Sierra Nevada Releases Chico Estate Harvest Ale

For the first time ever, Sierra Nevada's Estate Harvest Ale - a wet hop (fresh hop) ale made from hops grown on Sierra Nevada'a hop farm - has been bottled and released outside the brewery. It hits store shelves starting today in Chico, CA and should soon be in limited spots around the country. There will be 1400 cases and a few dozen kegs sent around the country, which is not much at all. To put it in perspective, the brewery got 95 cases and sold about 50 in six hours according to the brewers there. The good news? With their hop yard growing, they hope to possibly triple production next year. Personally, I'm going to be on the lookout for this beer THIS year!

The Sierra Nevada Chico Estate Harvest Ale comes in at:

 - 6.7% abv
 - 68 IBUs of freshness
 - Contains locally grown and harvested Cascade (of course), Centennial and Chinook (my favorite!)
 - Is finished with Cascade

Fresh hop ales are great! By not drying the hops, you get more of the natural oils and essence from the hops, giving you a much more complex hop profile. Plus, they can usually only be produced around late summer/early fall (Sierra Nevada did a fresh hop ale using southern hemisphere hops, so they were able to do one off season, but that's pretty much the only way that can happen). We highly recommend you check a few of these fresh hop ales out for yourself this season!

For more info from Sierra Nevada and to see a video of it's production, check out the official website here.