brew.

Glassy copper appearance and a stick yellow tinted foam. Biscuits with wildflower honey in the nose, rested in grass and mineral bitterness. There’s a distant twinkle of tropical fruit rinds that really highlights the softness of the hops. Nice and leafy, good and green, reminiscent of artichoke and avocado in place of the vegetal crunch a fresh hop can effect. Shimmering clean and fresh and relaxed.

Flavor still glowing green. Pineapple rinds, tarragon leaves, feathery white tea leaves, and avocado. Needly and fresh and bitterly mineral. The blatant pine and earth-forward bitterness sometimes seems too plain, even with all those shades of flavor it offers, because they’re all of the same stripe. There isn’t much tang or brightness of citrus or any vitalizing tropical flavors, and when they’re there, that blanket of green stays good and heavy. And even though it seems to bank itself firmly on that one dimension, the greenish bitterness is so fresh that almost seems sweet. Pretty nice! The balance of a healthier amount of pale malt to thicken the dough of the beer would be perfect.

Medium palate, moderate to high carbonation, smooth. Finish of wildflower honey and its sticky herbal sweetness, at great length. A somewhat enigmatic experience with a depth of textured flavors that at the same time seem somewhat distantly brittle, as it’s consistently obvious that a little more malt could just do wonders for it. Likeable, though.

clear copper to amber color, nice off white head with some very sticky lacing The malt character isn’t too powerful with just a light refreshing sweetness at first that lingers into the bold but tingling and satisfying hop finish. Slightly bitter, and very floral. Delicious

Bottle. Pours a very hazy amber, hints of orange, with a big, dense, rocky white head. Aroma is all hops initially - green, wet, resiney hops hit you hard as soon as the cap is popped, moving to a slightly more restrained, sweet citrus aroma with a hint of biscuity, bready malt poking through as well. Taste is sweet and caramelly initially, with the quick-to-emerge clean citrus note giving way to a slightly more resiney, piney bitterness that coats and lingers on the palate. Superb balance. Great mouthfeel, full bodied and creamy carbonation that doesn’t get in the way of the flavor. Really nice beer.

Short foam over a light amber beer. A complex aroma of hops. They have managed to make a summer beer with a nice maltiness and a real bitterness but still something one could drink larger amounts of.

24 oz bottle. Dark golden/amber body with a fine off-white head. Aroma is sweet malt, dominated by citrus/grapefruit hops. Flavor is clean malty with lots of floral/citrus hops. Quite bitter but extremely balanced. Long, crispy, bitter finish.

On tap at the Saucer in Kansas City (Pawola, you are a good man, thanks). Dry pale malt and thick hoppy flowers in the aroma. Medium starch white cream head, straight copper color, lacing all over the place, which i like. Red fruit malt start, continues on with a grassy-pine hop, standard caramel malts pop in there, then a sticky bitter finish and linger, rather full bodied from what I would expect. Great stuff on a great trip!