"SierraNevada" news and stories

Joshua M. Bernstein has written about brews, bars and booze for New York Magazine, Time Out New York, ForbesTraveler.com and The New York Times.

While cool, blustery fall weather stirs longings for steaming cups of apple cider, beer lovers have a reason to drink to the season: fresh-hop beer, a libation that's as fleeting as it is delicate.

August and September signal harvest season for hops, the flower cones that provide beers' bitter flavors. Generally, plucked hops are dried and sent into storage, losing aromatic oils and resins in the process. But a small portion of fresh hops are hustled to breweries in a race against time -- like grass clippings, the hops quickly degrade and decompose.

"Our hops come in by truck, typically in the middle of the night, and we begin brewing within an hour of arrival," says Bill Manley, communications coordinator for Sierra Nevada. "We don't stop brewing until all of the hops are gone, 24 hours a day -- our kettles actually begin to warp toward the end of the week from the constant heat."

But the potential destruction is worth the payoff: Harvest Wet Hop Ale, now in its 13th year of altering drinkers' perception. "Wet-hopped beers can sometimes take a first-time drinker by surprise," Manley says.

For my entire life, when it came to American breweries, three names came to mind: Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Coors. Well, in 2002, Miller was purchased by South African Breweries to form SABMiller. In 2005, Coors merged with Canada's Molson to form Molson Coors. And now, the multi-continent conglomerate InBev is buying Anheuser-Busch. It's enough to make your head-spin: You shouldn't need an M.B.A. to get tipsy.

The question becomes, with all of these international buyouts, what true blue American breweries are left?

A lot of companies have been quick to fly the American flag, but fittingly, the new #1 American owned brewery takes their brand name from an American patriot. Boston Beer Company, makers of Sam Adams, is now not only America's largest "craft brewer", it's also the country's largest domestically owned brewery. If that doesn't further blur the line between the modern craft brewery and their macro counterparts, I don't know what does.

So who are in line to be the new "Big 3"? Breaking it down strictly by 2007's beer sales volume here you go: 1) Boston Beer (makers of Sam Adams), 2) Yuengling, and 3) Sierra Nevada.

Surprised? I was. See the entire list (compiled by the not-for-profit Brewers Association) here.

[Photo Credit: yuengling.com / sierranevada.com / samueladams.com]

For those of you swooning over Nicole's recent post about kitchen bling, maybe you can do a bit of penance here with this Pope John Paul II bottle opener ... a.k.a. "The Popener."

When my old roommate came back from a bit of work in Rome, she brought me a John Paul II bottle opener, straight from the Vatican. At the time, I was not happy. What kind of girlfriend brings a bottle opener back from Italy?

While I would have preferred something I could wear or eat or sell at a vast profit on eBay, I came to love this bottle opener with time. Every Sierra Nevada I cracked after a long day at the office became holy. Every Brooklyn Brown Ale became the equivalent of 20 "Hail Marys."

If you want one, you had better get cracking. While they're currently on sale at romegiftshop.com for $14.99 (free St. Peter postcard included!), can a Pope Benedict XVI bottle opener be that far off?

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