{"id":1035,"date":"2010-11-15T00:01:13","date_gmt":"2010-11-14T11:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2011-03-02T15:19:44","modified_gmt":"2011-03-02T02:19:44","slug":"sierra-nevada-pale-ale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/","title":{"rendered":"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_1038\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1038\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1038\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale-and-tap-handle\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"600,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and its tragically-unused tap handle (Malthouse, 15 November 2010)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and its tragically-unused tap handle&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle.jpeg\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1038\" title=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and its tragically-unused tap handle (Malthouse, 15 November 2010)\" src=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-and-tap-handle.jpeg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1038\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, and its tragically-unused tap handle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I&#8217;m not going to get properly into the whole \u201c<a title=\"'Grey market', on Wikipedia\" href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Grey_market\" target=\"_blank\">grey market<\/a>\u201d (or &#8220;gray market&#8221;, if you&#8217;re American) debate here. I&#8217;m sure I will do so more fully at a later time, when it inevitably flares up again. I&#8217;m actually pretty sympathetic to <em>both<\/em> sides &#8212; which is rare.<\/p>\n<p>My own particular concerns are these:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Grey market&#8221; strikes me as an unfair term, which loads the dice against the &#8220;unofficial&#8221; importers, since it carries its connotations of being <em>kinda<\/em> black market &#8212; but grey market imports <em>are<\/em> legal.<sup>1<\/sup> It certainly doesn&#8217;t seem like a neutral term that both sides would use, so it&#8217;s probably not a good phrase for commentators to go on using as a label for the debate.<\/li>\n<li>The <em>quality<\/em> concern should be paramount, but I often get the suspicion that it&#8217;s used as window-dressing for a more knee-jerkish desire for good old-fashioned control.<sup>2<\/sup> The opposition to parallel importing often seems oddly <em>dogmatic<\/em> &#8212; I just can&#8217;t imagine some of the most-vocal opponents actually changing their tune and make an exception were some perfect, quality-guaranteeing dream importer to emerge.<\/li>\n<li>And finally, I&#8217;m just not invested enough in this debate to become someone&#8217;s martyr. I don&#8217;t see the &#8220;anti-grey&#8221; side as being <em>so obviously right<\/em> that I&#8217;d be willing to join a boycott and deprive myself the change to try something I might never otherwise be able to sample. Yes, yes, I know there may be quality issues &#8212; but I&#8217;m accustomed to navigating them with <em>everything else as well<\/em> and can accomodate those possibilities as part of the tasting experience.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Anyway: Sierra Nevada&#8217;s Pale Ale, on tap in the Little Country. This <em>is<\/em> a &#8220;grey market&#8221; import, in case you were wondering why I went for a spin along <em>that<\/em> particular tangent &#8212; it was basically a &#8220;test keg&#8221;, actually, to see if kegs of Sierra Nevada would start heading this way just like bottles have been for a good few months now.<\/p>\n<p>I thought it travelled very well, though some local Beer Folk seemed to bubble towards the opinion that it&#8217;d been beaten up a bit &#8212; I suspect an element of that was the somewhat regrettable pack mentality that sets in when someone &#8220;noteworthy&#8221; makes an early pronouncement (negative <em>or<\/em> positive), with maybe also a touch of that phenomenon where it becomes moderately fashionable to knock something once it reaches a certain level of success. In the main, it went down a treat; we blammed through that pilot keg in very short order (possibly helped <em>too<\/em> much by me, on one particular night).<\/p>\n<p>The only let-down was that we didn&#8217;t make enough of a <em>fuss<\/em> about it, and I don&#8217;t even really know why we didn&#8217;t. It turned out that we actually tapped our keg &#8212; the very first in the country &#8212; on the <em>actual goddamn thirtieth birthday<\/em> of the beer. How neat is that? And it was totally accidental, weirdly. I tried to lobby for the awesomely-ostentatious oversized tap handle to be installed, too. The reasoning was that one big silly handle would look out of place among all the normals &#8212; but surely that&#8217;s <em>precisely why<\/em> you do it. Sigh. That said, Peter&#8217;s note on the blackboard &#8212; written &#8220;in Californian&#8221; &#8212; was awesome.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Verbatim:<\/strong> Sierra Nevada Pale Ale! 15\/11\/10 apparently the first keg to make it to the Little Country. A bit of a travel test, after which it may become a fixture on tap here @ work. Some of the Beer Snobs have already yeah-yeah-ed themselves into agreeing that it hasn&#8217;t travelled well. I say nonsense; is lovely. Maybe, maybe slightly muted. But still its delicious self. I suspect people are confusing it with its gruntier relatives.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212; and then a lot \/ too many more the next night. I discovered that the 15th is the brewdate Birthday; so we tapped ours on its 30th! Worth celebrating, so we did.<\/p>\n<div style=\"float: left; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px;\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_1054\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1054\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-announcement.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1054\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale-announcement\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-announcement.jpeg\" data-orig-size=\"600,800\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale announcement (Malthouse, 15 November 2010)\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Sierra Nevada Pale Ale announcement&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-announcement.jpeg\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1054\" title=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale announcement (Malthouse, 15 November 2010)\" src=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-announcement-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale announcement\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1054\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Sierra Nevada Pale Ale announcement<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left; padding: 0px 10px 0px 0px;\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_1055\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1055\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035a-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1055\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/diary-2035a-sierra-nevada-pale-ale-on-tap\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035a-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\" data-orig-size=\"600,387\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Diary II entry #35.1, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Diary II entry #35.1, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035a-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1055 \" title=\"Diary II entry #35.1, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" src=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035a-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap-150x150.png\" alt=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1055\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diary II entry #35.1, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"float: left;\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_1056\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1056\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035b-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"1056\" data-permalink=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/diary-2035b-sierra-nevada-pale-ale-on-tap\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035b-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\" data-orig-size=\"600,216\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-title=\"Diary II entry #35.2, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"&lt;p&gt;Diary II entry #35.1, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale&lt;\/p&gt;\n\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035b-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap.png\" class=\"size-thumbnail wp-image-1056 \" title=\"Diary II entry #35.2, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" src=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-2035b-Sierra-Nevada-Pale-Ale-on-tap-150x150.png\" alt=\"Sierra Nevada Pale Ale on tap\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-1056\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Diary II entry #35.2, Sierra Nevada Pale Ale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<hr \/>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\">1: Greg Koch, one of the founders of the Stone brewery, made a <a title=\"Greg Koch's first comment on the 'What are you drinking?' thread, on RealBeer.co.nz\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forum.realbeer.co.nz\/forum\/topics\/1500433:Topic:5363?commentId=1500433%3AComment%3A73065\" target=\"_blank\">spectacularly arse-faced appearance<\/a> on the RealBeer.co.nz forum in which he characterised a parallel import of his beer as &#8220;black market&#8221; and &#8220;illegal&#8221; several times in a short span. That lost him a lot of my sympathy, and it was <em>very<\/em> hard not to read his comments without uncharitably starting to think they were decidedly sour grapes, given that they were spurred by a negative comment about his beer. <em>Illegality<\/em> is a serious accusation to fling at someone so casually &#8212; <em>even if<\/em> there&#8217;s a question of whether one of the middlemen had broken a no-exporting deal, that&#8217;d just be an issue of breach of <em>contract<\/em>, not the proper breach of <em>statute<\/em> that his terminology and outrage imply.<\/span><br \/>\n<span style=\"font-size: small;\">2: To return to Greg Koch (from footnote 1), he quite-casually throws around the phrase &#8220;fresh-and-as-intended, or not at all&#8221;, which does set me wondering just where he wants to get off that train; what <em>else<\/em> gets smuggled into &#8220;as intended&#8221;? I really hope he took Stu&#8217;s <a title=\"Stu McKinlay quoting 'What Light' by Wilco (of course), on RealBeer.co.nz\" href=\"http:\/\/www.forum.realbeer.co.nz\/xn\/detail\/1500433:Comment:73842\" target=\"_blank\">quoted song lyrics<\/a> to heart, and calmed down a bit.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: small;\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;m not going to get properly into the whole \u201cgrey market\u201d (or &#8220;gray market&#8221;, if you&#8217;re American) debate here. I&#8217;m sure I will do so more fully at a later time, when it inevitably flares up again. I&#8217;m actually pretty sympathetic to both sides &#8212; which is rare. My own particular concerns are these: &#8220;Grey &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/11\/15\/sierra-nevada-pale-ale\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Sierra Nevada Pale Ale<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[6,20,12],"class_list":["post-1035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","category-blahblah","tag-pages","tag-united-states","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3480,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/06\/20\/sierra-nevada-30th-anniversary-black-barleywine\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":0},"title":"Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Black Barleywine","author":"Phil","date":"June 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Well now. It has been a while. Again. The value of t has graduated to the triple digits and is going to need a serious hammering to get back to a civilised size. So: roll sleeves up, make sandwich, brew tea, forget about tea, grab beer, roll sleeves back down\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Actual Diary entries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sierra Nevada 30th Anniversary Black Barleywine ","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Sierra-Nevada-30th-Anniversary-Black-Barleywine-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2404,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/03\/31\/beer-diary-podcast-s01e01\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":1},"title":"Beer Diary Podcast episode 1: Emerson&#8217;s Pilsner and Grey Market Imports","author":"Phil","date":"March 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"An experimental offering from George (him of the original Diary) and myself, in which we enjoy a beer while pondering the history and various happenings that surround the stuff. We're aiming to keep things accessible and conversational (hopefully with some guest conversationalists along the way), so have a listen, join\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Podcast episodes&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Podcast episodes","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/podcast-episodes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1008,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/30\/croucher-pale-ale-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":2},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"October 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Saturday brought an end to my Hamilton Expedition, but did compensate me with a lovely drive home down State Highway 4 -- I decided I'd done SH1 too often, so thought I'd go around the other side of the Lake. And when I got home, I had a house full\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Actual Diary entries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-500ml-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/08\/28\/croucher-pale-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":3},"title":"Croucher Pale Ale","author":"Phil","date":"August 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Croucher Pale Ale, from Rotorua, but with none of that city's usual aromatic downsides. An after-work drink, and a pretty damn good one. It's a little bit Little-Creatures-esque, what with being a pale ale, but not being a thwack in the head with a fistful of hops. More just\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Actual Diary entries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Croucher Pale Ale","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Croucher-Pale-Ale-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1483,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/01\/22\/russian-river-pliny-the-elder\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":4},"title":"Russian River &#8216;Pliny the Elder&#8217;","author":"Phil","date":"January 22, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"'Pliny' is one of those stupidly-highly-regarded beers that make for a rather weird tasting experience. You always worry about the Emperor's New Pale Ale effect, and when it's brought over 'unofficially' (however carefully), there's the vexed question of whether any Not Overwhelmed reaction is down to an over-hyped thing itself,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Actual Diary entries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Russian River 'Pliny the Elder'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Russian-River-Pliny-the-Elder-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":152,"url":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2004\/11\/06\/goose-island-honkers-ale\/","url_meta":{"origin":1035,"position":5},"title":"Goose Island \u2018Honker\u2019s Ale\u2019","author":"Phil","date":"November 6, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Goose Island Honker's Ale. $?, 12oz, @home, Nov 6. More West Wing, so a Chicago ale with burgers. Darkish, but hints of orange again. Bubbles not so enduring, no haze. Lighter taste + smell, still flat, muted ale-ish. More an afternoon beer. Perfectly respectable + tasty. Great everyday stuff;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Actual Diary entries&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Goose Island 'Honker's Ale'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1016-Goose-Island-Honkers-1-300x138.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1688,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}