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%
Reported IBUs: 65Purchased: Single bottle (12oz) from 6-pack purchased at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2011
Style/ABV: India Pale Ale (IPA), 6.8%
For whatever reason, people LOVE to cellar the Celebration Ale. It makes no sense, since this is a hop-forward beer that is all about those "wet hops." Google it. Anyway, I happen to have a 2011 vintage laying around...so here we are. About Sierra Nevada:
Sierra Nevada are one of the big players in craft brewing, and one of the first craft breweries to arrive on the craft beer scene. 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. For more info, check out their website.
Seriously, don't cellar this beer. This is a good beer fresh, as I noted way back in 2011. This beer is brewed with Chinook and Centennial hops, and features a Two-row Pale and Caramel malt base.
The aged vintage pours into a cloudy and hazy reddish/orange body, kicking up a momentous amount of orange/caramel-tinged head. This beer has had some time to carbonate in the bottle, and features a good amount of rising carbonation, sustaining head, and yeast particles that are just floating around. There's a good amount of lacing on the glass as well....
The aroma is a pretty solid indicator that this beer has been aged. Long gone are the vibrant citrus and pine notes. They have been replaced with wet leaves, iced tea, and watery Aspirin. It smells like a weak and aged Barleywine. This is what happens when hops drop off...hop...drop...fade...roll...twerk it.
This doesn't taste as disappointing as you would expect it to taste...but it's no Barleywine. The beer is well carbonated, still, and has those gentle iced tea hop notes with some crushed wet leaves. There's a little caramel and orange marmalade hanging around in the malt base spectrum, and the beer does gently veer in the direction of pine nuts and maple syrup....kind of like a Barleywine. But Cerra Nevaroz releases this shelf turd called Proud Foot that is totally more suitable for aging. Yeah.
For a 3-year-old beer, this isn't awful. It tastes very much like a muted Barleywine. All the faded elements have faded in the appropriate places...it's like being blessed with great tits and also having gravity pull them down favorably. I don't even analogy anymore. This is still well-carbed, retains a medium body, has solid palate depth, and solid complexity. It's a touch oxidized, and the hops generally veer in the direction of iced tea and that pine nut thing you get in aged BWs. Surprisingly, a malt base does retain, showing up in the back-front, mids, and back, mostly as hints of orange, caramel, and bread. This isn't awful, but it is much better fresh. If you want to age a Barleywine, buy a Barleywine.
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| [Cellar Review] Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale 2011 |
The aged vintage pours into a cloudy and hazy reddish/orange body, kicking up a momentous amount of orange/caramel-tinged head. This beer has had some time to carbonate in the bottle, and features a good amount of rising carbonation, sustaining head, and yeast particles that are just floating around. There's a good amount of lacing on the glass as well....
The aroma is a pretty solid indicator that this beer has been aged. Long gone are the vibrant citrus and pine notes. They have been replaced with wet leaves, iced tea, and watery Aspirin. It smells like a weak and aged Barleywine. This is what happens when hops drop off...hop...drop...fade...roll...twerk it.
This doesn't taste as disappointing as you would expect it to taste...but it's no Barleywine. The beer is well carbonated, still, and has those gentle iced tea hop notes with some crushed wet leaves. There's a little caramel and orange marmalade hanging around in the malt base spectrum, and the beer does gently veer in the direction of pine nuts and maple syrup....kind of like a Barleywine. But Cerra Nevaroz releases this shelf turd called Proud Foot that is totally more suitable for aging. Yeah.
For a 3-year-old beer, this isn't awful. It tastes very much like a muted Barleywine. All the faded elements have faded in the appropriate places...it's like being blessed with great tits and also having gravity pull them down favorably. I don't even analogy anymore. This is still well-carbed, retains a medium body, has solid palate depth, and solid complexity. It's a touch oxidized, and the hops generally veer in the direction of iced tea and that pine nut thing you get in aged BWs. Surprisingly, a malt base does retain, showing up in the back-front, mids, and back, mostly as hints of orange, caramel, and bread. This isn't awful, but it is much better fresh. If you want to age a Barleywine, buy a Barleywine.
Rating: Average (3.0/5.0 Untappd)
I'm feeling a Decent Average on this. It's not bad...but it is definitely better fresh. Food pairings here include nothing. Do you really want to pair food with a 3-year old beer?
Random Thought: Can we finally lay to bed the myth that you should age this beer? If you desperately want to age a Sierra Nevada beer, age their Big Foot.
I'm feeling a Decent Average on this. It's not bad...but it is definitely better fresh. Food pairings here include nothing. Do you really want to pair food with a 3-year old beer?
Random Thought: Can we finally lay to bed the myth that you should age this beer? If you desperately want to age a Sierra Nevada beer, age their Big Foot.
