I admit it. I'm a softy for animals -- especially in a brewing context (have I ever mentioned that my little little girl [cat] Sophie prefers IPAs?). So with this in mind, the fact that it was still 'Best Before' 29JUL09, and this was on sale was all enough for me to put aside my boredom re: New Belgium, and I grabbed a sixer for the heck of it.

In short? I'm rather pleased with this beer, to be honest. A very nice, very "sessionable" American Pale Ale.

A bit muted in the aroma -- neither the Cascades nor the Amarillos really play a role in that regard. No matter, they carry their fair share of the load in the front of the boil.

The mention of "honey malt" in the write-up kinda scared me -- can't count how many beers I've run across that have royally sucked due to too much honey malt in the bill. But here? The nuance of the honey malt plays nice with the hop bill.

Other folks have mentioned that they'd like to see a bit more gumption in the hop bill. I'm a diehard hophead, no apologies here..., but I'm not sure I agree with this notion. I think upping the IBUs would make this a bit stingy in the mouthfeel (ala SNPA), whereas I think this works as is, as a late Spring/early Summer sessionable Pale Ale.

Recommend.

//TB

The last of a sixer of this, and I have to say that this did not suck. In fact, it was a good running mate for Sierra Nevada's Summerfest for my Hot & Sweaty After-Work Libation of Choice Award!

Now, it could be more banana & clovey, true. But I'd rather have a rather muted Hefe yeast than the 999 variants of boring-as-hell Widmer clones that every single brewpub offers as their "{so-and-so} Wheat".

Comments re: a tad bit of saltiness aren't out of line IMO. In fact, this did remind me a little (er, very little) of why I like Goses.

Perhaps a little on the sweet side of things. Or, rather, there's not quite enough attenuation and/or hop profile to keep this from straying to the sweet side of the spectrum. But it's surely not cloying, and overall, it's very quaffable, indeed.

I have a hard time going all-out praising an American Hefe -- yes, even when it does a bang-up job like this. But still, a rock-solid beer.
//TB

Original Review, 19FEB09:

This has been one beer that has been quite a lightning rod for folks it seems; folks jumping all over (and up and down) raving about it, or folks railing their disgust with equal parts passion and vitriol.

While I can't jump up and shout to sing the praises of this beer, I can't see me cursing Sierra Nevada for this beer, either. Rather, I admit that I'm just a bit bummed with it, is all.

When this was a Ltd Ed draught-only offering, it was a nice treat -- and, from what I understand, probably not the same recipe as this bottled version. I know it was a lot drier back then, that's for for sure.

But now that this is bottled-only and year-round, I can't consider this much less dry "Extra IPA" to be anything more than disappointing. This may sport some 70-something IBUs, but the hop profile does this beer no favors. This is way too sweet and almost cloying, especially as this warms. The hops are not carrying their share of the load here, so the "crazy strange flavor profile" certainly fits here. To a tee.

I held off on reviewing the first five bottles of this, in the hopes that my post-cold taste buds just weren't up to snuff. But my cold is long gone, and this final bottle? No more appealing than the first. In fact, the more I drink this, the less I like it. Really.

I'll other folks debate the nitty-gritty hows and whys this beer doesn't work. But in the here-and-now, this sixer was a hassle to drink, and never won me over. There's far worse out there, of course. But Sierra Nevada knows they can do better than this. `Nuff said.

===============

Re-Review, 28JUN09:

Much more appealing this time around. Doesn't seem nearly as cloying as when I had this in February. Or maybe it's becuase it's now Summer here in San Diego, and virtually anything cold and decent will hit the spot? Nah! :)

//TB

I think we’re all Bozos on this bus… I mean, really - who would ever have given their money to a guy with a name like “Made-Off?” If one day an oily guy named Soprano showed up at your door wearing a suit that said Countrywide offering free money; who would have taken it? Isn’t ‘free money’ an oxymoron? If it was all too good to be true, it was. Wasn’t the end in sight when ‘Flip This House’ went on television…? In the future 2009 will be in there with 1929, 1941, and 1968. OK, we ALL partied down and, YES, we took some liberties with some of our female guests. But now it’s the day after Mardi Gras when everyone kneels down and prays. Apparently, it really is possible to have too much fun. But it is far better to have partied and lost than to never have partied at all. Gracefully surrender the things of 2008. Smoke a fag, drink a beer, and buy toothpaste…in that order. Live to party again…

Macro-Economics 101, from the 420 Krewe @ Lag? Oh fuckin' brother....

But anyway, this beer, that makes a huge point to push this beer as "This is NOT a Double IPA. It's just a good American Ale", is still what any common-sensed drinker would call an American IPA. This is supposed to be a beer meant to pull back the reins a bit, but is still clocking in at 1.062 O.G. and 74.20 IBUs? Nice to see that the Lag'ers are still hitting the ol' peace pipe....

This beer is a cousin to the Hop Stoopid, or perhaps a younger half-brother. Same emphasis on the hoppy aroma, same basic hop profile in the flavor. And the same vaguely fake but not unappealing "feel" to the whole affair. Is this another beer with some/most/all hop extract vice actual hop flowers/pellets/cones?

Not sure. But while I was pleasantly surprised with this beer at the onset, it calmed down some, and got in a bit a groove the rest of the way. Not in a bad way, mind you, but just similar to how a pitcher will punch out 4-5 batters in a row with strikeouts in the first two innings...., and then spend the rest of the time in the game getting less fancy but no less effective pop-ups and easy grounders for outs.

The past year or so it seems like Lagunitas has sobered up some, and has actually tried to step away from the pot-head shtick to make some decent beers. We'll see.

This one is not perfect -- the chalky bitterness ("fake" or not) got a little tiresome near the end -- but this is a step in the right direction.
//TB

As some folks know, I had a heck of time getting back from a business trip to Western Japan. A taxi to the bus Sasebo bus station, and a bus ride from Sasebo to Nagasaki, and a flight from Nagasaki to Haneda [Tokyo] airport, and a bus from Haneda to Narita [Tokyo] airport? Not my preferred way to get around, but no big deal.

But then running to the catch my flight leaving Narita, just to have the plane leave the gate, and then sit on the runway? For four hours? No A/C? While techs tried to fix the radio system? And then finally having the plane head back to Narita terminal, and have to fight for another flight out? And end up having to fly from Tokyo to Honolulu, and then Honolulu to Los Angeles? I'm all about making the best of my ample travel opportunities, and the adventure of it all. But come on now...!

So..., with too many airports and too many airplanes and too many time zones under my belt before getting home, you might have gotten away with putting a warm can of Keystone Light in front of me at the Karl Strauss bar at LAX, and I'd probably have ended up giving it a passing a grade.

So, with that sort of "rode hard and put up wet"/Road Warrior angle, am I even able to give this a real eval? I'd like to say, "Yes".

Enough intro -- and enough frequent flier flummoxing -- does this beer suck, or not?

I'll have to say, "Not". This does not suck, er, much.

Why the disclaimer/pause? Only in that, yes, this did okay for a frequent and/or jet-lagged flier..., I'm not so sure that this would be worth seeking out in less arduous conditions. The hop profile is far below specs -- chock full of those limp and overly soft/well-behaved hops that Karl Strauss has always preferred. IPAs need to have a maladjusted/misbehaving angle to the hop profile to really work. Even with old man Herr Strauss having passed on, the Karl Strauss outfit just does not understand American hop profiles at all.

The malt profile is thankfully robust enough to keep this from being an ad hoc resident of Sucksville, CA. But really? So what? Any ol' homebrewer can make some wort, and have some yeast chew on those sugars, to have them make both alcohol and CO². So having "Maker of adequate malt profiles" listed on a resume -- after I've won the Powerball Lotto, and when I'm hiring brewers for the ever-expanding Eye Chart Brewing Company -- that won't win me over one iota.

In short? Even if I wasn't worn-to-the-bone from too much travel in a 30-hour period, I still wouldn't give this much more than a "meh".
//TB