Summit Silver Anniversary Ale

As you can see from the picture above, I'm drinking Summit's Silver Anniversary Ale. The brewery has now been around for 25 years, which is quite a feat. To celebrate, they've brewed (to my knowledge) their first anniversary beer. It's an IPA I've heard described as double Summit Pale Ale. I would not agree with this assessment, but it is quite delicious. This is the bottle version. I have also tried a pint of it on tap, which for some reason seemed much more harshly bitter and less hoppy and aromatic. Perhaps it was an off keg.

Either way, the bottle version is very nice. It's got very little malt going on, and even less of that earthy grassy hop sort of thing that the Pale Ale has which is just fine. This is a straight away IPA and the Extra Pale Ale is a great pale ale. I have to wonder if they brewed this beer to finally satisfy people who asked and/or critisized Summit for not having a generic and highly hopped IPA: here it is.

I am generally not very excited about hoppy, citrusy IPAs. They've been done to death and there are dozens available everywhere if you want one. That being said, I do enjoy a classic American IPA from time to time and I can understand the appeal. They're gaudy, uncomplicated, and the American versions are unmistakenly American versions. Sometimes that's what you want, and this is a good one.

Tastes and smells, you ask? Lots of pine and herbal hop notes right up front. Some citrus aromas and flavors slide in gracefully afterward and a merry bitterness follows quickly in three part harmonies. There is a bit of body and slick malt as an after thought, but virtually no sweetness (a gift in this type of beer). Not reinventing the wheel by any means, but it's a pretty nice wheel at that.