Sierra Nevada brings fresh hop beer to summer with Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale

June 14, 4:11 PMFairfield County Craft Beer ExaminerJim Armstrong

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Fairfield County Craft Beer Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Wet hop beers are in a class of their own. Brewed with just-picked hops thrown right in the kettle without being dried, these beers manage to pack an enormous amount of hop flavor while staying smooth and utterly drinkable. My favorite wet hop beer to date is Sierra Nevada’s Harvest Ale, first released in 1996 and credited with bringing wet hop beer onto the American beer drinker’s radar.

Sierra Nevada added to the Harvest Series with the Chico Estate Harvest Ale, made with hops picked from the brewer’s own hop fields. Due to the very limited hop supply, this beer has only been available in draft. However, this year Sierra Nevada will release a very limited number of bottles, and future bottling runs should grow in size as the brewery expands their Chico hop fields. This is one of a very limited number of estate harvest ales available worldwide, so try and get your hands on a few bottles in the coming years.

Both of these Harvest beers are highly rated, but the problem with wet hop beers is their limited availability – you can only brew them when hops are being harvested. This has meant a late summer release for Chico Estate Harvest and a fall release for the original Harvest Ale, leaving us thirsty for more come spring when our winter stockpiles have run out. Enter the latest addition to the Harvest family – the Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale.

Sierra Nevada takes advantage of the fact that New Zealand’s hop harvest occurs during our spring season. The beer uses fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka, and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, picked in New Zealand and shipped to Chico for brewing. The big difference here is that the hops are dried before use, meaning this is technically not a wet hop beer. The end result, however, is just as good.

The whole point of using wet hops is that they retain more of the essential oils which give the beer an increased hop aroma and flavor. The Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale does not disappoint in this regard. The nose is dominated by a spicy hop aroma, and a sip delivers a strong and complex hop bitterness which is held in balance by a rich malt backbone. It is a harsher hop flavor than found in the Harvest Series’ wet hop beers, but is still light-years smoother than the average IPA or super-hoppy West Coast brew.

Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale clocks in at 6.7% ABV and is sold in 24 oz bottles, so it is definitely not a summer lawnmower beer – drink with caution, especially on hot days in the sun! However, the fact that Sierra Nevada has given us the opportunity to drink a fresh hop beer in the summer months is cause for celebration, so run out and pick up a few before I buy them all!

For more info: See Sierra Nevada's press release about Southern Hemisphere's release