New Beer Sunday

What a great weekend of beer. I started Friday off with my first full samples of this beer and then we had a wonderful morning of delicious food and beer at the Brugge on Saturday for our beer geek breakfast.

I tried a very small sample of this beer at the winter micro brewers festival, but my palate was pretty much shot by the time I tried it, and my local purveyor got several cases of this in, and at $8.99 for a sixer it is a pretty good price for a six pack of an IPA.

Beer: Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA
From: Sierra Nevada Brewing Chico, CA
Beer Style: IPA
Cost: Around $8.99 for six
Availablity: Year Round

Appearance: Pours a nice clear amber color with two fingers worth of head on it.
Smell: It isn't the most intense IPA, but I do get lemon peel, grapefruit rind, and some other citrus smells lightly balanced with a touch of toasted malt.
Taste: The flavor profile is very well balanced between the citrus flavors and a nice toasted malt base. I am also getting a slight touch of caramel in the malt that is welcomed on this offering. I was hoping for more bitterness and pine on the flavor profile, but they are only slightly apparent.
Mouthfeel: Good carbonation leaves an almost prickly sensation in your mouth and it coats the mouth very well.
Drinkability: Great balance on this beer helps makes it quite easy to drink. I could easily see myself taking a sixer of these to BBQ's this summer.

This a hopped up version of their standard pale ale. It is classified as an IPA, but the IBU's are not over the top, and the malt backbone in many respects outshines the hop flavors on this beer. If you are a big hop head and expect this to be a big bitter IPA you won't get it, but is still a good beer and has its place among pale ales and IPA's. I would also suggest this as an intro IPA for people trying to get into the style.

Other IPA's worth your time: Bell's Two-Hearted Ale, Stone IPA, Three Floyd's Alpha King, Founder's Centennial IPA, Victory's Hop Devil, and DogFish Head 60 Minute IPA are all available here in Indiana.

Cheers!
Matt