Centennial

The third beer in the Siren "Time Hops" series features the hop "Centennial", another of the classic "C" hop that helped create the modern craft beer scene. It was the star hop in a beer called "Racer 5" made by Bear Republic Brewing in Sonoma, California back in 1999 and won awards, helping to cement a new category of (American) IPA as the central pillar for this new wave of emerging producers. The hop gives the beer a nice pithy grapefruit character and when used in a West Coast style also imparts a resinous bitternes that keeps you coming back for more, highly adictive! Don't get me wrong, I liked this beer and the West Coast style that it exemplifies, given a particular time and place it's just the job! However, my palette leans more toward the East Coast hazy styles these days (less bitterness etc.) and so this one was my least favourite of the four (at least for now!).