Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Fresh Hop Ale
2010 batch, sent to me from bstaffor in the Hoppy Summer to You BIF -- thanks again, Brian! Poured into a tulip pint: Transparent, brassy, dark orange body under two fingers plus of cream, glistening head that rises above the lip of the glass like a souffle. In the red highlights I can make out some slowly rising nucleation. Smell is relatively subtle for the style, but I'm getting some warm-ish grapefruit smells, slightly sugary malt backing it up, with some cooked, caramalized notes. Some cane cola? Not bad, but I wish there were more of it. A kind of peppermint emerges later on, as it warms. Some kick at first, with sharp, even pithy, orange & grapefruit flavors. Moves into a little sugary sweetness, again reminiscent of soda (root beer?), & quickly out again. Some leafy, piney qualities, assertively bitter but not overdoing it. Aftertaste is straight pine bitterness. That caramel/toffee-ish sweetness grows with warmth & becomes pretty prominent after a while. Medium-full-bodied, with some definite bite at the beginning, finish, & aftertaste. Leaves my palate feeling rubbed down afterward, but not stripped. With the balance of sweet & bitter here, this is almost in DIPA territory for me -- the malt is very assertive, coming through loud & clear to make itself known. Not bad, a little too sweet for me to love it, but I'll have no problem finishing this big ol' bottle here.