Celebration

One of my favorite beers, year after year, is the Sierra Nevada Celebration. Unlike Abita's Christmas Ale, the recipe for Celebration doesn't actively change from year to year - Sierra Nevada finds what it likes and sticks to it. Minute changes do occur, I'm sure, and as such, I had high hopes for the 2011 version, after my West Coast partner reviewed the 2010 incarnation and found it a little lacking.

My camera doesn't really like the color red, which is a problem

in photographing a beer that's this copper-colored.

I poured this one into a tall pilsner glass. It poured a really nice ruddy copper color, with the thick head that Sierra Nevada always seems to get right. Because I can't always remember from year to year what this is supposed to smell like, it ends up being new for me each year, and I really liked what I could pick up. A lot of grapefruit and pine resin hops on the nose, for sure.

I've already remarked on the scenic quality of Sierra Nevada's labels.

Nonetheless, it bears repeating. Their graphic designer is awesome.

I've been harping on balance for a while now, as it's one of my complaints about American beer that it tends to be really hop-heavy. Sierra Nevada has been leading the movement (I've just sampled their Estate Ale and hope to write it up soon) with huge quantitities of very intense hops. Their Pale Ale, for instance, is a bitter standard in my mind. However, Sierra Nevada takes time to select the right hops, so while things are definitely bitter, everything just works. I think what I like about Celebration is that it's still got a good malty backbone that balances out some of the hops while the bitterness cuts through the rich food of the winter season and provides a spicy counterpoint to what is otherwise a very heavy couple of months.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. True to the aroma, I got a lot of grapefruit flavor, with some honey and toffee from the malt. It reminds me of wintertime citrus instead of the picturesque snow-covered cabin on its label. I really liked the mouthfeel as well - I didn't find it terribly thin, but I can see what West Coast was thinking when he called the finish "harsh." I disagree - I found it bracing and refreshing, but I could imagine that the astringency might be off-putting as well.

This was lovely, and very easily drinkable.

A bit too easily drinkable...

And one more thing: I'm really glad to find a winter ale that isn't heavily tarted up with "winter flavors." I'll have far too many examples of that particular travesty in the coming weeks. This one is one to celebrate.

Fall, Part 5 - Weather is Weird

So this past month, we've had 30 degrees and snow and we've had sunny high 60s, so I thought I'd channel that unpredictability with this post.

First, the ridiculous snow we had. Dear winter - go the hell away. Seriously - roads got sloppy, tree branches snapped under the weight of heavy snow, and I lost internet access for a whole two days. Horrible, I tell you, horrible!

Goose Island Mild Winter - another winner.

So we pray for a Mild Winter (see what I did there?). Goose Island's Mild Winter is a delicious malty treat of a beer. It's a nice deep brown with a great sweet aroma wafting up from a nice fluffy head. The first sip was beautifully smooth, with just a touch of bitterness on the back end to balance everything out. I couldn't really smell anything, but that might just have been a stuffed nose on my part. I had a hard time tasting any of the "spicy rye flavors" that Goose Island was touting, but I really enjoyed the beer's overall richness and dark fruit flavors. And Goose Island's got some slight balance issues (their IPA is aggressively hopped and their Bourbon County Stout could kill) but this one settled down nicely.

Sledding is very wintery.

Hockey Skates - also wintery.

I enjoyed the label as well - nice view of the Chicago Hancock tower on one side, and the Willis (née Sears) Tower on the other. I've become a pretty big fan of the city of Chicago over the last decade, and both it and the beer are worth a return visit.

Serving suggestion.

Ps. What's a Willi Glass?

And then there was that two week period of gorgeous late summer days and mild evenings, not even a week after the snow. In celebration, I grabbed a really nice Sierra Nevada Summerfest.

Sierra Nevada has the most scenic labels.

I'm usually pretty enamored of Sierra Nevada. Their Pale Ale is distinctive and delicious with just the right amount of bite for a good all-around beer. I wish I liked the Summerfest as much, I'll be honest.

Not a bad looking pour.

Color was off on the camera though.

I think a lot of the problem was just that I'm not as in love with lager these days. There was some great grassiness hay on the nose, and the pour was the pure bright gold of summer. It had, as it promised, "a crisp, refreshing finish," but I guess I didn't taste any of the "delicate spicy and floral hop flavor" that I was promised.

Overpromise + Underdeliver.

I think Summerfest's greatest strength is in how mild it is - I could put a lot of these back without overwhelming my taste buds, because there wasn't a lot of flavor there.

It did not take me long to finish this beer.

Maybe in the depths of August that's really necessary, but on an Indian Summer day in November, it was nothing more than my pathetic attempt to hold on to the fleeting sunshine.

Jubelale is a really great name for a winter beer

West Coast here, with a review of two seasonal releases: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company’s “Celebration” Fresh Hop Ale, and Deschutes Brewery’s “Jubilale.”


Sierra Nevada on the left, Deschutes on the right.

First, the “Celebration.” The Celebration poured with medium carbonation and as you can see above a nice dark amber color. I found the nose reminded me of a rainy garden with some meaty undertones. The Celebration is subtitled as a “Fresh Hop Ale,” and I found that while the flavor of the hops in the beer wasn’t pronounced upon first sip, it kicked in quite strongly at the finish. In the middle I tasted lemon and orange citrus. While I enjoyed the Celebration, I personally found that the mouth-feel was a little unbalanced, and didn’t enjoy the harshness at the end. I’m a big fan of IPAs, of bitter beers, but there was something about the harshness at the end that I didn’t enjoy.

Next up is Deschutes’ “Jubilale.” If you hurry, you might still find some of this at your local grocer or beer store, but Deschutes stops production in December (it’s apparently available starting in October but I didn’t see it in my local store til December). The Jubilale is 6.7% ABV, and pours a deep mahogany color with a nice foamy head. It has a pleasant mineral nose. This beer starts out sweet, with flavors of malt and caramel, then the alcohol takes over and you’ll enjoy stone and oak flavor, finally there’s a pleasant and mild hoppiness at the end. I quite enjoyed the Jubilale and think it would stand up strongly and pair well with the heartier cuisine of wintertime.

What Can Brown Do For You?

Like my West Coast colleague, I found it hard to deny that Autumn is really here. The mercury is falling, students are once again crawling over Boston, and my fantasy football team is screwed after week 1 (seriously? Losing by 2.5 points? I hate you Tony Gonzalez). It's definitely autumn again.

Oktoberfests are generally darkish lagers, but being an Ale-man myself, I went with the Sierra Nevada Tumbler Autumn Brown. It seems that Mr. West Coast is nosing in on the East Coast with a review of Dogfish Head. Right back atcha, buddy.

So yeah, this Tumbler Autumn Brown. I'm generally a Sierra Nevada fan. I like their Pale Ale. I like their Porter. I've even enjoyed their Celebration ales. And this one held such promise. It poured a nice and dark chestnut, with a deep and very long-lasting head. Oddly, there wasn't much of an aroma, but initial sips brought out some really deep roasted malt flavor. It was almost salty on the tongue, with smooth sipping and unobtrusive carbonation.

You can already see the aggressive carbonation. Honestly, I tend to pour violently in order to get a nice thick head (which tends to release a lot of beautiful aroma), so I figured I'd gotten it all out of the beer. How wrong I was...

At least, I thought it was unobtrusive. Turns out, the bubbles, for some reason, don't fully effervesce out of the beverage until it is safely locked inside one's stomach. This leads to tremendous discomfort as one inflates from the inside. Like a time-release capsule, or the beer equivalent of a double-action baking powder. One release of, well, gas in the beginning; then a second release when it's a little less welcome.

So yes. Delicious, but it made my tummy hurt. I think this is probably better on tap: that way, the carbonation gets out of the way early and harmlessly.

I also tried the Brooklyn Oktoberfest, and I'm sad to say it's not fabulous. It's nice and sort of chewy at first, with a really nice depth of toasty amber flavor. And then halfway down the pint, when it starts to warm up, citrus and bitter notes push to the fore, which are also quite welcome. Unfortunately, toward the end, the alcohol harshness took over and it got tremendously sour and unpleasant. So there you have it - 3 beers in one, two of which are pretty good, and one that sucks.

I'll be taking the suggestion in the last post and trying some of the Dogfish Head Punkin Ale soon. Fingers crossed...