Sierra Nevada Southern Hemisphere Harvest Ale

Hope is everyone is having a great Labor Day.

The painting of the Pinhead Studios (our Family room) is complete - yeah - we enlisted a bunch of 8 and 13 year olds to help (I'm changing the name of the Holiday to Child Labor Day!). Don't worry - only a few drops of paint got on the Juke, but they wore out my copy of Blues Theme / Bongo Party.

It's time to Relax by the Grill with a Hearty Ale - Here's the propoganda from the Sierra Nevada website:

Our newest addition to our Harvest family is Southern Hemisphere Harvest. This is the first time we know of that an American brewer has put out a beer with fresh-picked hops from the southern hemisphere. The inaugural ale will debut in late April and will feature fresh Pacific Hallertau, New Zealand Motueka and New Zealand Southern Cross hops, all from New Zealand.

Like our Celebration Ale, the fresh hops in this beer are dried right after being picked then shipped immediately to Chico for brewing so that they retain their peak aromatics and flavors. To ensure the freshest hops possible, we went to the added expense of flying these hops from New Zealand to Chico so we could brew with them the week after they were picked.

alcohol content 6.7% by volume	yeast Ale Yeast
beginning gravity 14.7 Plato	bittering hops Pacific Halertau
ending gravity 3.9 Plato	finishing hops New Zealand Motueka & New Zealand Southern Cross
bitterness units 66	malts Pale & Caramel

Well, the first taste was a revelation of Ale goodness - can't wait to chomp down on one of those BBQ'd Shrimp and wash it down with the Southern Hemisphere!