I had to stop into Wegman’s on my lunch yesterday to pick up apple juice and spaghetti sauce. So as I was wandering the aisles I came across a special find. Sierra Nevada’s 30th Anniversary Grand Cru. Normally I’m not a huge fan of Sierra Nevada, I know I know tons of people love it, but it just isn’t to my taste most of the time. However this bottle caught my eye, as it was a big beer at 9.2% alcohol, and it was a melding of three of their beers: oak aged Big Foot, Celebration Ale, and “fresh” Pale Ale. So I figured what the hell and threw the bottle in the basket. So here we go:
It poured a nice deep amber color that reminded me of amber jewelry and it had a full thick head. The head lasted through the whole beer lacing down the sides of the glass.
The initial aroma was all hops and that makes sense because on the label they said it was “generously dry hopped”. The the hops continued into the first sip. The first taste was very IPA’ish (Yes, that’s my new word). There was a lot of bitterness and hoppiness that was mixed with a softer wood notes. I did pick up the slight oak character but I didn’t taste any of the other flavors typically associated with beer aged in bourbon barrels. The beer was slightly “hot” from the alcohol in it, but all of the other flavors were in enough of a balance that the alcohol didn’t overpower the taste.
Overall, it was a very good beer and a great entry for Sierra Nevada. Like I said before, I’m not a SN fan, but this was one damn good beer. It is definitely a sipping beer because of all of the heavier flavors and the alcohol, more than one of these and you might be down for the count, but its definitely worth picking up a bottle if you have a chance.
Keep ‘em tippin’!!
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