News

Sierra Nevada adds a new year-round beer

Otra Vez will be on grocery shelves in January and available year-round. SIERRA NEVADA BREWING CO. PHOTO

By Lightning Reports, Published: November 19, 2015

Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. is launching Otra Vez, a German-style ale that will join the brewery’s year-round lineup.

Craft drinkers can find Otra Vez on retail shelves starting January 2016.

Otra Vez means “another time,” and for Sierra Nevada that time is early California when beers were made from local ingredients. To create the gose-style beer, the brewery test-brewed various native produce searching for great flavors. Prickly pear cactus flourishes in the state’s arid deserts, and grapefruit fills the Central Valley’s flats. Together their fruity-tangy blend makes Otra Vez, whose tartness is true to the gose style, pop with character.
A German beer style that originated in Goslar, Gose is an unfiltered wheat beer made with 50-60 malted wheat and known for a refreshing crispness and twang, according to the Beer Advocate website.
“We wanted to make one of the easiest drinking craft beers out there, and funny enough Otra Vez has been a bear to get just right,” Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman said in a news release. “We brewed several test batches a week for nearly a year, and even delicate changes made a big difference. Then it all clicked with perfect balance and complexity. We think folks will really enjoy it.”
Otra Vez clocks in at a sessionable 4.5 percent alcohol by volume, and its extremely low bitterness allows the prickly pear cactus, grapefruit and pinch of coriander to shape a bright and refreshing finish, the company said.

It's the first new brew in Sierra Nevada's year-round lineup since it introduced Nooner and Hop Hunter the first of this year. It will be brewed in Chico and not Mills River.

"It’s a challenging beer to make, and we had to adjust some equipment infrastructure, which we chose to only do in Chico," spokesman Ryan Arnold said in an email.

Otra Vez will be available throughout Sierra Nevada’s nationwide distribution footprint in 12-ounce bottles, 12-ounce cans and on draught. Craft drinkers can track it and other Sierra Nevada beers at Beer Locator.