Sierra Nevada Hoptimum

I want to say this is the third year of Hoptimum, but maybe it's the second, I'm not real sure. I do know it's the first year of it being in 12oz bottles instead of 22oz and as always I applaud the small bottle decision. Smaller bottles are just so much easier to drink by yourself especially when the beer is a 10% Double IPA.

Lemony citrus nose, nice smelling. A bit sharp up front then a mix of citrus, bitter, and a touch of burning alcohol. Those flavors all stick around through each sip. The finish had a light burning sweetness and some lingering alcohol. As I drank more, the 10% edge came and went but so did some orange citrus. At this point, I think my bottles may be almost 3 months old so maybe fresher the alcohol is a bit more hidden. Still, I liked it well enough to drink three bottles in a week so even slightly old I still thought it was good.

Sierra Nevada Torpedo

Torpedo is an IPA made by Sierra Nevada out in Chico, California.

Very clean grapefruit nose without any bitterness. First sip had a lot of grapefruit flavor, followed by some bitterness, and finished with just a little bit of malty sweetness. Flavors continued that way throughout the glass with the bitterness never becoming overwhelming or being too dry. If I remember back to the first bottle I opened, I think the sweetness is a little more prevalent now that the hops have faded a little but not too noticeable. Quite an enjoyable IPA and quite good during the summer.

Dark Horse at Hawthorne's Plus some Time

Wednesday of Philly Beer Week was pretty busy for me. I needed to fit in a visit to Hawthorne's cafe to drink a bunch of rare Dark Horse beers and then meet my wife for dinner. All without getting wasted since, well, it was Wednesday and I'm not an alcoholic. Tough, I know, but I figured I could manage it.

I arrived at Hawthorne's around 4:30 and it was still basically empty which was nice. I figured it would fill up at some point but all I needed was one seat so success! It was really difficult deciding what beer to order first, but I decided on the one sour on the list, Lambeak Wants Raspberry.

Beers at Monks

The final event of the weekend for me was being held at Monk's. Now, I don't know if I've talked about Monk's before, but even on normal days Monk's gets ridiculously crowded. Add in rare Lost Abbey beers and the owner Tomme Arthur and I figured the crowd would be monstrous. I was totally right although some would say it was worse than monstrous. For some background, Lost Abbey is a brewery near San Diego that makes interesting but expensive beer. The unfortunate thing is their bottles sometimes have quality control issues but at least the stuff on draft is always good.

I got to Monk's around 3:45 while the event was supposed to start around 4:30. Since I had some time to kill, I got a glass of Flying Fish Exit 9, an imperial red ale.

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot

Sierra Nevada Bigfoot is an American Barleywine and makes no qualms about it.

Super hoppy aroma with pine, some sweetness in the back, and a tiny bit of caramel.  Mouthfeel is nice, a little syrupy.  Initial flavor is big citrus hops which are followed by a little caramel.  A little bitterness follows as expected but it's not dry.  The rest of the glass is dominated by the hops but the sweetness holds them up and keeps it from being overwhelming.  While it's comparable to a Double IPA, it's much sweeter than most.  I didn't find any fruit notes like I do in English Barleywines either hence the "American" moniker.  Tasty beer for me even with the bitterness.

Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary

Monday was Sierra Nevada's 30th Anniversary celebration.  Thirty years of brewing is pretty impressive in this day and age and they seem to still be going strong.  In Philadelphia, the last of the four 30th Anniversary Ales was released and it's called Our Brewer's Reserve: Oak Aged Ale.  It is a mix of Oak-Aged Bigfoot (their barleywine), Celebration Ale, and fresh Pale Ale blended together and then dry hopped.

Nice thick head on it at almost an inch.  It smelled really hoppy with some alcohol hiding behind it.  Where the Jack & Ken's Barleywine smelled like alcohol with some mild hops this smells like hops with some alcohol.  First sip was very hoppy with some sweetness underneath.  As I drank more, the hops receded a bit and some caramel and sugars came up.  Bitter aftertaste that lingers for a while.  This blend was quite good but a little hoppy for me.  Of the three 30th Anniversary ales I've tried, I enjoyed the Jack & Ken's the most (the black barleywine) followed by Fritz & Ken's Ale (an Imperial Stout) and then this one.  Don't get me wrong, I'd drink any of them if they were put in front of me, but if all three were available that's how I'd order them.

I'm mostly done with a post about the Craft Beer Express from this Saturday, but it's taking me a little longer to write that one.  Look for it tomorrow probably.

Another Sunday, Another trip to Capone's

Jo and I can't stop going to Capone's on Sundays.  Delicious, twenty five cent wings along with a great draft list keep dragging us back.  Their wings are great and at 25 cents they are an absolute steal.  We also got a Chicken Parm sandwich which was also delicious.  As usual their tap list was quite diverse although once again the list that I got in the email on Wednesday had things that had already kicked.  Kind of to be expected considering the quality of beer in the email but one of these days I'll get one.

I started with the Rodenbach Vintage 2007, a Flanders Red Ale.  I posted a while back about Rodenbach Vintage 2008.

Reading my old post, this seemed pretty similar to the 2008. Very sour smell, pretty close to a sweet vinegar.  As I've said before, it sounds bizarre but it's absolutely delicious.  This tastes of fruit (I get sour cherry but I'm sure it varies between people), some balsamic, and just general tartness.  Drinking more I got some apple flavor as well.  Really great beer and I was excited to get to try another vintage of it.  I love the Flemish Red style right now.

After that, I changed gears a little and got a glass of Allagash Odyssey, a Dark Wheat beer that's been aged half in stainless steel tanks and half in oak barrels and then blended together.

Let me first say that this beer just blew me away.  I thought it was fantastic.  The smell was interesting in that it was sort of floral and perfumy.  I got hints of wheat, some roasted notes from the dark malts, caramel, and bananas.  It had a nice body to it and was super smooth.  For what started as a Dunkel Weizen this ended up super complex and incredibly tasty.  As it warmed up, I also got some toffee and slight oak notes.  Just so good.

Finally, since I've heard a decent bit about it, I got a glass of Sierra Nevada's Celebration, an IPA.

I didn't actually realize it was an IPA when I ordered it, but it was pretty obvious when it came out.  Smelled very hoppy with some grapefruit.  It tasted a little sweet but was overall quite hoppy.  Surprisingly clean finish though.  It's quite popular on Beer Advocate and while it was good I'm not sure why.  IPAs aren't my thing though so maybe it's good for an IPA.  It was good and all but I just didn't find anything special about it.  Still, something to order if you want something relaxing and easy to drink.

Yet again a great visit to Capone's.  I love this place.  The bottle shop is so dangerous though and Jo encouraging me doesn't help.  I came out of it this time with three bottles.

I picked up Dark Horse Plead the 5th 2009, Stone's Russian Imperial Stout, and Avery Mephistopheles.  I can't wait to try them.

Random Sierra Nevada and Sly Fox Weekend

Jo and I planned to head to the Sly Fox brewpub in Royersford on Saturday so I figured I'd start the weekend off with a bottle of Sly Fox Black Raspberry Reserve Friday night in order to have a Sly Fox themed weekend.  However, we stopped in at Brigids and they just put on Sierra Nevada Fritz + Ken's Ale and I had to try it, ruining my theme.  The things I do for beer.

Sierra Nevada Fritz + Ken's Ale is the first of their 30th Anniversary beers.  It's an Imperial Stout (although Sierra Nevada calls it a Pioneer's stout, but that's not really a style so yeah.)

It's called Fritz + Ken's because of the people who brewed it.  Each of the first three 30th Anniversary beers were brewed with a guest brewer from some famous brewery.  This one was brewed with Fritz Maytag, the owner (or founder, not sure if he still owns it) of Anchor Steam brewing.  Ken is Ken Grossman, the owner (founder?) of Sierra Nevada.

I smelled some roasted notes plus a little bit of alcohol on the nose.  Basically reminds me of a Russian Imperial Stout which is probably a good thing since it basically is one.  Some roasted malts, a little sweetness, and a bunch of bitterness in the end.  Decently thick mouth feel.  As I drank more of it, the bitterness faded and each sip started with a burst of sweetness almost tasting like a milk shake.  This 30th Anniversary was quite good.  I still think I like the Jack + Ken's Ale a bit better but this was impressive.  I can't wait to try the last one though.  It sounds awesome.

After that, we came home with our food and I opened the Sly Fox Black Raspberry Reserve to start my theme.

First notice the color and head.  It's a dark ruby with a thick amount of violet head.  Decent carbonation.  As expected, it had a huge raspberry smell.  Very inviting.  Tasted sweet with some fruit flavors mixed into it.  The beer itself was pretty mild but the raspberries bring it from okay to quite good.  Very clean finish on it, no hint of any bitterness.  Jo took quite a few sips of this one and also enjoyed it.  If you're looking for something to drink while relaxing, this is a good choice.

Next up will be a write up on the Sly Fox Royersford brewpub and some other Sly Fox beers.  I'm excited for it.

Sierra Nevada Autumn Tumbler

Finally got to try Sierra Nevada Autumn Tumbler brown ale last night.

Smelled malty and a little bready.  Good, strong smell for a brown ale.  First sip had a nice roasted flavor to it with a little sweetness.  Hop bitterness follows and sticks around for a bit.  As I had more the hops came to the forefront although to be clear it's nothing like an IPA or anything.  I enjoyed this but Jo found it to be a little bitter for her.  She likes them to be malt forward with a few roasted notes and no bitterness and this was too consistently bitter for a whole pint to be enjoyable.

Tumbler was their early fall seasonal (late Summer?) so it's probably not easily available anymore.  There may be a couple cases at places but it probably won't be easily available until next year.

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp

London Grill had an event tonight where they showcased two of Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp beers plus an anniversary ale (Jack and Ken's), the pale ale, and the Tumbler autumn brown ale.

I talked to the Sierra Nevada rep about Beer Camp and it was pretty damn cool.  They invite bar owners and some other popular beer figures from around the US to their brewery and let them decide on a style of beer to brew.  I can't find how many have been done but since it started early 2009 and seems to occur every 2 months, my bet is there have been around 8.  Who knows though.  The point being that tonight at London Grill they were doing a Beer Camp vs. Beer Camp event.  For Philly beer week, Sierra Nevada invited Philadelphia area bar owners to Beer Camp and they came out of the event with ExPorter.  Apparently, the owner of London Grill really wanted to put almonds into the beer, but got out voted by everyone else in the camp.  Of course, the next camp group decided to put almonds into their beer and ended up with Almond Marzen Project.  The result of all of this is that Sierra Nevada felt bad and sent London Grill a keg of the Almond Marzen Project and as a result we have tonight's event.  It's actually pretty impressive of Sierra Nevada because they had to go through the whole pain of registering the beer for one single night and paying whatever costs that involves.  Stupid PA beer laws.

Friday Night Beers

Had two great beers last night.

The first beer was Sierra Nevada's Summerfest.

This beer was surprisingly excellent.  I had always read about how excited people were that Summerfest was available but never really knew why since it seemed like such a generic summer.  However, with all the hype I figured I should try it out just to see what all the fuss was about.  The beer poured a nice looking orange with beautiful head and smelled mildly of oranges.  Taste wise, it started very clean with some mild sweetness and finished with a smooth flavor of orange and citrus.  There was basically no hoppiness to this beer and it would make a great session beer on a hot day.  The Summerfest totally lived up to the hype as well which was really satisfying.  When this comes out next summer I'm definitely going to be on the lookout for it because both Jo and I really liked it and on a hot summer day it will be great to kick back with a glass of this.

The second beer I had last night was Voodoo's White Magick of the Sun.

Where the Sierra Nevada was smooth and unassuming, this beer is totally in your face.  The base of it is a wheat ale but because of all the spices they threw into it the style isn't terribly recognizable.  However, for one beer in the night, it was a very good attempt at something different.  I thought the spices blended pretty well and made for a nice experience.  I definitely don't think I'd order a whole pint, but I enjoyed 12oz of it.