Sierra Nevada decided to brew a fresh hop beer in the spring. In order to do that, they had to find a place that grew hops in the spring. This brought them to New Zealand, where they got the hops and immediately dried and shipped them to their brewery in California. Their Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale is like no beer I’ve had before. It has a very different hop profile than most similar beers.
The beer pours a nice amber color with a small off-white head. It smells of floral hops with a hint of pine and an ever so slight malty sweetness. The beer tastes immediately of hops. It’s an earthy, floral, aromatic type flavor, which is not something I’ve ever had before (no surprise considering I’ve never had a beer made with hops from New Zealand). There’s some piney notes in there along with a little malt flavor to give it the perfect amount of balance. It’s a bit oily in the mouth, but that was expected from the fresh hops. The beer is a bit hoppy for an American Pale Ale (the classification on BA), but it’s still a great beer. I highly recommend this for someone looking for something a bit different… so long as you like hops. It’s available in 24 oz. bottles.
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