Proof of Organic Concept

A few days ago I lost one, but today I came out a winner. How might you ask? Well, I took down a Sierra Nevada Estate Ale today while watching the Giants game. Double win. I had been looking for this beer for a while. It is listed as a special release on the Sierra website, but I had never seen it around here until the other day. There was one lone bottle sitting on the shelf at Joe Canals and I snatched that bad boy up. This beer is an IPA in the same vein as their other fresh hop harvest ales, only it is certified organic and the hops and barley come from Sierra Nevada's on fields located on their property in Chico CA. It pours a dark amber with a nice white foamy head. It has a citrusy, floral aroma. Flavor is citrus, pine, and hops. There is a malt backbone to it and overall it is very well balanced. A good find to say the least. I have to say, this is the best organic beer I have ever had. For whatever reason, organic beers tend to fall short of the mark for me. Often they are well brewed but lack real character or depth. I'm not sure why that is. The few exceptions that I have had before trying this beer were Wolaver's Oatmeal Stout and a few beers that I had from Santa Cruz Mountain Brewing Co over the summer. This is a somewhat interesting conundrum coming from an employee of a certified organic grocery store. Leave it to Sierra to really push organic beer in to the realm of legitimate craft brews.

On another tip, has anyone else noticed that beers within a craft brewers catalog end up tasting very similar and in some cases the same? I love Sierra Nevada. They make many of my all time favorite beers. However, a lot of there IPA's and pale ales, tend to taste similar and sometimes the same. For instance, if you put the Northern Hemisphere Harvest ale next to the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale next to the Anniversary Ale next to this beer, I would have a hard time telling them apart. They even taste similar to the new brown ale they came out with this fall. I'm not really complaining, I'm just bringing up the point. The same can be said for Rogue and Anchor Brewing Co. Probably a bunch more craft brewers. Why is this. Could it be repetitive ingredients (yeast in particular), could it be technique or equipment, maybe the brewer him/herself. I don't know. Just throwing spaghetti here. Anyway, check out the Estate ale if you can get your hands on it. It has a waxed top which is pretty cool. The bottle looks cool. It is 6.7% and delicious. Later and cheers.