Sierra Nevada’s Fresh Hop Pack was a wonder to behold… and to drink.
Sierra Nevada makes great beer, so it’s no surprise the Fresh Hop Pack is any different. It’s filled with four fresh hopped IPA concepts, from an easy sipping session to a rich DIPA.
According to Sierra Nevada, “Every year, at the height of the hop harvest, our brewers make the trek to the Pacific Northwest for the finest cuts available.” And those finest cuts available led to some of my favorite fresh hopped IPAs out there. So I drank 12 of them and tried to write poems about each one.
Fresh Hop Session IPA – 4.8%
Sierra Nevada says their session is an “intense herbal and dank hop flavors in this crisp, snappy, golden session IPA.”
And it was. It had nice fruit and floral flavor, with citrus and piney bitterness, and just a bit of grainy, spice flavor. Very light, and like they said, crisp.
‘Sit back with
your feet up
forget all about your
hardluck. Smile man
you’ve got good beer in your hand.’
Fresh Hop IPA – 6.4%
Sierra Nevada says it’s “fresh, bold and slightly hazy.”
I found it a very juicy IPA. It pours a beautiful hazy gold. The beer itself is a nice mix of citrus and pine and resin hop flavor. It finishes dry, and gets better with each sip.
‘Here’s to
fresh starts and fresh
hops, hope
and the beckoning
of the coast.’
Fresh Hop Double – 8.0%
Sierra Nevada packed this double with fresh Simcoe hops, giving it “huge citrus and grapefruit-like hop flavor.”
This one was the most interesting, in that, it wasn’t like most DIPAs. It had some strong notes of coffee and very sweet, almost chocolate notes of malt. Behind that, you get the familiar, intense piney bitterness, and sharp grapefruit riney notes.
‘Doubles going
down in a dive
sticky soles washed
cleaned, in the snow
on the wintery walk home
head toward starry skies
dreaming about life.’
Celebration IPA – 6.8%
The holiday classic. Celebration achieves perfect harmony of bitterness and sweet, dessert like malts. On the hop side the Cascade, Centennial and Chinook hops give it notes of woody pine and citrus bite and the malts achieve a caramel almost cream soda like flavor. It’s definitely cause for celebration.
‘the holidays are
heaven that special
time of year
family friends beer
that warm communion
celebrating what it means
to be human
and just for a moment we achieve
a quiet night of holy peace.’
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(Want me to write about your beer? Click here.
Curious about what the hell a 12 pack poem is? Click here.)