REVIEW: Dogfish Head/ Sierra Nevada Rhizing Bines

Today's beer is a collaboration between two giants of the craft beer world. From the west coast, Sierra Nevada, and the east, Dogfish Head. It's a collaboration in style, technique and ingredients. Rhizing Bines has been brewed with Carolina red fife wheat, Sierra Nevada's estate grown caramel malt as well as Bravo hops and a new experimental hop known only as Hop 664. It was brewed using Dogfish's continual hopping process used in the 60, 90, and 120 Minute IPAs and dry hopped using Sierra Nevada's torpedo system. Checks in at 8% ABV and 70 IBUs. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Narwhal

My foray into big hearty beers continues. Today I'm checking out Sierra Nevada's newest beer, Narwhal, an imperial stout. What a great name for a beer, and what an even cooler label! Clocks in at 10.2% ABV and 60 IBU. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Celebration

If the Anchor Christmas ale is the original Christmas beer, today's isn't far behind. Sierra Nevada first brewed Celebration in 1981. Also making it special is the fact that this beer is a wet-hopped IPA, certainly unique for a Christmas beer. I know I'm intrigued. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest

Seeing as this Thursday is Thanksgiving I felt it was an appropriate time to take a look at this beer. What with Thanksgiving, the harvest, cornucopias, and all that. I took a look at the companion to this beer, the Southern Hemisphere Harvest, back in June. The hops in the Northern Hemisphere Harvest have a much shorter journey than those in the Southern Hemisphere version, and as such, they arrive much fresher. In the Southern Hemisphere Harvest the hops come all the way from New Zealand. In this one, the hops are picked in the Yakima Valley and are into the brew kettle in Chico, within 24 hours of coming off the vine. Today's beer was actually the first American beer brewed using 100% wet hops. So, in the spirit of the season, lets take a look at a fresh hop IPA, shall we? To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest

Sorry today's post is going up so late. It's been a busy day of website publishing over here. Anyways. Today's beer is a fresh hop ale, otherwise known as a harvest ale. Most of the time the hops used in beer have either been dried or pelletized. Drying and pelletizing makes hops more stable and able to be stored. However, in the fall, and in this case, in the spring, hops can be harvested fresh and thrown straight into the beer. These beers really put the flavors and aromas of these fresh off the vine hops. The hops in this specific beer have been on quite a journey. In the southern hemisphere, hop harvest takes place in the spring. These hops were harvested in New Zealand, dried, flown to Chico, California, and were thrown into the brew kettle in just a little over a week's time. Pretty wild stuff. Also, this is one of the most gorgeous labels on any beer I've had for the blog. I like to imagine that all of the hops came over on that beautiful ship. Doubt they'd be able to make it in a week though. To the beer!

REVIEW: Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye

Sorry about the late post today, folks. I was out of town this weekend and forgot to have a post ready to go for this afternoon.

So as I sat down to write this review I found myself having just returned from a run. With that in mind I was looking for something refreshing. No, no imperial stouts today. Sitting near the back of my fridge I found a lone bottle of Sierra Nevada's spring seasonal, Ruthless Rye. A hoppy, crisp, peppery, rye IPA? Ought to be perfect to quench my thirst after a run. To the beer!