Friday, December 4, 2009

Sierra Nevada Brewing Company's 13th Release Harvest Wet Hop Ale

I love it when the SN seasonals roll around at the end of the year, and had to grab this one. The douchebags at BeerAdvocate are calling this one a pale ale, but I guess they just haven't tried it yet or something. Not even Stone or Victory would try to pass this one off as one of their craptastic pales, as over-hopped as all of their beers are. It's every bit an IPA.

Pours a clear, bright copper color with decent carbonation and a huge head with tiny cells that never goes away.

Crisp, but still malty, smell. Lots of aromatics are thrown off by the huge head, adn you can smell the sharp grassy hops almost from across the room.

Great taste. Better (and much cheaper) than their Estate series, it has a big grassy hops punch right up front with a great feel and body. Smooth going down, with the carbonation keeping the big malt lighter than it would otherwise be. Not sweet or bready, the malt just lends to the feel more than anything else so as not to interfere with the hops, which keeps it crisp.

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