Very few breweries hit their stride right away, there is a learning curve as brewers work with new recipes, new equipment, and balancing all of the demands of the business. Some never improve, they just keep pumping out the same mediocre beer, while others are so far away to start that even improvement doesn’t get them where they need to be. The places I try to keep tabs on make good and occasionally great beer to start, they can often improve into standout breweries over time. The first time I visited Cold Harbor Brewing in Westborough I thought the beers were a little mixed, none were bad, but some were very good while others were so-so. The brewery clearly had some potential, and I’ve enjoyed a few of their new releases since. I’ve been meaning to write about one of Cold Harbor’s newer beers for a while, the thing that pushed me to finally do it was actually my buddy Mikey, he has been raving about Cold Harbor and stocking up their IPAs by the case to help get through quarantine. On my last stock-up run I grabbed some cans of Sistah, Sistah, Cold Harbor’s DIPA that is available on a rotating basis in 16 oz cans.
Cold Harbor Sistah, Sistah pours murky deep orange with a massive off-white head. The aroma features a big hit of hops, heavy of the citrus and tropical fruit. The flavor is also very hop forward, notes of grapefruit, orange, and resin along with just a little bitter bite. This is balanced by a solid malt backbone, hints of bread crust and cereal. Sistah, Sistah is medium bodied and very smooth for a DIPA with 8.0% ABV. The finish is crisp with plenty of lingering hop flavor. This is a very good DIPA, I will definitely be drinking much more Cold Harbor beer in the near future. Hoppy Boston score: 4.5/5.
Previous Cold Harbor Reviews:
Hoppy Boston 
