Hop Secret 393 - Beer Camp #3
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

The pandemic has me digging through a bit of old beer notes and reviews. Here is one from February 7, 2009, the Bistro's 9th annual double ipa festival. Was real popular there. 68 ibu.

Amber pour, 1/2" white head. Aroma had a good amount of malt, red ale malt to it, caramel, earth kind of stuff. I thought the hops came off like Chinook, bringing a forest like edge into this.

Taste in retrospect was similar to a mashup of Flipside Red and Celebration Ale, but with a higher degree of carbonation in the mouth feel that kept it from getting as sticky as flipside, but staying within the caramel instead of light toffee in a big forest vibe like Celebration. Had plenty of bitterness to match the maltiness. I don't think the experimental hops were all that expressive beyond what many of the classic C hops they use have going for them. But it was popular at the festival I had it at, one of the first kegs to blow.

 

16 ounce pint - $4.75 at Taco Mac (Crabapple) in Roswell, Georgia. Depending on who's watch you were going by, the keg was completely emptied in anywhere from 14 to 18 minutes.

Appearance: Deep, dark amber-gold body with excellent clarity and capped by a thin, somewhat fizzy, off-white head. Steady, faint effervescence throughout. Nice glass-coating lace on the way down.

Smell: Bready malts with a meager amount of caramel, but a supporting, rich hop scent smelling of spice, oily citrus rinds, and pine flowers.

Taste: Blend of light caramel and bready flavors with, particularly as it warms, a perceived crystal malt sweetness. Trifling addition of roasted malt. Intriguing mixture of hop flavors: meager pine and tangerine with the floral, spicy qualities of a Noble hop. Medium bitterness. Finishes predictably dry with a light, lasting bitterness.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied. Medium carbonation. There's a scintilla of stickiness to the mouthfeel.

Drinkability: Pretty solid job here, Fred! Evokes a combination of Celebration and Torpedo with a slackened overall hop bitterness and unique hop flavors brought on by the 393. I'd recommend it, but as the stores of Hop Secret 393 have essentially dried up, there's not much point in doing so; like recommending saber tooth tiger filets.

On tap at Taco Mac Decatur.

Pours a dark clear amber with a small white head that left a bit of lacing on the way down.

The aroma has plenty of tropical fruit, especially grapefruit, and some bready malts. There are also hints of a floral pine aroma as well.

The taste follows the aroma with lots of grapefruit up front but with a generous malt backbone with plenty of caramel sweetness. It's very hoppy but extremely well balanced.

The mouthfeel is meidum bodied with lots of carbonation and sticky with hops.

This is a really good DIPA and extremely drinkable. I'm extremely intrigued by the hops used in this one and would be interested in any beer than SN produced with it going forward. Recommended.

I left work early this past Friday to attend the tapping at Taco Mac in Newnan, GA, and I am THOROUGHLY impressed by this brew. So much so that I wish they'd brew it again...!!

Okay, maybe I'm tainted... I spent an hour or so chatting with Chad from Sierra Nevada and Fred from TM while nursing two glasses of this fine, fine brew. I actually got to see, feel, split open and compare the 393 hop buds with Cascade hop buds. (heh... took a pair of each home, too, to show the other local beer junkies). Tasted the caramel malted barley that is used in the brew (man, I could much on that stuff ALL day!).

But on to the brew...

It is definitely similar to other SN offerings, most notably the Celebration Ale. Color is rich, dark amber; aroma is an incredible blend of hops and malts; mouthfeel is soothingly creamy; taste is just... awesome.

The finish is what's interesting, though. Drinking this is like goosing the gas pedal of a sports car with the RPMs in the low end of the max-power range. The flavors hit you all at once and just make your senses tingle, then coast away with just a little teasing aftertaste.

Makes you want to have another sip... and another... and another... but that's the point, isn't it?

It's a tragedy that only two kegs of this fabulous brew are left in GA!

Had this at Taco Mac in Decatur.

Pours a perfectly clear copper color with a one-finger slightly off-white head. The head sticks around for a while before receding into a patchy layer on top leaving lots of lacing.

Smells of raw hops - citrus aromas mostly, but with a good amount of grassy bitterness backing it up - I like it.

Tastes similar to how it smells, though with a nice malt backbone backing up all of the hop flavors.

Mouthfeel is good. The flavors don't concentrate in any one place, instead having a party in my mouth and inviting everyone.

Drinkability is good. The hop flavors linger just a bit, leaving me wanting to take another sip almost as soon as I'm done with the previous one.

Overall this was a very good beer, though not terribly different from SNPA. The hop flavors were a bit cleaner and seemed to "pop" more so than their normal offering. Very good, and worth a shot if you see it around.

Pours a dark copper color that is downright attractive. An almost pure snow-white colored frothy head crowns the beer contrasting well with the beer's beautiful color. Smells only of oily hops with hardly any malt presence in the nose. First sip is all juicy, tangy hops that are not as biting as the aroma indicated. The malt backbone is strong enough to support the hops, I just wish there was a little more of it. My good friend, Fred helped develop the recipe at SN Beer Camp 5. Very tasty and drinkable.

A big red hop bomb...had on tap at the Bistro in Hayward, CA. Was excited to see this one and once again Sierra doesn't dissapoint. Pours a deep crimson color with creamy lacing. Nice hop notes but not too over powering that tastes just like it smells, however it seemed more like an imperial red rather than a double IPA. Get a pint if you can....

Had this on tap at the Perimeter Taco Mac, congrats to Fred on this involvement on this one. Fred tells me this is actually considered a pale ale! Surprising, and I guess it more aptly falls into a hybrid category. Maybe that hybrid aspect led to my review being all over the board on this. Was served in a pint, and had a head that was very thin, and highly carbonated. The color lends itself more to the pale ale style, as it is a deep, dark copper color. The smell, however, it s hop explosion! The bitter aroma is strong, but strangely, lacks any of the citrus or pine hints you expect from an IPA. The Sierra Nevada rep and Fed both say that has to do with the new Hop 393 that was used, and I can't argue, its unique, but in a good way. The taste is also a bitter hops that you would associate with an IPA, it is delicious, and as a hop head I am tempted to put this behind Simcoe on my list as a favorite hop. Another tasting or two is necessary to back that statement up though. Once again, it is a pure hop bitter, with no citrus hints, I guess I am too accustomed to Cascade hops. I like this taste though. The beer itself is a little too carbonated for my preference, and takes away from the mouthfeel. I have to say I stopped short of giving it a 5 for drinkability, just barely. The most pleasant aspect of this beer is that it lacks that dry aftertaste that many IPAs have (once again I realize it is not an IPA). It is amazing, you drink it, and it has all that hop character up front, but is balance by the malts, and quickly dissipates. I was told that the Hop 393 is going to be used in a Sierra Nevada commercial release soon, and I could not agree more with that logic. Excellent imperial red ale, maybe?

On tap at the DIPA Festival 2009, and at Triple Rock and Jupiter.

Deep red with a fine, off-white head. Fresh, green leafy hop aroma, with some sweetish, lightly toasted malt hints. Starts off soft, with an ESB-like malt profile-- bready, supple, but not sweet. Hops are green, lemony, and gently bitter. Finishes dry with a Northern-Brewer mintyness. Leaves a cool, lemony aftertaste. Definitely one of Sierra's best beers, it is subtle and shows a lot of finesse. I like it better than any of their fresh-hop brews.

Pint at Cafe Boogaloo for only three dollars during happy hour tonight, this was brewed at Sierra Nevada in November with the help of the owner of Cafe Boogaloo in Hermosa Beach and Bistro in Hayward during a visit up to the brewery at "Beer Camp," both places were only given eight kegs and supposedly those are the only places that will be serving this, it is a double red IPA that uses a brand new experimental hop for the first time, hence the name, color is a medium red with hints of brownish orange, 3/4 inch creamy off white head that stays around for a while, nice retention, great lacing towards the top of the glass, aroma consits of pine neddles, grapefruit, straw, mild lemon, slightly sweet malt, and sage, taste was nice and hoppy, especially at the beginning and in the finish, like the way this warmed up which you do not really say about this style usually, hops were strong all the way through, there was nice complexity of citrus flavors mixed with dryness from the aftertaste, nicely balanced and different from any other DIPA I have head, its taste reminds me of a mix of a heavily hopped IPA and an imperial red, mouthfeel is dry, sticky, and minimally sweet, medium bodied, nice popping level of carbonation, taste lingers well, could have drank several glasses of this, the alcohol was well hidden, light on the stomach, keeps you coming back for me, great drinkability, too bad this stuff will be gone soon, glad I got the opportunity to try such a scarce beer that turned out to be a project that worked quite well, hope this hop is used in other beers in years to come, pretty sure it was one of Sierra Nevada's own hops from their adjacent field at their brewery in Chico, but that is just my guess, hope to have some more of this later this week, highly recommended