Hey there, beer drinker! How would you like an audition? I don’t mean a try out for whatever your talent happens to be, no I don’t indeed. Well, unless your talent is beer drinking Yes, the Audition I’m referring to is Audition Ale from the Sierra Nevada Brewing Company of Chico, California and Mills River, North Carolina. Audition Ale is really a series of ales, each a trial batch for a beer that may become a production brew for Sierra Nevada-or may not.
Last July, I took a trip to the new Sierra Nevada brewery in Mills River, North Carolina, and picked up a 750 ML bottle of Sierra Nevada Audition Double IPA, said by the brewery to be a “West Coast Style IPA” in today’s use of that term. Normally I would tell you what they say about the beer on the label but, since they’ve placed the words so eloquently on the back label, I’ll just show you.
Sierra Nevada Audition Double IPA has an alcohol content of 8.9% by volume and I paid $9.99 for my bottle at the brewery. It went straight from a cooler at the brewery to my beer fridge here in Georgia, and I drank it a few months after I bought it.
Sierra Nevada Audition Double IPA pours to a pale golden color with a prodigious head of creamy foam and an inviting nose of soft resin and tropical fruit. A thick layer of Brussels lace forms on the sides of my glass and follows the liquid all the way to the bottom.
Taking a sip, the beer is light malty as today’s “West Coast IPA” style demands, and while the hops hit you quickly I’m not getting as much fruitiness as I did in the nose (there’s a hint of passion fruit though). More to the point, I get waves of resiny piney hops leading into a long, very dry and herbal bitter finish. Those hops are peppery, too, and deposit a massive long dry herbal resiny bitterness on the tongue.
All in all, this is a very nicely done and enjoyable DIPA straddling the hop preferences of today’s two coasts. Just like Sierra Nevada does, when you think about it.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft