Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California
Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from a six-pack, bought at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Rye Ale, 6.6%

 

Keeping up with reviewing the big brewery's new Spring beers, I will now take a stab at Sierra Nevada's new seasonal, their Ruthless Rye IPA. 

Sierra Nevada are one of the big players in craft brewing, and one of the first craft breweries to arrive on the craft beer scene. If you check out their history page, you will see that founder Ken Grossman began his quest to build a brewery in 1976. In 1980, Ken Grossman and co-founder Paul Camusi brewed their first batch of Sierra Nevada Pale Ale. According to Wikipedia, Sierra Nevada's Pale Ale is the second best selling craft beer behind Boston Lager. Sierra Nevada is the sixth largest brewing company in the United States as well, cranking out over 750,000 barrels in 2010.

Ratebeer has dumped this beer into their IPA category, and BeerAdvocate's website is down right now (Nelson: HA HA!). My guess is that BeerAdvocate put this beer into the Rye Ale category. As discussed before, Rye Ales are basically American IPAs with the addition of rye as a malt. These are bitter and hoppy beers, but they are supported with that nice rye backbone.

If you go to Sierra Nevada's Ruthless Rye page, you can get some info on the beer. They say that the Ruthless Rye IPA combines the peppery spice of rye and the bright citrus flavors from hops to create a complex ale for the transition to Spring. This beer clocks in at 6.6% ABV, packs 55 IBUs, and is described as being "deep red." The beer is not only brewed with rye, but also Pale, Caramel, and Chocolate malts. The beer uses Bravo hops for bittering, and Chinook hops are dry hopped and used for aroma. This beer is also dry hopped with "Experimental Hops." The Chinook hops are known for their spice, pine, and grapefruit qualities. I believe Bravo hops are cleaner and more pleasant than some of the other more aggressive hops. With all that said, let's dive in and see how the Ruthless Rye stacks up.

Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA

The beer pours like an IPA, with a nice foamy and thick head. I poured 4-fingers worth of amber/off-white head. The head is thick and cloudy, but the bubbles are medium and thin like dish soap. It is leaving lacing on the glass as it pulls away. The body of the beer is an amber/orange/brown color, with hints of red. There is just a touch of haze in this beer, but it looks filtered, and there is moderate carbonation. 

The aroma is a very nice contrast of spicy and earthy rye, and spicy, herbal, and citrus hops. The aroma is actually very biting and earthy, and reminds me of the wild west and rattlesnakes. I guess this aroma qualifies as "ruthless." I'm pulling out a lot of spice: you get that twang of rye spice, herbal spice, and a bread spice. It's not quite pepper and it's not quite cinnamon, but it is spicy. I'm also pulling out grain, pine, and hints of grapefruit or orange rind. This nose is very sharp and spicy, but clean. I'm not picking up a ton of sugars or sweet malts on the nose, which differentiates this from many IPAs and Rye Ales. 

This is very well carbonated, and smooth. The fluffy and sustaining head is providing some smoothness and creaminess. As I said with the aroma, there is not a ton of sugar in here. You get a lot of that rye - sharp, clean, earthy notes. I'm tasting rye bread, hints of sour rye, herbal hops, earthy hops, pine, hints of grapefruit and orange rind on the back end of my palate. The rye is sharp but smooth, and the 55 IBUs are pretty biting. You also pick up on some malts in here, with hints of grainy caramel or chocolate. 

The mouthfeel on this is medium-heavy, and this is pretty bitter and finishes bitter and dry. However, this is not super sweet, and it is well carbonated. This is definitely drinkable for something that clocks in at 6.6% ABV, and this is nowhere near as sugary as some of the other IPAs out there. This has good palate depth, and moderate to high complexity. The front of the palate is smooth, carbonation, rye, burgeoning hop bitterness; this rolls into the middle, which is big rye, rye spice, hops and hop spice, and burgeoning orange and grapefruit sweetness; this rolls into the back palate which is bitter hops, and orange and grapefruit rind. The finish is bitter, and dry, with an aftertaste of rye and some puckering in the mouth from the 55 IBUs. This beer also leaves epic lacing on your glass.

Rating: Above-Average

Score: 90%

Man, I love this beer. But then, I have a thing for Rye Ales. I really enjoy the use of rye as a malt. I'm gonna go out on a limb and say this is a Rye Ale and not an IPA. IPAs are typically about the interplay between the pale malt flavors and the big hops. This beer is really driven by the huge rye flavors, and has some nice accompanying hop spice. This is actually a pretty mean beer, but it is also surprisingly smooth and drinkable. This is a great new addition from Sierra Nevada, and I'm hoping that this beer will stick around for a while.