“His passion for beer and brewing is infectious and his (and his business partner Bernard’s) beer, Taras Boulba, is one of my all time favorite beers. We couldn't think of a better person to name our Beer Camp beer after.”
It’s true. Two of California’s most beloved breweries collaborated to create Yvan the Great, a Belgian-style blonde ale for Sierra Nevada's epic Beer Camp 12-pack that I can’t stop writing about. This beer defies styles with its bright, resinous hop profile (much like that of an American IPA) with the dry yeast character of a Belgian farmhouse ale.
Yvan teh Great bottle“The hops in Yvan the Great are not your typical IPA-type hops, and that was on purpose,” Cilurzo says. “So there are no Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, or Amarillo hops in the beer. Instead we went with Celeia and Strisselspalt hops. I always had Celeia in mind, but on the second pilot brew we added the Strisselspalt, not only for their wonderful aroma and flavor but also because it is a favorite hop of [Sierra Nevada’s] Ken Grossman.”
Cilurzo went on to echo the thoughts of many other Beer Camp brewers, who have all commented on Sierra Nevada’s openness to creativity throughout the process of writing the beer recipes. “Sierra Nevada sees that Beer Camp is as much of an education for them as it is for the brewers or guests who are at camp,” he says. “The fact that each brewery had full creative license for its specific beer is really amazing to me, [but then] Sierra Nevada put out a 12-pack that technically had no specific Sierra Nevada beer in it. Sure the beers were brewed under their license, but otherwise the recipes were each of the twelve collaborating breweries. I think that speaks volumes to the humility that runs through the entire brewery.”
There are four festivals left in the Beer Camp Across America tour:
- Chicago, Illinois – Sunday, July 27
- Portland, Maine – Friday, August 1
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – Saturday, August 2
- Mills River, North Carolina – Sunday, August 3
Pictured at top, from left to right: Ken Grossman (Sierra Nevada), Terence Sullivan (Sierra Nevada), Vinnie Cilurzo (Russian River).