Sierra Nevada – Anniversary Ale

If you’re a fan of Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale, you’ll really dig the Anniversary Ale. It’s a beautiful beer, with it’s copper coloring and long-lasting, rocky head – which sustains with nice lacing throughout the life of the pint. The taste is essentially a more refined version of the Pale, with a little more Cascade presence on the nose and body, and a slightly more malty mouthfeel. It’s good. Real good, actually. I’ve seen some other reviews which make this beer seem kind of average, but for me, this beer’s best quality is it’s accessibility. A beer doesn’t have to do something revolutionary or radical to be good, and I’m actually impressed more with balance and drinkability than with a quirky recipe. </vent> Anyway, pick some up if you can find it and I think you’ll find that this offering may not push the boundaries of beer making, but it’s damn good with a burger. Cheers~G

score – 3.25

Behind the Beer

The nice thing about brewing your own beer is sharing the finished product with your friends. Part of the excitement is not only the way it tastes, but the story of how the pint was created. A couple of my buddies have taken their obsession hobby to a new level of geekdom by not only brewing their own beer, but they have created a site dedicated to bringing you the story behind the beer. The idea is to contact beermakers who are consistently putting out quality beers, then hound them until they finally submit to an interview. So far, so good, and the content is slowly accumulating into a nice little site. They are also video geeks, so all of the future video content will be top-notch, hi-def, h-264 encoded, now I’m just making things up, awesome video. Stay tuned for updates or check it out for yourself. Drop ‘em a line if you have suggestions – they’re super cool and up for anything. Cheers ~G