Counterbalance: Sierra Nevada Celebration 2008

carl — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 22:20:31 +0000

This is one of the best beers of all time, according to my discerning beer palate, honed by many sessions of experimentation at the Flying Saucer and other venues. I should state up front that I have migrated to strong, hoppy IPAs, and Sierra Nevada Celebration is all of these. 6.8% alcohol, with a reddish coppery color and a moderately thick head, this is a quintessential IPA. I was lucky enough to find this on sale at my local Costco a couple of weeks ago at the astounding closeout price of $14.97/case, which is less than $4.00/sixpack. You just don’t find beer deals like that every day, unfortunately. Back to the beer, though; I really like the holiday scene on the label…snowy scenes during the holidays remind me of growing up in Montana. Sierra Nevada is a mass-produced craft beer house out of Chico California, but the quality doesn’t seem to suffer because of the mass production…their pale ale is quite good, and their porters and stouts are passable, if not exactly inspiring examples.

Beer Review: Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale

carl — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:51:33 +0000

This stuff is just terrible. Billed as “ale brewed with real pumpkin and spices,” it gives ale a bad name. Skunky is the best way to describe it. I found this on sale at $3.99/sixpack, but it’s probably worth about a dollar, if that. I’ve had some really really good deals on beer and wine in the last few months, but this ale is not an example. To be fair, it’s difficult to make flavored beer (Celis Raspberry is a great example of completely undrinkable fruit beer), but really, let’s not just put anything on the market and try to take advantage of the season…

10,000 Vinyasas » beer review

Counterbalance: Sierra Nevada Celebration 2008

Beer Review: Buffalo Bill’s Pumpkin Ale