Sierra Nevada Beer Camp There and Back

This is part of the 2014 Beer Camp Across America special release from Sierra Nevada Brewing of Chico, California. They invited breweries all across America to join in a collaboration brew with them and/or join them on their Beer Camp Tour with seven stops across the USA as their bus makes its way to the site of their new brewery in Mills River, NC (there is an eighth mini-camp at El Bait Shop in Des Moines, Iowa). The release features a mixed 12 pack of twelve unique beers, two in cans.

This beer, reminiscent of the Hobbit (there and back again) is a 5.6% ABV English-style bitter made in collaboration with New Glarus Brewing of New Glarus, Wisconsin. 

The beer pours a gleaming copper and amber. There is a relatively short head of bubbly off-white foam that is not long lasting. The aroma is toasted, light caramel, and a bit nutty. To me it is a quintessential “beer” aroma. The taste hits the toasted malt notes of the aromas, adds in a subtle dose of cherry and ripe plum fruit notes, along with a grassy, tangy bitterness on the end. The finish is crisply dry. Somewhat subtle, but tasty, and well done, very refreshing.