Sierra Nevada Brewing Co’s Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale

Sierra Nevada hails out of Chico, California. What began with Home Brew supply store in 1976 for co-founder Ken Grossman, quickly turned into a successful brewery. In fact, “Ken and co-founder Paul Camusi cobbled a brewery together from dairy tanks, a soft-drink bottler, and equipment salvaged from defunct breweries. Though the equipment was secondhand, they created a first-rate microbrewery.”  Then… “…on November 15, 1980, the Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. brewed the first batch of what would soon become a landmark in American craft brewing: Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.” And the rest as they say is history..

The Southern Hemisphere is classified as an APA, or American Pale Ale. Pale Ales are originally of British origin, the style often uses a  ingredients both local and imported. This gives the style differences in its personality, depending on the where the pieces were obtained.  usually a good balance of malt and hops. Fruity notes  vary from a little to a lot. Bitterness is most often present and typically has a can  lightl floral aroma. The American version of which this represents, tends to be more crisp and hoppier.

Appearance: A nice medium golden yellow that brought to mind a crisp summer morning sunrise. Poured into a pint glass, this produced wonderful carbonation that led to a medium one finger head which stuck around producing a B-E-A-U-tiful lacing on the glass.

Aroma was definately smelling of hops. Not suprising, considering it contains Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops from New Zealand. Very floral in their aromas these hops. A hint of citrus, something tart perhaps? The hop aroma has a nice balanced malt to it as well..shall we see what it tastes like?

Upon first sip, the floral hops come on out. Bitter to the last, these New Zealand hops are determined to prove they are worthy of an American Pale Ale. The hop bitterness was just enough with the strength to make me consider this a mild IPA..almost. The malt had a definite caramel character and really served to balanced out this hopped up ale.

Mouthfeel was crisp, as I would expect this one to be with the hops, but the malt balance serves to bring a medium body to this one.

As the name indicates, I expect that this was a wet hopped ale and overall, a very enjoyable everyday pale ale that beckons for more in the fridge. It won’t kill you at around 6.7 ABV and really goes nice with a cheese and meat plate, with some grapes perhaps and sourdough bread.