Two old school breweries have collaborated (with hops of course), Sierra Nevada from the North and Karl Strauss from the South have a new beer in the pipeline, NxS.
America to the World
Sierra Nevada’s popular Beer Camp is poised to go worldwide this year with a variety 12-pack: Beer Camp Across the World.
Sierra Nevada keeps upping the ante on this program and this looks like the logical next step. They have European collaborations in their history with their Oktoberfest beer so why not go international.
The “supergroup” beers heavily leaned on the geographic places that the breweries hailed from and they plan to do that again as Bill Manley from Sierra Nevada, explains “With the international folks, we asked them to think about something unique to them, what’s unique to their sense of place, so we’ll be able to, theoretically, taste two senses of place.”
The initial R&D test batches were brewed in November of last year and the whole packs will be on shelves in June of this year. Here are the beers that you will see (italicized are my picks for most excited to try) starting with the international side.…
Dunkel Weisse with Ayinger Brewery
Hoppy Belgian-Style Golden Ale Brewed w/ Lemon Peels with Duvel
Atlantic Vintage Ale with Fuller’s Brewery
Campout Porter with Garage Project
White IPA w/ Yuzu with Kiuchi Brewery
Thai-Style Iced Tea with Mikkeller
Now onto the American beers you will find in the box….
Dry-Hopped Barleywine Style Ale with Avery Brewing Co.
West Coast Style DIPA with Boneyard Beer
Dry-Hopped Berliner Weisse with Saint Arnold Brewing Co.
Ginger Lager with Surly Brewing Co.
Raspberry Sundae with The Bruery
East Meets West IPA with Tree House Brewing Co.
Brux5
Looks like the band is getting back together at the 5 year anniversary as Brux, a beer both wild and domesticated will be coming back with what appears to be a Harry Potter styled lion patronus charging into and off of the label.
You can head to this cool website about Brux at I Think About Beer to refresh your memory.
Ovila & IPA
Looks like the Ovila line from Sierra Nevada is adding a wit….
…to the Quad, Saison and brown that you can buy now.
I enjoyed the Otra Vez so maybe this new lighter offering will hit the spot too.
Also in the works from Sierra Nevada is their latest Torpedo + other IPA’s variety box.
By now, my disdain of fruit IPA’s should be an open secret. But the German IPA really intrigues me and I would be willing to give the Black IPA a shot, especially after the excellent Golden IPA that was released at the turn of the new year.
Fruity at Sierra Nevada
Sierra Nevada will ring in the new year with two new additions to its everyday line-up. Unfortunately, both seem to be going for the fruit IPA ride. That will be an even worse sounding joke when you read the next paragraph.
New Beer # 1 -Sidecar Orange Pale Ale
A 5.3 percent pale ale brewed with oranges. Basically a perfectly fine and standard bearer Pale Ale getting fruited up.
Not as New Beer # 2 – Tropical Torpedo
A close variant of the “Beer Camp Tropical IPA” from earlier this year. Just adding the Torpedo branding to it.
Buried under that lead is the beer that actually sounds more interesting, a Golden IPA, a wheat IPA. But that is slated for a seasonal release in spring.
Featured Review – Oktoberfest v. Oaktoberfest
Since I bought Firestone Walker’s canned Oaktoberfest while I still had some of the Sierra Nevada / Mahrs Brau Oktoberfest in the ‘fridge, I thought I should do a taste test. Then I thought that I should do a blind taste test. Then I had my sister-in-law do the pouring so I could get down to business
Here are the results:
Beer # 1 poured a darker shade of yellow in the taster glass with less bubbles but bigger ones. Malt and sweetness on the nose. Flavor wise the minerality comes through. Wheat toast and some floral character add to the roundness.
Beer # 2 is just a skosh lighter color wise with the bigger difference being more tiny bubbles. Not as much aroma on this entrant. The taste is a little sharper initially. Sweeter with minerality more in the background. Touch of honey as well.
# 1 is my winner. It seems heartier to me. More toast and fullness to it. This was really close though. Not a huge gap between them.
Most importantly, I guessed correctly. Identifyingy my choice of winner as Oaktoberfest from Firestone Walker.
SH Cascade from SN
It may not be the hop that gets the press or fancy single-hop treatment but Cascade is durable and well-used in many a hoppy beer as a foundational part of the bitter mix. Now you can see what Sierra Nevada has done in putting it front and center.
I would suggest getting other single-hop beers that you can find and seeing which hop brings what flavors and aromas out.
How Many Miles Away?
Usually collaborations are an American thing. Readily available to us. But this time Bi-coastal Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. has combined with the much older 630-year-old Bavarian craft brewer Riegele for a second time to create an American pale ale for German brew fans.
The 11.2 oz. bottles of Bayerisch Ale 2 combines the Germans special yeast strains and a combination of West-Coast Amarillo, Citra, Cascade and Simcoe hops.
In 2015, the two breweries last collaborated on Sierra Nevada’s award-winning 2015 Oktoberfest.
Maybe a trip to Germany is in order.
Good Fortune
It has taken 18 months of brewing, aging and blending but we all knew the time would come when the Beachwood Blendery and The Propagation Series started making way for lambics and that time is starting with Fortune Favors the Funk, a ‘Lambic inspired’ ale which will drop on Friday, June 24th during L.A. Beer Week.
Working with Sierra Nevada in the tasting and blending phase + the Ex-598 hop from Sierra Nevada experimental team has led to….
“Fortune Favors the Funk was brewed with traditional lambic ingredients; pilsner malt, unmalted wheat and aged hops boiled for three hours. The base beer was fermented in neutral oak barrels and aged for almost a year. After blending, the beer was dry hopped with ex-598 hops, bottled with wine yeast, and allowed to condition for over two months. Fortune Favors the Funk has a classic rustic profile balanced with solid acidity, full body, and clean finish.”
1/2 a Camp
While perusing the shelves at my Trader Joe’s, I noticed that the orphan section had some of the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp 2016 beers being sold as singles. Sweet Sunny South, the Southern Table Beer, Moxee Moron, the Imperial Session IPA and West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus were available. Where the other 1/2 of the variety pack went, I do not know.
So, let’s delve into the lighter/hoppier side of this years collaborations….
Sweet Sunny South Southern Table Beer (4.9% ABV) – An easy-drinking, malt-forward beer with a tangy finish, featuring traditional Southern ingredients like peaches, tea, corn grits and honey.
A great start to the 2016 variety box. Aroma starts a little metallic but then the corn notes start popping and don’t really stop until tropical fruit (papaya, guava, prickly pear) step into the breach. There is a wine-like tannic finish that I wish was more tea like because I would call this beer more Sunny South and lose the sweet descriptor from the name. But this is a complex summer beer that I quite like.
West Latitude Session Rye with Hibiscus (5.5% ABV) – A Session Rye combining a Hawaiian influence of hibiscus with California’s love of hops.
Another beer and another winner. Hibiscus is usually too potent of an addition to a beer but due to the rye and darker malts, it is lessened. The potpourri aroma is really nice. A dry finish. The tea that I wanted in the first beer is really evident here. Just a touch of bitterness as well. Well done to the Bay Area + Maui Brewing.
Moxee-Moron Imperial Session IPA (7.5% ABV) – A style contradiction honoring the Pacific Northwest’s hop-bomb heritage.
This is a weird one. Probably my least favorite but not by far. It seems more Belgian than IPA. Almost a hint of Brett aged IPA + Weizen + Kettle soured. Quite a bitter punch at the end though. I can’t pin this one down which is frustrating.
This is a damn fine start to a variety box. I honestly don’t know if the other 3 can top this start from a weirdness and unique standpoint, these three really nailed it.