December 14

December 14 - Sierra Nevada's DevESTATEtion

Devastation outside!  Snow everywhere!  I don't know exactly how the people at Sierra Nevada felt when they lost their barley crop this past year and named this beer in honor/remembrance of that, but I can imagine.  OK, really I can't, but that's besides the point.

Anyway, starting things off with this beer...getting into this beer was a different challenge.  I guess the folks at Sierra Nevada were mad that their crop got ruined, so they didn't want the same thing to happen to the beer too.  The top of the bottle, including bottle cap, was sealed in a black wax.  Carefully using a knife, I whittled down the wax in order to expose the cap.  Don't worry, all 5 of my fingers are intact.

 

When pouring this beer, the head on this thing was really thick.  I thought it was my poor pour, but each glass after that did the same thing (I got 2.5 glasses out of this bomber!).  The head stayed with this beer the entire time too.  It got thin, but never completely disappeared.

 

As for the aroma, there was some roasted chocolate and earthy aroma with hints of citrus.  Taste-wise, there were no surprises here.  This brew tasted exactly how it smelled.  There wasn't a ton of hop-bite at the end either.  A very smooth drinking IPA (6.7% ABV) for sure.  My wife tried it (who hates IPAs by the way), and was actually pleased with it.    

Take that drought!  4.5/5 for this Black IPA!