Today I have the chance to write my final reflections on the Sierra Nevada Beer Camp Across America 12 pack. As a refresher, Sierra Nevada collaborated with 12 different breweries across the country to create some new, one-time only brews. It would allow people in different parts of America try beers from breweries that typically only distribute on a local level. For example, East-Coasters can rarely get Russian River beers, and those outside of the Midwest cannot get 3 Floyds beers.
My overall take-away is that Sierra Nevada, a phenomenal brewery, collaborated with 12 hot and highly regarded breweries, and made 12 decent (some were very good) beers. I did thoroughly enjoy a few, and I was most excited to try beers from breweries I had only heard stories and seen pictures of. I would say the Russian River and Three Floyds were the 2 that I was most excited about. Neither were anything special, but it gave me the chance to try them at least.
Overall, here is how, at the end of beer camp, I would rank them. Note that this may actually be different than my numerical rankings, but this is how I would look back on them.
1. Bell's Imperial Dark Ale
2. Ballast Point India Pale Lager (IPL)
3. Oskar Blues Rye Bock
4. Ninkasi Coffee Milk Stout
5. Cigar City Tropical Maibock
6. 3 Floyds Pale Ale
7. New Glarus English Style Bitter
8. Russian River Belgian Style Blonde
9. Firestone Walker Hoppy Pilsner
10.Allagash Belgian Style Pale Ale
11. Victory Brewing Altbier
12. Ashville Breweries Alliance Scottish Ale
I would say that the first 3 were phenomenal beers. The fourth and fifth were excellent beers. 7 and 8 were pretty good. 9 was OK. 10 was nothing special, and 11 & 12 were not good. I wouldn't expect a 12 pack to have 12 world class beers, but I have to look at each independently and critically. I've read some critical reviews were people wished that Sierra Nevada, for example, just blended a 3 Floyds Zombie Dust with their West Coast IPA, or something like that. The end result was a just mediocre Pale Ale that was not really reflective of either's brewing capabilities.
I am glad that I purchased the 12 pack and tried them all. I hope my reader's are not sick of hearing about it, but I hope that they had the chance to learn about some new breweries. I even heard stories of some readers (Dan L.) who specifically bought that Beer Camp pack because of the blog! That is the reason I got into blogging about beers. I was trying these already, and many friends of mine would call or text me when they were at the store or craft beer bar and ask for suggestions. This is a fun way to educate people and show how much variety and fun there is in sampling beers.
Again thank you for all of the comments, suggestions and complements so far in this craft beer journey. I am happy to report that in the 2.5 months of the blog, we have almost 6000 hits on the site! I hope to continue to expand my team section, and if anyone wants to write a guest blog, or become part of the team, please reach out!
I have a new email address as well, so feel free to write comments and suggestions to that. [email protected]
Cheers!
Scott
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