October launch for Sierra Nevada specialty brews made with WNC brewers

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

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At Beer Camp this summer, Sierra Nevada brought WNC beer notables behind the scenes of its Chico, Ca. operation. The new specialty brews the group brainstormed together are nearly ready to debut locally.

Look for a toasty black ale called Carolina Dreamin’, and The Headliner, a nine-percent-alcohol filtered wheatwine described as dry, hoppy…and “ruby red.”

Blue Ridge Now has more:

The Headliner, which the Cubbins’ group produced, is a 9 percent alcohol wheatwine — a cousin of the better-known barleywine style made using a 50/50 ratio of wheat and barley malt. It is described as a “big, rich ale” with a mild caramel flavor and bready character from the wheat, with notes of grapefruit and peach from a blend of some “pretty cool hops” that Sierra Nevada has access to.

“(The beer) has a brilliant, really gorgeous red color to it,” Jennings said. “Typically, you wouldn’t bother filtering a wheat wine, but the group wanted to because they wanted the color to really burst, so we actually filtered it and it’s just a beautiful, ruby red color. And we made it finish dry, so it’s really drinkable and very hoppy, which you wouldn’t think of for a wheatwine.”

Jennings was equally ecstatic about Carolina Dreamin’, a black-colored ale whose significantly lower alcohol content (5.3 percent) makes it more of a sessionable beer that one can comfortably enjoy a couple glasses of.

It is described as a well-balanced, medium-bodied beer with a toasted malt character and creamy mouthfeel, accentuated with an experimental hop varietal for a post-boiling “dry-hopping” process, which gives it a “bold, almost berry-like aroma.”

Read more here from Blue Ridge Now:  Specialty brews to debut in WNC

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Jason Sandford

Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.

  • 1

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