Sierra Nevada – Drews Brews Reviews

Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Styles Announced

Posted on January 7, 2016May 27, 2016 by Drews Brews Reviews

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Sierra Nevada has released further information on the 2016 collaboration beers coming to your local distributor later this year in honor of Beer Camp 2016. 30 breweries will participate, working together to brew the 6 styles listed below. The break down of what brewery is working on what is unknown, but the brewers who made each announcement in the brief Sierra Nevada youtube video are given credit for now. Whether the generally disappointing results of 2014’s case can be bested by focusing on fewer styles and more brewers input remains to be tasted. Hopefully these beers will be worthy of the sum of their parts.

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Beer is Going Back to Camp!

Posted on September 15, 2015November 24, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

Sierra Nevada has sent out the first of what should be many updates on the 2016 Beer Camp! As a beer lover that attended the 2014 tour, I plan on heading out to one of the six stops, assuming a tank of gas will get me there (save the planet and my wallet!). While we still don’t know the exact locations, the tour will hit the same general regions across the country. Based on the prior Beer Camp, I can tell you that even though a brewery is associated with a region, it doesn’t mean it will necessarily be at your camp location. I think it depends on whether the brewery already has distribution in your state, so you may not be getting that taste of Creature Comforts outside of the collaborations if you can’t already get it. I’ll keep you posted as more information slowly pours out.

For those that don’t care about the event (though you really should), they also released the 2016 collaboration breweries for those one-off brews. PA’s own Stoudts is brewing up something as is Lawson’s, Perennial, Wicked Weed, Half Acre, Trillium (that Trillium, they’re so hot right now!), the aforementioned Creature Comforts and 23 others to produce 12 beers. While most of the 2014 collabo beers were a disappointment, there were a few gems, such as Ballast Point’s Electric Ray (IPL), that are still being brewed. I’m sure that expectations will be high given this list of contributors, so get your case buying money ready. Check out the full list to the right to see if your favorite brewer made the cut.

Sierra Nevada – Bigfoot (Whiskey Barrel-Aged) 2015 Review

Posted on March 11, 2015May 11, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

All You Need to Know

Brewery: Sierra Nevada Brewing
Style: Barleywine (American)
ABV: 11.9%
Cost: $20 (24oz)
Glassware: Teku!, Snifter
Temp: 55°F
Availability: From Time to Time
Purchased@: Hunger-N-Thirst

Quick Take: On first sip, my mind was set on giving this a firm pass, especially at $20 a bottle. But, a simple change refocused my taste buds and I found a rather enjoyable beer swimming in vanilla, brown sugar, coconut, and whiskey heat, though the hoppier elements of Bigfoot are lost. While I’m lukewarm on whiskey barrel aging in general, this is one of the more successful I’ve had.

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Is Sierra Nevada’s Controversial Hop Hunter IPA a Revolution in Wet Hops?

Posted on January 14, 2015March 30, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

I took a break from mentally traveling back through yesteryear for Part 2 of my 2014 retrospective when I came across some rather intriguing news about Sierra Nevada and a certain hop hunting IPA. While most have focused on the now defunct lawsuit from Lagunitas over font and typography, there is an intriguing beer buried in the controversy. Now, SN is known for playing around with hops. They were the first to use wet hops long ago and you need look no further than the recently released Harvest Wild Hop IPA with Neomexicallious, a hop found growing in the wilds of New Mexico. For these hop dynamos, the announcement of a new IPA should come as no surprise, but the process in making this beer does.

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Last Week in Untappd – 11/17 – 11/23

Posted on November 26, 2014March 1, 2015 by Drews Brews Reviews

This was actually a busy beer weekend for me, but I stockpiled written beer reviews that will release over the next few weeks rather than check them in with a few brief comments. So, Untappd (drewsbrewsreviews) is a little light on check-ins. That will change with the impending Black Friday event at Capone’s unleashing the flood of fantastic beers that will surely culminate in the Untappening. I look forward to highlighting the best of my favorite yearly event, so that’ll be ready next week. In the meantime, here’s what I checked in the week past.

Sierra Nevada– Narwhal (Bourbon Aged)
Location: Bulls Head Pub
Style: Imperial Stout (Bourbon Aged)
Score: 3.5/5
Original Comment: Buttery bourbon, vanillian, roast aroma, med mf, dark malt, chocolate/vanilla, raisin/plum finish, lingering heat. Decent, but too expensive.

Additional Comment: My “too expensive “comment is slightly disingenuous as I didn’t actually pay for it. A friend of mine did and was kind enough to share some with me. Plus, this was also purchased at a bar, which comes with a markup. That said, there are very few beers I will pay $30 for, and this is no where near one of them. A price around $12 – $15 seems about right based on what I had. Narwhal is on the lower end of imperial stouts I enjoy, I like mine on the heavier, near Russian Imperial levels, and Sierra Nevada’s imp stout is too thin and dark fruit heavy for my tastes. Obviously, if Narwhal is your jam, I can’t see you disliking a bourbon barreling of it. The difficulty in landing a bottle, at least around the Lancaster PA region, makes this a buy it when you see it beer. Mostly likely you aren’t going to see it again anytime soon.

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