Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

I have a thing for the Weizenbock style, and I've been hearing a lot about the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp offerings this year, so when I saw bottles of Beer Camp Weizenbock at my local liquor store I didn't think twice about picking one up. The Beer Camp program is a sort of invitational Pro-Am event that takes place at Sierra Nevada in Chico. The group collaborates on a couple styles of beer and, if they turn out pretty decent, Sierra Nevada will bottle and release the beers to retail. It's a cool program, I'm anxious to see how the beer turned out.

Sierra Nevada is a brewery I tend to overlook. Around this time last week I would've been able to count the number of Sierra Nevada styles I'd had before on one hand. It seemed like each one was hoppier than the last... The Pale Ale, the Estate Harvest, the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale, the Celebration Ale (08 and 09) and then finally the Bigfoot Barleywine. I didn't care for any of these beers, mostly because I don't dig the super bitter hopped style that made Sierra Nevada famous. Really, it's not you, it's me... I just don't like those styles. Earlier this week I participated in a blind tasting of Sierra Nevada and Left Hand beers. I found most of their seasonal line up to be respectable and I decided to return to their Porter and give it a formal review.

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...

If you think terroir is a load of BS, you probably skip this review. You see, this bottle of Sierra Nevada's Estate Brewers Harvest Ale is all about brewing locally and using ingredients produced by Sierra Nevada. The idea is that by being able to control the conditions and quality of the hops and barley, the brewers at Sierra Nevada will be able to create a beer that has a unique sense of place and taste like it came from Chico, California. If that isn't terroir, I don't know what is.

I've been looking forward to this beer ever since it was announced that Dogfish Head and Sierra Nevada would be collaborating. I really like the Dogfish Head beers I've had, but I haven't been real crazy about Sierra Nevada's brews. I was anxious to see how Dogfish Head's extreme beer styles would jive with Sierra Nevada's tendencies to just throw a bunch of hops into a bottle and call it beer. Ok, that's a bit harsh... but that's what my experience with Sierra Nevada has been. I finally got the chance to have a glass of Life & Limb on tap and was quite pleasantly surprised.

You know, I like to think that my ideal picture of Christmas is pretty mainstream. My list of favorite Christmastime things includes eggnog, chocolate covered pretzels, fudge, stuffing and so on. Something that has never ever crossed my mind in regards to festive holiday season flavors would have to be India Pale Ales. Maybe it's just me, but I prefer to eat and drink rich, sweet and savory things during the holidays... Bitter IPAs just don't sound appetizing when I get into Christmas mode. I mean, I can totally see having egg nog in one hand and a Vanilla Porter in the other hand. If you haven't caught on yet, Sierra Nevada's Celebration Ale is an IPA, a hoppy and bitter beer that I want no where near my turkey and gravy. Gross...