Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from 6-pack purchased at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: India Pale Ale (IPA), 6.8%
Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from 6-pack purchased at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: India Pale Ale (IPA), 6.8%
Appearance: This is quite the arrogant pour. You get 4+ big fingers of eggshell colored head. The head isn't root beer float thick, but it isn't as thin as soap bubbles. There is gorgeous lacing as the head slowly recedes. The body of the beer is a copper/red color in low light, and a copper/orange color in bright light. Hazy and thin yeast can be seen floating in this unfiltered beer. This beer is unfiltered and semi-transparent with moderate to low carbonation.
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| Celebration Ale 2011 |
Aroma: The aroma on this is really impressive, and I am reminded of the Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA. I'm getting caramel and grain which is manifesting as brandy cake, fruit cake, toffee, and caramel. There is a touch of alcohol on the nose. And there are quite a bit of hops in here. I'm getting nutmeg, mint, Pine-sol, evergreen, orange, candied orange, and maybe a touch of tangerine or grapefruit.
Taste: Creamy, smooth, malty, and hoppy; this beer hits the IPA style out of the park. I'm tasting fruit cake, brandy cake, orange and lemon rind, pine-sol, pine needles and pine tree, maltiness, touches of bread and cake, hints of tangerine and grapefruit, and pulls towards mint and nutmeg. I'm puckering my lips, but this beer isn't even that bitter, relatively speaking. This has the build of a malty Double-IPA. Super impressive.
Body/Mouthfeel/Complexity: Creamy smooth, and very well supported by the malts. This is still a hop bomb that will make you pucker your lips. The back end is bitter and dry. The front of the palate is boozy cake and caramel malts, and smooth and creamy carbonation; the middle rolls into pine and hops and hints of spice; the back end finishes with lingering spice, hops, mouth-puckering bitterness, and a dry finish. This is medium-full in terms of body, very complex, and you do feel the booze on the back end. I love this beer though, and it is very drinkable.
Rating: Divine Brew
Score: 92%Comments: Sierra Nevada are one of the big players in craft brewing. If you check out their history page, you will see that founder Ken Grossman began his quest to build a brewery in 1976. In 1980, Ken Grossman and co-founder Paul Camusi brewed their first batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. According to Wikipedia, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the second best selling craft beer behind Boston Lager. Sierra Nevada is the sixth largest brewing company in the United States as well, cranking out over 750,000 barrels in 2010.
Celebration Ale is a seasonal offering from Sierra Nevada, and is brewed using the first hops of the growing season. Since the crops change yearly, Celebration Ale changes yearly. But the beer uses the same hops each year. The beer uses Chinook hops for bittering, Cascade and Centennial for dry hopping, and the beer is finished with Cascade and Centennial hops. The beer uses Pale and Caramel malts. Clocking in at 6.8% ABV and 65 IBUs, this is a strong but not overly strong beer.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding Celebration Ale, but there are no spices used in Celebration Ale. On the other hand, Celebration Ale is bottle conditioned. Many people report seeing sediment floating around in the bottom of their bottle; my guess is that this is the yeast from the bottle conditioning. Despite having a middle-of-the-road ABV, many people actually age Celebration Ale. Typically you would not expect a 6.8% ABV beer to lend itself to aging. However, because the beer is bottle conditioned and well-hopped, it may stand the test of time. Celebration Ale is probably one of the most widely aged "popular and available" beers. So if you do get yourself some Celebration Ale, throw one or two in the cellar for a year or two down the road.
Celebration Ale is a seasonal offering from Sierra Nevada, and is brewed using the first hops of the growing season. Since the crops change yearly, Celebration Ale changes yearly. But the beer uses the same hops each year. The beer uses Chinook hops for bittering, Cascade and Centennial for dry hopping, and the beer is finished with Cascade and Centennial hops. The beer uses Pale and Caramel malts. Clocking in at 6.8% ABV and 65 IBUs, this is a strong but not overly strong beer.
There is a lot of mystery surrounding Celebration Ale, but there are no spices used in Celebration Ale. On the other hand, Celebration Ale is bottle conditioned. Many people report seeing sediment floating around in the bottom of their bottle; my guess is that this is the yeast from the bottle conditioning. Despite having a middle-of-the-road ABV, many people actually age Celebration Ale. Typically you would not expect a 6.8% ABV beer to lend itself to aging. However, because the beer is bottle conditioned and well-hopped, it may stand the test of time. Celebration Ale is probably one of the most widely aged "popular and available" beers. So if you do get yourself some Celebration Ale, throw one or two in the cellar for a year or two down the road.
Conclusion: When winter comes around, hop heads need something to fall back on. Celebration Ale is insanely refined and delicious. Factor in the fact that it pulls off hints of Christmas with subtle mint and nutmeg notes in the hops, and huge cake and bread notes from the malts...and we have a real winner.
This is obviously not a beer for everybody. This is pretty hoppy and bitter and falls on the "heavy" side of India Pale Ales. Still, this is a wonderful holiday treat. And at 6.8% ABV, this is the perfect winter warmer to drink by the fireplace, or while it is snowing, or with that spicy holiday meal you just cooked.
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