Southern Hemisphere Harvest - Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., Chico

I've always had a love-hate relationship with Sierra Nevada. What I mean by that is I hate their beers, but like a girl who always falls for the bad boy, I keep going back for more... "Trust me, he's changed... this time'll be different!" My gripe with Sierra Nevada is that all of their beers have tasted the same. They've all been hoppy, bitter and generally unpleasant to drink. Once every three or four months I decide to bring home a bottle of whatever the newest Sierra Nevada beer is, and see if things have changed. Well, they haven't...

I don't expect Sierra Nevada to change their ways, this is how they made their name after all... I guess what I'm hoping for is that something clicks and I have one of those beer epiphanies where it becomes clear to me what I've been missing all along. But like I said, nothing has changed since last time...

This bottle of Sierra Nevada is an India Pale Ale. Finally, Sierra Nevada put some hops in a beer! ...I'll stop being facetious now. This beer's "theme" is that it is made with fresh New Zealand hops, harvested during our springtime. At it's base, it's still an IPA, so it tastes like hops. I don't like beers that are hoppy for the sake of being hoppy or beers that have only one trick. The Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest strikes me as both. It's hoppy and that's about it...

I'm not dead set against drinking all Pale Ales, just the ones that tastes like a mouthful of bitter hops. That's why I didn't like the Southern Hemisphere Harvest. If there were more to it than hops, hops and hops I may have enjoyed it a little more. With that said, if you're a "hophead" and need nothing more than bitter hops in your beer, go head and try this one out.