1001 Beers

Beer No: 2/1001
Page No: 491
Category: Blond

I had hoped for something a bit more exotic for beer #2 of my 1001 beers, but when you see one lone Sierra Nevada Pale Ale sitting in the fridge, it has to be imbibed.  This poor bottle was the sole survivor of last night's festivities.  During that time, 5 of his brothers perished and 6 of his cousins, the Torpedo Extra IPA also gave their lives.  But he survived, showed true grit, and almost made it to the weekend, but it was not meant to be...

So while this lone bottle might not be the most exotic or rarest beer in the book, when I started reading about it, I was happy about my selection.  The author calls it "one of the most important beers in th[e] book."  First brewed in 1980, this pale clocks in at just 5.6% ABV, but the true genius of the beer is the ability to perfectly balance the hops and malts.  And the true beauty of the Sierra Nevada lies in the hops.  Randy Mosher continues, "Sierra Nevada's founder Ken Grossman wanted to make a beer that didn't reference English pale ales, and that had a pronounced hop aroma - there weren't that many in those days."  It goes on to recount how he formulated the original recipe and used a new strain of hops for the time, Cascade.  It's hard these days to imagine a beer world in which Cascade hops don't exist.  They're a staple that first appeared in the late 1970's and are used in most every American pale, IPA, or any hoppy beer.

1001 Beers goes on to talk about how it is still brewed to this day with whole hop cones rather than hop pellets, a tradition that I hold near and dear.  Though I have recently converted to hop pellets for recent home brews, I do believe that some of our best beers (Arkh Brew is a collaboration between myself and a friend) contained whole cone hops.  I just believe there's something more "pure" about using the cones instead of the ground cones that make up the pellets.  I hope one day to return to whole cone hops and, hopefully, create something as amazing as Ken Grossman's quintessential pale ale.

A final note: this post is labeled with (Bottle) at the end because, and this was news to me, there is a draft version of this pale ale that is available on tap only at Sierra Nevada Brewing Company.  It's a long, 8.5 hour drive away for me, but one of these days I'll make it out there.

My review, cross-posted at RateBeer.com:

Sierra Nevada Pale Ale (Bottle) from Sierra Nevada Brewing Company

Aroma: 8/10
Appearance: 4/5
Flavor: 7/10
Palate: 3/5
Overall: 14/20

Rating: 3.6 / 5.0

Had from bottle. Pours golden-amber with a slight, quickly dissipating head. I might be a little too used to the Torpedo, so the hops are a bit too disguised within the malts in this finely balanced pale ale. Aroma of hops, citrus, and sugars. Flavors are a nice balance of hops and malts. I have to just remind myself that this is a pale ale, and not an IPA or an extra IPA. It’s supposed to be balanced, not too hoppy, and not too bitter. In that case, Sierra Nevada does a great job here.