Sierra Nevada DevESTATEtion

Sierra Nevada DevESTATEtion

It’s a shame when good barley goes bad. This spring, the combined effect of double digit sustained winds and concentrated rainfall created major stress on the normal course of our barley maturation — our crop went down for the count. Instead of crying in our beer—or lack thereof—we decided to do one better and make something new. Featuring organic malts and our estate-grown wet hops, this black IPA is the evil twin of our legendary Estate Ale. Black in color with a mild roasty flavor and moderate body, this beer has a bold citrusy and earthy hop flavor and aroma from the use of our own wet hops. We’d never let one bad harvest get in the way of a great beer, so join us in a toast to the memory of our devastating season.
3.7
218 reviews
Chico, United States

Community reviews

3.5 Bottle sample at a tasting at Dancing Camel. Thanks Yoav. Pours brown to orange with a huge beige head, aroma of chocolate, some hops and orange, flavor of chocolate, some peaty notes, orange, tangerine and bitterness, medium bodied.
3.3 Bottle sample at a tasting at Dancing Camel. Thanks Yoav. Clear dark amber-brown with a frothy beige head. Aroma of piney hops, roast and chocolate. Bittersweet flavor, roasty and hoppy, with a big of dark chocolate, a bit of coffee and a bitter finish with piney notes. Medium-bodied.
4.1 Rating. #500! A worthy beer for it. 24 oz bottle poured into my ipa glass. Pours a dark cola color with a thick fluffy light tan head that leaves awesome lacing. Smells off roasted malt, chocolate, citrus, caramel and pine. Tastes of the same things. Mouthfeel is thin, oily, and water with light carbonation and a semi dry finish. Had to try this. Who knows if they?ll brew it again. Very well balanced black ipa. Looks beautiful in the glass. Worth a try if you can still find it anywhere.
3.8 Pours a clear, dark ruby-amber with a light tannish-taupe head. Dark roasted, nearly smoky nose with a grassy hop character. Smooth, slick, wet texture. Sweet up front. Some ripe fruit. Smokiness galore. Very drinkable.
5.0 Dark espresso head and body when poured the taste is strong and intense but balanced and flavorful with notes of coffee,chocolate,cocoa,cacao,oak,hops, with a slightly sweet piny finish this is an epic black ipa.
4.2 Pours a deep dark cola brown with a wonderful frothy off white head, perfect! Aroma: caramel, bread, spruce, vanilla, and alcohol. Taste is near perfect balance. Medium bodied, thick feel, creamy, with a long bitter finish. Great brew...
3.9 Very complex and a unquie balance. Pour is dark brown with a nice tan head. Aroma is a little hoppy and full of malts and yeast. Smooth and creamy with a bitter hop bit at the finsh that stays on the palate.
3.1 Bottled, 2013 vintage. Thanks to my bro for the birthday hookup. Color is more mahogany than black. Thick foamy beige head that fades into a fine fizz. Aroma of smoke, almost burnt toast, pepper and vanilla. Flavor is less hoppy than expected, on the scale of an extra pale ale. Strong smoky bitterness up front which turns into a slightly acidic hops bitterness. Medium to thin bodied with low carbonation. Kind of lackluster; might have been better when it was fresh after the release last fall. Unique though, don’t know if we’ll ever see this one again. For someone that’s never had a black IPA this would be a treat; but after other beers like Black Lie or Alpine Ugly it’s just missing the kick.
3.7 750 drank in January. Pours clear black with a firm head. Nose is chocolate, roast, and piney hops. Flavor of an IPA hop wise, but with a malty body of a stout. Finishes long.
3.3 Pours dark black - almost like a purple or ruby red hue. Slight off-white head from bottle pour. Aroma is strong with caramel and pine. Taste develops and takes a minute but comes on strong bitter with roasted malt.
4.2 Poured from bottle. Big frothy head. Could just be the way Adam pours. Haha. Caramel notes. Coffee too. A nice bitter finish. Pretty lace too!
3.6 Bottle-purchased at whole foods in DC (near Church Key) March 2014 Pours very dark brown hue with a nice soapy rocky kacki head and sparse lacing. nice looking brew! nose is woody, lite cedar and lite oxidization. holds up pretty good for being 6 months old. flavors are woody lite chocolate, little piney hops, char, lite oxidized woody note. beer has held up very well for how old it is. this beer was released when i was deployed this past fall and didnt think i would find it anywhere. low and behold, there it was in DC. I try anything SN puts out, so i had to have this. Fresh i bet this was pretty amazing. Glad i got to try this bigtime! long roasty finish with lingering piney hops.
4.0 Bottle. Moderate to heavy dark bread, toasted and dark chocolate for the malt, moderate to heavy resin for the hops, lightly dough for the yeast, with charcoal and faint soy sauce in the background. Head is average size, frothy, off-white with a spot or two of lacing and is mostly diminishing. Color is clear dark brown. Flavor starts lightly sweet and acidic, then finishes lightly to moderately acidic and moderately bitter. Palate is on the fuller side of medium, oily, with a lively carbonation, and a lightly astringent and very dry finish. Darker and richer than lesser Black IPAs, making it both substantial and easy drinking.
4.3 Bottle. So I’ll caveat this with two complaints right up front ... 1) Hey, brewers/bottlers ... the wax seal can be a cool touch a guess, but do we REALLY need to bury the cap in 1/4" of candle? It took me 20 minutes to open this thing. If your caps aren’t tight enough, get a new cap. 2) I’m still not a fan of "black IPA" as a new "style" ... But ... in the end. This stuff is really good. If you gotta blend some classic styles to create a new one, this is finally the answer for me. Interesting visuals of midnight-blackness and poofy, airy American IPA foam. The aroma is an intriguing mix of both hops and stout-like goodness. Can’t complain. Even better when we’re talking about the drink ... sweet, dank, hoppy and earthy with a hint of java and roast. Bit thin in the end, but other than my opening complaints, that’s about the worse thing I can say. (#5461, 3/14/2014)
3.4 Clear dark amber pour with windblown sand khaki head. Toasted caramel and citrusy hop blend. But everything seems kinda mellow and muddled. A little overly bitter on the tail for my personal taste. Wouldn’t need to have again.
3.8 bottle. Black with two finger head. Big rich malt base with the big hops you’d expect from Sierra Nevada. Both citrus and pine dominate. Very good stuff.
4.2 Beautiful deep mahogany with a light tan head. Great charred malt and chocolate aromas. Dark and bittersweet chocolate flavors swirl around with a lightly charred campfire wood in the background. There’s a beautiful creaminess to the body that’s often lacking in black ales. Piney, earthy hops pop up to balance the sweetness and provide a satisfying bitterness that aerates the entire flavor. Leaves a lasting bittersweet chocolate and dark roasted coffee essence behind. Instead of throwing in the towel, SN came out swinging and scored a sweet victory against a natural disaster. I’d love to see them make this again with their own barley!
4.2 Bottle pour. A deviation from one of my favorite SN releases of the year, this black IPA brings the best of style forward. The deep roasted malts bring french roast coffee to the aroma and Sierra Nevada’s expertise is shown with the hop notes. The palate is a great balance of toasted malt and hop bitterness. Notes of grapefruit and pine intermingle with unsweetened chocolate and coffee.
3.5 Bottle shared at the Scopey 5K tasting. Thanks to Kenny for this CDA. Pours clear brown with a frothy, tan head. The nose is dry, toasted brown bread, dirt, dry chocolate. Light-medium sweet flavor with notes of bitter earth, burnt pine and baking cocoa. Medium bodied with fine carbonation and lightly creamy texture. Bitter burnt pine to finish with further earth, dusty cocoa and charred malts. OK. Perhaps a touch faded.
3.6 15th February 2014 Scopey 5K Tasting in deepest Croydonia. Opaque dark brown - black beer, good pale tan head. Creamy dark malt, semi dry. Whisper of roast and dark malt bitterness. Mild piney hops and subtle fruits, well buried. Not bad.
3.6 Bottle shared at Scopey’s 5000th rate. Big thanks to Leighton. Pours clearish dark brown with a lace forward tan head. Dark chocolate and pepper envelope the nose with a hint of liquorice, pine, grapefruit and a small amount of smoke. Taste is very balanced between roasted coffee and sweet milky chocolate, quite grassy and a little doughy. Some nice bright orange behind it all. Moderate bitterness, a touch sweet, solid balance to this. Nice one
3.5 Bomber. Dark brown with a medium beige head. Very malty and almost floral. Has a very nice balance but I tend to flavor more citrusy black ipas. -- rated with beerbasher
3.3 Bottle. Pours with a definitely more brown than black hued body, clear, a shade lighter than cola, large and retentive off-white head. Great lace. Aromas are of earthy hops, lots of malt, nutty, toffee, brown bread, medium roast, resiny and lightly citrusy, grassy hops. Medium low esters. Flavors are medium bitter, somewhat sweet, toasty and nutty malt character with some roast. Pretty full bodied. Some minerality. Bitter balanced. Hoppy porter. Lightly leathery, fuller carbonation, a bit warming.
3.3 Bottle split at Scopey’s 5K Extravaganza of Oompah Band meets doorbell music, big thanks to the CDA finder general, Leighton - 15/02/14. Dark mahogony brown with a light tan covering. Nose is cocoa, biscuit crumble, dark malts, lighy pine, muted tropical fruit tones, earthy hops. Taste comprises light roast, earthy hops, pine twang, dark berry fruits, cocoa powder. Medium bodied, fine carbonation, semi drying close. Adequate CDA but a good few draws from the top of the cabinet !
3.9 Location: 750 ml bottle from Buy Rite, 2/15/14 Aroma: The nose is coffee and roast, earth, and some citrus/grapefruit hops as well Appearance: Pours a dark brown color with a thick, frothy brown head and coating lace Flavor: It tastes of dark and roasted malts up-front, with an earth and citrus bitter hop finish Palate: The body is medium-full, it has a slick, creamy feel, with a soft carbonation, and a dry finish Overall Impression: My 50th Black IPA rating, and a very nice one to boot! I thought this was a really nice example of a Black IPA. There’s a nice mix of dark malts and hops that are in a very nice balance with one another.
3.6 Bomber. Deep brown with a beige head. Dark malt and perfumey. Well balanced between bitter and sweet.
3.7 2013-01-31. Dark brown black body with a modest tan head that fades. Aroma is fairly roasty, lots of green leafy musky hops. Flavour is similar, with a sweet malty core, fairly bitter throughout, green funky hops are the dominant character. Average plus bodied palate, moderate carbonation. The hops are a bit too green and funky for my tastes but a pretty solid, quaffable black IPA. Bottle shared by blankboy
3.7 Bottle at my 5K tasting, thanks to Kenny. It pours darkest brown, near black with a medium beige head. The nose is fresh pine, toast, rich roast, dark chocolate, earth and light spice. The taste is rich roast, toast, earth, good deal of bitterness, resin, pine, pepper, dark chocolate and rocky road with a dry, bitter finish. Medium body and moderate carbonation. Nice dark chocolate behind the bitterness. Good body and rather tasty.
3.5 Sampled from a bomber bottle, the ale poured dark into the glass and gave a large foamy light tan lasting head, the beer was a clear dark red when the glass was held up to a glass, there was nice, sticky spots and fingers of lacing on the glass, it had aromas of light roasted malt, citrus and floral hops, faint coffee and dark fruit, there was a little herb in the background and a bit of malt sweetness with a touch of brown sugar, not a lot of sweetness, just a touch, it had a more than medium roasted malt flavor with some malt astringency, there was some coffee and roasted grain, some raisin and prune dark fruit (with less sweetness than the dried fruit) and a touch of molasses, the finish had a little hop bitterness and malt astringency that lingered a bit on the palate, the malt astringency did not distract from enjoying the drink but was evident, it was creamy on the palate and on the lighter side of medium for mouth feel, it had average carbonation, this beer was a good beer but not a drink I would buy again.
3.7 Bomber with PITA wax seal (tear strip SN next time) into snifter glass, super dark brown color with dark tan head. Aroma of roasted malt, fruity/pine hops and some smoke. Taste adds notes of cocoa, caramel and earthy hop bitterness. Light body, low-moderate carbonation, creamy, astringent with bitter roast finish. Kind of a earthy leaning black IPA, pretty good despite the wax chiseling to reach it :P