Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale
January 9th, 2009 beckelThough I appreciate many of Sierra Nevada’s Ale’s their Celebration Ale is one that I had not sampled and is often commented upon as being delightfully hoppy. So when I started seeing it in 12 packs I knew my days of not sampling it were dwindling and ended up picking on up a few weeks ago. Today we will be consuming my last bottle of this holiday inspired India Pale Ale from Chico, CA. I poured this brew a little heavy and it filled the glass largely with white frothy head, though a mistake it showed me how much head retention this ale actually has and it’s a ton. After topping off the glass head still remains for many more minutes and leaves a good amount of lacing on the glass, quite solid. Aroma is full of grapefruit and other citrus hop scents and just a little malt, very nice. Color is bright red with a some copper tones and very translucent. Flavor is certainly hoppy as one would expect. Initially I get some rather bitter hop flavors that lead into a grapefruit citrus flavor. Mouthfeel is rather smooth and the body is rather light. With the bitter flavors in this ale I doubt you will really notice its 6.8% ABV. As you continue to drink this beer and start getting used to its hop profile you will increasingly notice the somewhat sweet finish that the malt creates. This is absolutely a decent beer and fans of hops such as myself will likely find this a refreshing ale if it ends up in their hands but I must say honestly I was a bit disappointed. Currently I think this is a solid very drinkable ale that would be very nice on a summer day when looking for something hoppy I just feel Sierra Nevada has the skills to make this ale a bit more balanced and complex. With that said if you are not a fan of hops this ale is not for you, but would be wonderful for cleansing your palate when eating some nice spicy Asian food. Give it a shot and ride your bike.
