Drinking It All: #10 Sierra Nevada 2009 Anniversary Ale

Drinking It All is a document of my attempt to try every beer in circulation. It’s a Herculean and tragic attempt at best. But it’s the means, not the end that counts here.

–

that's a hoppin bitch

So I’ve been out of commision for some time now. And I’ve been saving some last-of-the-sixpack-beers for posts but have also been too lazy to post. The beers are still there, I’m still here, you are (I guess) still there, so let’s talk about some fucking beer.

Specifically Sierra Nevada’s 2009 Anniversary Ale. This beer’s an IPA style, which I’m happy about, but they change the recipe every year. (Not having had any previous anniversary ales, or wanting to look it up, I can’t tell you if they’re all IPAs.) I doubt that you’d have much luck finding this beer on the shelves anymore, though you might, because I bought the sixpack probably 3 or 4 months ago. That’s right, I’ve been saving this for that long. That’s willpower to drive a truck. Big fuckin truck.

So the beer is an IPA, which, good little students know, tastes hoppy more so than malty. They’ve used Cascade hops for this beer. If you’ve had Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale, you should know Cascade hops well–they’re the reason that that Pale Ale tastes somewhat like grapefruit. So this Anniversary Ale is not so much different than the Pale Ale, except for a more pronounced hop flavor.

Again, this is good. None of this is to say that the beer tastes like hop tea. It’s definitely a balanced beer that just leans more towards hops than malt. It’s easier to drink than other IPAs I’ve had are. By that I mean that someone who isn’t necessarily into IPAs would be likely to pick this one up and not be surprised by such a strong hop (though they wouldn’t call it hops, I imagine) aspect.

If I had the moneys, I’d drink this all the time. Although it is relatively cheap, but now probably out of stock. We (I) all look forward to next year.

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Up, but it’s not like I can go buy it again now is it?

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• Drinking It All: #11 Sweetwater IPA

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