Sierra Nevada - Snowpack (Winter Sampler)

Why Boomerang instead of Celebration??!

 

By the time I polish off a 12 pack of any single beer I'm either getting tired of it or it isn't fresh anymore. I love the SN variety packs because: 1) A chance to try new beer or refresh my memory of how a beer I haven't had for a while tastes. 2) If I don't care for a particular beer(not likely) I only have two left. 3) The beer is always fresh. 4) It's cheaper than buying six packs. I don't care what SN puts in the variety packs because it's all good!

 

Yeah, it seems the Fall Pack wasn't available nearly long enough. I enjoyed the beers in the Fall Pack so much I went back to buy another and much to my disappointment they were all gone. I did score a Snowpack so the trip wasn't a total disappointment.

 

The beer in the Snow Pack is not as fresh as you think...my pack has the Porter dated 9/4, SNPA 9/5, Coffee Stout 9/12, and Boomerang 9/15. I just bought the pack last week, but these beers are already 6-7 weeks old. I heard that these samplers require more effort in the packaging, but this is bit much, especially for the pale ale/IPAs.

 

Was lucky enough to share a beer camp pack with my California son in law last month. (He cellared it for us.) It wasn't available here on the beach in lower Alabama. We loved it.
I hope Snowpack is in our next distribution here in the south.
Share us some love!

 

Good catch. I checked my bottles and they were bottled on about the same dates. Guess I should make some room in my fridge so I can start drinking them.

 

Why did they put that pale ale in there? Celebration when it comes out is gonna blow all of those away. Its coming this week and I will be there to pick it up. It takes the place of several winter lagers . Torpedo is my go to rotating with centennial and Sweetwater ipa. Of course two hearted 16oz.as a in between.

 

Let me be the first to say it: Why did they put Pale Ale in here?

/Sarcasm

 

Doesn't Sierra Nevada bottle condition their beer? Always tastes good to me. Heck I accidentally saved a Celebration for 8 months and it was still fantastic.

 

I just drank one I found from 2011 and while it isn't the awesome hoppy-nes that is fresh Celebration, it was still great.

 

It's a crazy world we live in. Oktoberfest is in September. Pumpkin ales are drunk a solid month before thinking of carving a pumpkin. Fall pack comes out and it feels like summer. Winter "snow pack" comes out in fall. Is it really winter already? Am I in denial or is the weather just nice? Both work fine by me.
Oh yeah, so I picked this up yesterday. It's solid. Porter had that slight, weird metallic-y aftertaste; Revolution Eugene porter had it too. What is that? So good up till that point. Maybe I'm just hallucinating. LoL at the ppl bitching about SNPA. It's funny cause believe it or not it is practically the only SN i haven't tried. idk why, always figured it would be boring or something and why not just get torpedo? Boomerang ipa was tasty. gonna review that one cause right now it's at like an 85 on B.A. and I think it deserves to break 90. Coffee stout was delicious! Gonna grab another pack before they're gone.
Also, Narwhal should have been a mandatory release in a "snow pack." Next time, please.

 

I thought the coffee stout was stellar and the porter was really good. I'd get that porter again - kind of forgot they made one - and the stout if they decided to put it out in six packs. The Boomerang I thought was skunk-city, did not like it very much. And the pale ale, eh, was pale ale - I cracked two of them and polished them off in a nonic and took care of the next one the following afternoon. Replace the Boomerang with Celebration next year and I'll buy it again!

 

Maybe because Pale Ale is a classic?

As for the pack itself, I loved all the beers, both old and new (no shocker there.... SN is my favorite brewery). Coffee Stout was fantastic and Boomerang was very solid as well. Love that porter was thrown in as I believe that many people overlook just how good Porter (and Stout and Kellerweis) are. Can't wait for Celebration to hit the shelves here, but I am really enjoying this pack and hope SN keeps it up. Both the Fall and Winter mix packs were great.

 

Chicagoland Costco has 24 pack Snowpacks for 22.99.

 

$14.99 at my grocery store. I had to pull the trigger

 

That boomerang, what did that come close to in taste? I'm a hop head and unfortunately go to iPas constantly so I miss out on the different stouts and winter lagers. I hate it but can't change.

 

Bottle says packaged 9/17/14. WTF!

 

They bottle condition. It probably takes two weeks after it's bottled to build carbonation and be ready to leave the warehouse.

 

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