Why I can't stop drinking Sierra Nevada?

The worlds great beer styles usually evolve over many many years and have a tradition and story behind them.

"Double Imperial IPA" didn't evolve....they were invented by a marketing team.

That's not to say they cant be tasty...Super Tuscan wines are modern hybrids (which is why the Italian DOC won't recognize them) and some are world class. Unfortunately, in MY opinion, most of the "Styles" invented in the last 10 years are unbalance and gimmicky. I doubt many will be around in 20 years to achieve "classic" status.

I cringe a bit when Pioneer breweries like Sierra Nevada, Anchor, Boston Beer Co, etc jump on this band wagon. Guinness is in the "jump the shark" process right now.

 

All the world's styles of beer were new, and there were opinions about every one of them about being gimmicky from some folks. Everything is a gimmick, no matter how long it takes to develop it, or how long it takes to gain popularity, until the day it is accepted as not being gimmicky. Light lagers were a gimmick, hops were a gimmick, even carbonated beer was probably a gimmick at one time.

Vinnie Cilurzo was first to brew a IIPA, which, despite your opinion, was just an updated version, with modern hops and yeast, of highly hopped pale ales made for hundreds of years in England. I still remember when there was a thread on this forum, "That new style Double IPA". Any info to share about who else was on Vinnie Cilurzo's marketing team to which you refer?

 

That's funny, I feel the same way except about Smuttynose Finestkind. Also 24 for 24

 

Light Lager, hops, and carbonation have been around way before the word "gimmick". That's a stretch. Traditional beer style developed from people simply trying to make "beer" and using local ingredients and the equipment and technology they had. That's what SNPA really is... An English pale ale with American ingredients. They inadvertently created a classic. Same for Steam Beer

I think you are missing my main point and the point of the thread. Beers like Sierra Nevada Pale Ale are classics and have been around for a few decades for a reason. Too many people getting into craft beer lately dismiss these classics because they are distracted by 9%ABV 10000IBU (insert name) India Pale Ale.

Now normal ABV brews have to be referred to as "session" beers.


As for IIPA, what was that other than extra malt and hops in the mash tun in the theme of "anything worth doing is worth over doing".

Now I see he is into sours beers...probably the next style to be bastardized. Once you have an appreciation for a beer as complex as Rodenbach Grand Cru and have mastered Flemish Red Ale then maybe I will be interested in your "Double Sour Imperial India Pale Lager" that is probably already being made. Just take a style you already have and make it sour. So creative.

I'm waiting for the acid wars to begin....bottles with pucker faced cartoon characters proclaiming to be the most tart beer ever made.

 

Well it is you who called some beers gimmicky, it is you who said there was a marketing team behind IIPA, it is you who called some beers absurd, and it is you who spoke of reaching beer enlightenment. It is I who said all new things are called gimmicks by some people ( a truism you nonetheless attempt to refute by restating an opinion), there was no marketing team behind IIPA (a fact I am still waiting to be updated with better facts by you), and calling beers absurd is not the path to the enlightenment you speak about(a belief I feel strongly about, even moreso after re reading all your posts). Perhaps you will take a moment and reflect. In any case, I'm out. Cheers!

 

I hope I can finally learn to become like this in the near future! When you get a second job to support your craft beer obsession.......

 

You have taken my statements into a wormhole.

One would have a better appreciation of Led Zepplin if you listened to the blues legends that influenced their songs. If you have Double IIPA in your fridge but never tried Sierra Nevada Pale Ale....I would recommend you do. That is all.

 

Very few beers I don't enjoy from these guys. It's ALWAYS on sale here. They make some good seasonal variety packs. The quality of their beer is consistently good. I can get it within a month to two from the bottling, sometimes less. The Celebration and Fall pack, I could pretty much exist on those suds alone, and be happy.

 

Anyone tried the SN Summer pack. Not available here yet.

 

Top whatever? Try the hoptimun, BA bigfoot and BA narwhal and get back to me.

 

I'm not saying they're not good, but look at the top 250 list and tell me if you see them.
They are all great beers.

 

Ever walk into a bar where all the options are ridiculously macro and then there's Sierra Nevada Pale Ale.

The joy I feel every time... you'd think I just purchased the biggest whale ever.