4: Celebration Ale

Beer #4

Celebration Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing, 6.8%

Fresh hop ale. When something is said to be "fresh hopped" or "wet hopped," it means that the hops were picked freshly from the vine and added immediately to the production of the beer. On with it.

My man, the color is a tinted orange. This baby is thick, foamy, with an immovable head. It is great looking. The head sits atop the glass like pillow fillings. I don't know why it's pillow fillings, or frosting even, but stay with me here.

I smell some intense citrus, mostly grapefruit, up front. The citrus is immediately  followed by pine, apple, then back to the citrus, some orange and a bit of lemon. It's very "meadow-y," earthy and musty like a flowery meadow, with some dankness and hop-heat or an aroma of intense hop conflation. Yup.

Ahhhhh. It tastes excellently rich with salty, briny, oily hops: flowery, grassy as hell, tha' dankness, soapy, christmas in the glass. It's near medicinal with the pine hop and dry, fiery finish. HELLO.  

The finish is even more bitter than its smell lets on. Heaping combo of sweet/dry progresses through in the finish. Woof.

Full bodied single IPA. One of the American classics. Thick with hop residue and a complex finish.This guy is annually in my top five favorites. Every year it rolls through with a vengeance like Jeremy Irons and a German accent. 

I appreciate the shit out of this beer for three reasons in particular:

a) It's one of the best single IPAs made in the world, no doubt,

b) It is made by a brewery that not only is respected globally, but makes enough beer to have it available in most gas stations. High quality and regard in its style + extremely wide availability (widest) = so much happiness, and 

c) It seems that every year, regardless of the popular wisdom devoted to the spices of thanksgiving and christmas in beer, this is one of the top "holiday" beers. I appreciate that trend, because I am not so much into the nutmegs and cloves of the winter months. 

Celebration Ale is a stunning example of American hops in the California style of brewing.

This one is money with cheeses: Stilton, triple cream bries, smoked gouda, gruyere. It rolls through spicy Indian curries and Hunan dishes, tomato-y pasta courses (really), and, like most IPAs, kills it with pizza and BBQ. 

Hollar.  

Pat Marino appreciates that cause=time.