Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., et al - "Beer Camp Across The World" Part 1

Well, looky here! This year's "Beer Camp Across The World" box has been released. For those of you not in the loop, each year Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. pairs with a dozen other breweries to release a special, one-off collaboration box. These are one-time-only, super special, creative releases are usually sold as one 12-pack together. I've examined these offerings in the past, including an intense look at the 2015 Beer Camp Across America box.

The box is actually split into two sections: six "Stateside Collaborators" and six "Overseas Collaborators." Half of the beers are made in concert with US-based breweries, and the other half are sourced from international breweries. I'm going to review the Stateside half in this post, and the Overseas offerings in a future post.

I kinda had to go for this first - a 9.40% ABV dry-hopped barleywine from Avery Brewing Co. 

As you all know, I love barleywine so I was very excited to see this in the box. The founder of Avery Brewing Co., Adam Avery, claims that Sierra Nevada's "Bigfoot" is what got him interested in the style of barleywine, and this offering is a blend of the Bigfoot recipe and Avery's "Hog Heaven", an imperial red IPA.

It pours red from the bottle, generates a super puffy white foam, much like its "Hog Heaven" heritage. Quite a nice aroma - strong and a very reminiscent of the archetype. At 90 IBUs, the taste matches my expectations - very strong and bitter, with lots of crisp, metallic hops and an overpowering texture. I like the potency of the beer, and if you're into very brassy, bitter hops, this is for you. I wonder how this would age!

Next up is Tree House Brewing's "East Meets West IPA", a 7.0% ABV hybrid IPA.

Now, as you may recall from my visit to Monson, MA, last year, Tree House stuff is very sought-after (the line was over 150 people long when I went) due to the brewery-only distribution. That's why I'm so surprised to see this in the box - this may be their first distributed beer. According to the source materials, the name refers to the blending of IPA recipes and styles - Sierra Nevada's, and Tree House's - to create a hybrid IPA.

Pours a hazy orange from a 16oz can. Aroma is bright, tart, and fresh. There's minimal bitterness, surprisingly, with juicy hops and little bit of fruitiness towards the end of the beer. Texture-wise, it's quite soft with a little bit of fizz. In the end, nothing terribly inventive, but nice and fresh and tasty. Good hop flavor, but not a lot of attendant bitterness.

I guess I'm in an IPA mood, next up is the "West Coast-style DIPA" from Boneyard Beer, based in Bend, OR.

The 8.30% ABV double IPA pours a clear golden from the pint can, throws a soft, basic IPA aroma. There's not a ton of character in the beer, and although it's soft and smooth, it definitely has that lingering bitterness from hops. I'm not finding a lot to write home about, but it's a drinkable IPA that hides the alcohol well.

This was interesting - Saint Arnold Brewing Co.'s "Dry-Hopped Berliner-Style Weisse", a 4.20% ABV weissbier.

Since this is the third beer in this series that's dry-hopped, a word about that: "Dry-hopping" is a brewing process that adds unboiled hops (i.e. "dry") to a beer to increase hop flavor but not bitterness. These hops can be added, using a variety of mechanisms, at different times to increase aroma, flavors, etc. Some brewers, like Port City, have created devices to directly infuse hops into the beer (theirs is called the "Hopzooka"). So when I hear that beer is dry-hopped, I don't always expect bitterness, but I do expect hop flavors.

The beer throws a slight lemon aroma, but not much else. The taste is really quite dry, with hints of dark spice, developing into flat cereal flavors that lingering long after swallowing. This beer uses Sierra Nevada's Kellerweis yeast, which may contribute to the spice flavors. While I can appreciate the craft, it's not my cup of tea per se (but a nice example of a Sahara-dry Berlinerweiss!)

Whoa, here we go - next one is Minnesota's own Surly Brewing Co.'s "Ginger Lager", a 6.20% ABV lager brewed with ginger, cayenne pepper, and fermented in oak barrels. Sounds good already!

Pours a honey orange, with lots of tiny bubbles and a thin white foam. Aroma is thin but has an interesting piquant bite - and delivers in taste a crisp ginger flavor that gives way to a long lingering finish of cayenne. It's not as gingery as the ginger root atom bomb that was Sierra Nevada's "Walk in The Woods" but if you like ginger beer, this is the perfect beer for you. The added cayenne reminds me a lot of Hosmer Mountain Beverages' cane sugar ginger beer, which is excellent for dark n' stormies I'll have you know.

Finally, we come to The Bruery's "Raspberry Sundae", an 8.0% ABV blonde ale made with lactose, cocoa, vanilla, and raspberry.

Chock-full of flaked oats, pilsner, and chocolate malts, this beer throws little aroma and presents strong raspberry flavors, like the raspberry syrup you'd put on ice cream. Not super sugary, I'm having a hard time detecting the vanilla or cocoa flavors. There's a nice creaminess, undoubtedly from the lactose, which makes this (texture-wise) quite true to its name.