REVIEW: Sierra Nevada’s 4-Way IPA Pack (2017)

This is the fourth year Sierra Nevada is releasing its mixed pack of IPAs. The brewing company is well known for their love of all things hop-ladened, so the 4-way mix pack was a pleasant surprise when it was first released back in 2014, and continues to be a first look at some of the new hop experiments Sierra Nevada is undertaking. The one staple to the mix pack is their Torpedo IPA, the other three offerings change from year to year.

Let’s take a quick look at some what was included in past variety packs:

• 2014 — Snow Wit White IPA, Nooner Session IPA, and Blindfold Black IPA
• 2015 — Blindfold Black IPA, Golden IPA, and Ruthless Rye
• 2016 — Hop Hunter, 5 Hop Experimental IPA, and Ruthless Rye

In case anyone else is wondering, Ruthless Rye is no longer being brewed.

This year’s round up is; a Peach IPA (with peach fruit added), a mixed style in the form of a German IPA, and a Black IPA; along with the perquisite Torpedo. To learn more, click here to visit the brewery’s website.

Let’s see what we’ve got.

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1) Torpedo Extra IPA

Below are the tasting notes I took while drinking Sierra Nevada Torpedo. If you tasted this beer, please share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Pour and Aroma:

It is the color of bright polished copper. A head of pure white sudsy foam layers across the top to a height of three fingers. The head drops in increments over a couple of minutes, but finally settles and sticks at about a finger. Clarity is superb and shows its alcoholic fortitude with good legs when swirled.

Big hops in the aroma; beautifully dank; earth, resin and pine with floral and citrus notes of lemon and grapefruit. There is an underlying low malt sweetness.

Mouthfeel and Taste:

Body is full and meaningful and slightly chewy. The mouthfeel is smooth and creamy showing high astringency and is somewhat sticky with thin threads of alcoholic warmth.

There’s shy bready sweetness at the front before the hops start to showboat. Citrus rind, apple, light herbal notes; bitter layers of pine, resin, leaf and earth. Very dry finish leading into a resin slathered aftertaste. The sweetness offsets the bitterness somewhat, while still leaving plenty.

FINISHING THOUGHTS

This is still one of the most balanced and well made IPAs around, in my opinion. Unlike many other IPAs that came out around the same time as this one, it is not just a play on how bitter a beer can get, it is a show of balance in the face of high bitterness. A great IPA.

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2) Peach IPA

Below are the tasting notes I took while drinking Sierra Nevada Peach IPA. If you tasted this beer, please share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Pour and Aroma:

Pours several shades darker than the German IPA and only a shade lighter than the Torpedo. Call it a light amber. Head is a just off white and rises to a good finger of small bubbled foam. Head retention is moderate, dropping to small islands of foam within the first couple minutes. Clarity is good and carbonation medium.

Aroma is fruity with tendrils of peach and citrus combining with some low pine notes. I thought the peach would express a little more than it does. The background of malt shows through in the barest glimpse of honeyed toast.

Mouthfeel and Taste:

Body is light and slightly watery. Mouthfeel is smooth and pleasant. Little astringency across the palate.

Taste finally shows this beer’s peachy legs. Everything else about this beer does a good job of staying in the background or pushing the shy peach forward. There’s a light but round bready background. Peach plays across this background at the front along with sly hints of citrus before the noticeable but low bitter elements of pine kick up mid-palate. At the back the peachiness is resurrected for a short life before transitioning into a clean finish and slight residual bitterness in the aftertaste.

FINISHING THOUGHTS

A good light IPA, low on the bitterness. It really could have just been called a pale ale with peach added, though it is better than some other fruit added IPA’s I’ve had. If you’re looking for a beer with peach flavor that stands out, this is not it. The Peach element never rises above much more than a whispered note; an accomplishment in my book. Interestingly, I’ve had IPA’s with close to the same peach presence derived only from the hops.

It’s a nice sessionable IPA for a hot day.

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3) Black IPA

Below are the tasting notes I took while drinking Sierra Nevada Black IPA. If you tasted this beer, please share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Pour and Aroma:

Pours a very dark brown. It isn’t actually black and you can see through it when held to good light. Head rises to a nice two fingers worth of frothy tan colored foam. Clarity looks great. It is too dark to get much of a sense of the carbonation.

Pleasant hops in the nose. Hops show as citrus, light berry or dark fruit, and an underlying herbal piney tinge. As it warms I catch hints of dark malt; maybe just a tracing whisper of chocolate?

Mouthfeel and Taste:

Not as smooth in the Mouthfeel or as lofty in body as Torpedo. Body is medium. Mouthfeel is lightly prickly. Medium astringency.

Malt elements are hard to wrangle apart from the hops, but I do catch low notes of dark caramel and fleeting edges of chocolate. Piney, with some herbal depth and bright citrus, along with low whispers of dark berry. Maybe some whispers of tangerine. Mid-palate brings a rush of clean bittering before a few threads of low sweetness rise at the back. From start to finish pretty dry with a quite dry finish. I can find flitting memories of berry in the aftertaste, but overall just clean and astringent.

FINISHING THOUGHTS

A good IPA all around. The low hints of chocolate and berry medley make this one more complex than it might have been. Of the three new beers in the variety pack, this one is going to make the biggest splash with the diehard IPA fans.

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4) German Style IPA

Below are the tasting notes I took while drinking Sierra Nevada German Style IPA. If you tasted this beer, please share your thoughts with me in the comments below.

Pour and Aroma:

The color of this IPA is a light golden; sort of the color you’d expect in to find in a German pilsner. Clarity is superb and scattered lines of ascending carbonation can easily be seen. It is topped with a crisp white cap of foam rising to a good two fingers.

If I didn’t already know this beer was brewed with a German slant the aroma would absolutely give it away. Bready, slightly grainy sweetness greets the nose along with low strains of sulfury yeast, and whispers of floral and fruit from the hops, hinting at gooseberry and mild citrus.

Mouthfeel and Taste:

Body is light. mouthfeel is spritzy with high-medium carbonation.

Malt comes through at front; bread, cracker, and notes of low toast. Some honey sweetness upfront. Mid-palate brings hop flavors. fruity and floral before the bitterness bites, harder than what you’d expect from the German persona, but not by much. There’s also an interesting earthy, herbal element to the hops. The finish is grassy and drying washing into a clean low astringency in the aftertaste.

FINISHING THOUGHTS

This is probably my least favorite of the bunch, though that’s not saying much because they’re all good beers. This one isn’t really much different than some of the hoppy pilsners out there, and I don’t know maybe I was expecting a little more somehow. It’s nice light fare and would be perfect on a hot summer day.