A brewery synonymous with large-scale craft brewing in the United States, Sierra Nevada, known mostly for its famous Pale Ale (the second bestselling craft beer in the United States behind Sam Adams Boston Lager), was started in 1980 by Ken Grossman and currently produces 680,000 barrels per year, an astonishing amount of hoppy goodness. It continually innovates and impresses with each new seasonal, limited release and high-quality, year-round selections. Along with gradually expanding the brewing operation over the past 30 years, it added the Sierra Nevada Taproom and Restaurant, as well as the Big Room, a 350-seat live music venue right inside the brewery that features artists such as the Derek Trucks Band, Grace Potter, The Avett Brothers and other folk, jam, bluegrass and blues bands from around the country.

 

Glissade Golden Bock

Style: Maibock

ABV: 6.4 percent

Rating: 4/5

Brand new for 2011 as a replacement for the brand’s Extra Special Bitter, this marks a new style for Sierra Nevada. Bocks are lighter German-style beers that are fairly low in alcohol and well balanced, whereas Maibocks are the slightly more alcoholic and hoppier cousins. Glissade has a mild, sweet scent and tastes sweet at the start and bitters by the finish, creating an excellent balance with nearly all of the alcohol hidden. If you like German bocks or British bitters, give this bad boy a try. 

 

Kellerweis

Style: Heffeweizen (a wheat beer)

ABV: 4.8 percent

Rating: 4/5

Do you consider Blue Moon one of your favorite craft beers? Don’t you love the bread-like, citrus and unfiltered goodness of a wheat beer? Kellerweis schools most other wheat ales. With a nose of strong banana bread pudding, juicy oranges and a taste to match, it is well rounded with sweetness up front and some of Sierra Nevada’s famous hoppiness on the finish. It will be sure to put a smile on your face with every taste!

 

Torpedo

Style: Extra IPA

ABV: 7.2 percent

Rating: 5/5

It was named Torpedo for a reason! Hops abound! It smells very bitter of citrus, pine and herbal notes. This puts most other IPAs to shame in terms of bite. If you can handle it and want to start getting into bitter beers, particularly American India Pale Ales, which tend to be more bitter than nondomestic ones, this is a sure shot for you. Instead of a balanced flavor of malt sweetness and hops, it’s sharp all the way from start to finish, with a strong bite throughout. 

 

— Compiled by Lucas Sacks, staff writer, ldsacks@syr.edu

Published on February 2, 2011 at 12:00 pm