Year of New Beer (DAY 2000!) - 30th Anniversary: Jack & Ken's Ale, Sierra Nevada Brewing (CA)

Written By: Dion on 06/23/2017

I've been drinking whatever craft beer I could get my hands on for nearly 25 years. For some reason, on January 1, 2012, I decided to try and drink a beer I'd never had before, every single day, for one year. I did it. And I just kept going. With the craft beer explosion over the last five years, it has actually been pretty easy. As an added bonus, I've met a lot of awesome people along the way! For tonight's milestone number, I thought it would be fitting to enjoy a beer from one of the first craft breweries I can remember sampling. That first Sierra Nevada Pale Ale was a bracing, bitter smack in the face. This bottle is older than TYONB quest itself, having been brewed in 2010. The nose is rich with burnt sugar, raisins, coffee, chocolate, and campfire. On the tongue is a big roasted malt presence, almost charred, in fact. An underlying brown sugar and caramel sweetness stands in stark contrast to the surprising level of earthy hop bitterness still present after all these years. Dry, powdery cocoa and a smoky pine coat the mouth, augmented by fig, plum, and raisin. A warming, woody alcohol maintains a subtle presence throughout. Absolutely stellar. If only all beers could age this gracefully.