Sierra Nevada - Distinct Taste?

i personally find it smells and tastes like toe cheese.

 

Good to know about the Chico yeast. Great insight. I definitely also get a distinct Sierra Nevada flavor in all of their beer. To me it always reminds me of soapy citrus and pine soap. Admittedly very pleasant and enjoyable. Something I can usually smell a mile away. Depends on the style if it works. Usually works better and nicely for hoppy beers, but sometimes overpowers more light and traditional styles.

 

A Pale Ale would work wonderfully for this purpose.

 

They are fairly well known for their use of Cascade hops, whose primary flavor descriptors are not a million miles away from the flavors @defunksta describes above.

I think they use different percentages of the same few character malts in various beers in their portfolio, too. It wouldn’t shock me to find out there were only 4-5 different types of malt in the entire range. (I’m not saying that’s true, just that it wouldn’t shock me.)

I would say that SNPA is certainly a much different beer from Bigfoot or, say, that wonderful 40th Anniversary beer they made, but if you drank all three side to side, blind, you would know the same brewer brewed them.

 

Having been to Chico and Mills River, and having in depth tours I can say it is a house character due to many things.

1 Malt. They use the same base malt for aleswhich is a North American 2 row. Only one Crystal malt is used, C60. Some specially malts can be used for some beers. Pils malt and Munich for lagers. Wheat for wheat beers. Big breweries keep it simple for ease of production.

Water. They match the water profile between Chico and Mills River. Adjustmeiare made if the input water changes.

Yeast. Yeast has a large influence on beer flavor. The Chico yeast is used to give the results they want. They use a certain lager strain for the lagers they make, a German wheat beer strain for Jefes, and so on. Ones they know and are good performers.

Hops. They use whole cone hops. The hop room is heaven. There are more varieties than just Cascade. Look on their website to see what they use in the various beers. Their hops are selected at the hop farms, for the specific traits they desire.

Process. SN is one of the most capable breweries in the US if not the world. They have some really good technology throughout. Attention is paid to O2 levels start to finish so that the beer stays fresh on the shelf longer.

Hope this helps.

 

From a homebrewers perspective, I can tell you the Chico strain smells of mild green apple to me. Taste gets harder to describe, but I can tell the difference when I use another type of ale yeast. Besides that, small adjustment to the brewing conditions can effect the flavor outcome alot, water (salts), temps, pitch rates and some that I'm sure I'm not even aware of.

 

You eat a lot of toe cheese?

 

Hey man, no kink shaming on BA

 

Yes, SN IPA is special. If you are in Mexico or even Central America or Ecuador, you can buy it (in large cities) at any gas station.

 

And, of course: Lagunitas!

 

LMAO....

 

I don't know if it's the yeast or the hops, but agree on the distinctive taste. I find the SN Pale Ale a bit boring, but Torpedo is still high on my top 10 of regular rotation beers, and I remember loving Bigfoot when I had a few, years ago. (Although in my memory, it was a Ballast Point brew. Not that my memory is any good, even sober.)

 

Surprised by this. Nothing about summerfest is specifically or distinctly Sierra Nevada to my palate. Also, is this “Chico yeast” both lager and ale yeast? I don’t understand that element of it.

All that said, Sierra Nevada is only superseded in fanboyism by what, treehouse fanboys? They can do no wrong.

 

Maybe that's where the strain came from...

 

Ummm... (I won't repeat myself --- but I'll link to it! )

 

Yes I think most people can pick up a specific brewery flavor profile across much of their portfolio. Sierra Nevada is just one of many I believe.

 

True, one of many. But I think also one of the easiest.

 

Agree 100%. Locally, I thought Aslin out of northern Virginia had a very distinguished taste and assuming it’s based on the yeast as others mentioned. Lagunitas was another easy one to identify as well. I’m sure everyone has others to add. Those were just my most notable ones from recollection.