Sierra Nevada Hoptimum 2012

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California
Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from a 4-pack, bought at Jewel-Osco in IL; 2012
Style/ABV: Imperial IPA, 10.4%

 

Let's call it Hoptimum, because that's clever.

The only thing more original than an American brewery cranking out an extreme Imperial IPA full of a metric fuck-ton of hops is an American brewery using some witty "hop" pun in the title of their beer. Hoptimum has to be a stroke of marketing genius. What is next, Sierra Nevada? Hoptimus Prime? The Hunt For Red Hoptober? The Hoppit? 

I'm just busting balls, of course. What else are they supposed to call this shit? "Resiny Citrus Bitter Shit?" Pay the marketing man, pay him well. I can't tell if he is smiling, or regretting that morning cup of coffee before the meeting.

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.

Anyway, if you check out Sierra Nevada's Hoptimum page, you can get some info about this beer. This beer is brewed with whole-cone hops, resulting in a massive, 10.4% ABV, 100 IBU monster of an Imperial IPA. This beer is hopped, dry-hopped, and torpedoed (see my review of Sierra Nevada's Torpedo Extra IPA for more info on their "Torpedo"). This beer also uses a number of "exclusive new hop varieties" from Sierra Nevada. The beer is described as having flavors of grapefruit rind, rose, lilac, cedar, and tropical fruit. The beer is uses (all-in-all) German Magnum (bittering), Simcoe (aromatic, cat pee, distinct), Citra (tropical fruits), Chinook (spicy, piney, citrus), and "New Proprietary Variety" hops. Last but not least, my understanding is that when brewing beer with whole-cone hops, you need to add a lot more hops compared to using hop extracts or hop pellets. I'm not homebrewing (yet), but that's my understanding. With that said....onto the beer.

Hoptimum 2012

First off, I love the bottle. It's all green, and features a portrait of a dude with a hop cone for a head. The bottle cap is a kick ass green color as well. When I opened up the beer, it wanted to escape, as some carbonation peaked out of the bottle. The beer has a dark orange/amber/copper color in low light. I worked out 3 fingers of foamy, soapy head, but it faded down fairly fast into a nice centimeter coating. The head is just slightly copper-tinted. In bright light this is an amber/orange beer. There appears to be a hint of sediment in the beer? It could just be chill haze. It's mostly transparent, with a lot of carbonation in the form of small bubbles. There is some nice lacing and some alcohol legs.

The aroma on this is fresh (I think), but it's really subtle. I'm not smelling "Imperial IPA," and definitely not "West Coast IIPA." I smell resiny pine, and resiny hops. There are some pine cones, as well as pine forest in here. It's very earthy, pleasant, and mild. There is some spice on the nose. Slight lemon/orange zest, or even salt. I'm also getting some malts on the aroma, including some caramel, sweet bread, and lemon curd.

Wow...maybe it's just one of "those nights," but this is a fairly dense Imperial IPA. I'm getting a lot of caramel, marmalade, breads, and sweetness mixed in with really dense, resiny, thick, sticky hop goodness. I'm reminded of Dogfish Head's 90 Minute IPA, to some extent. There is a lot of bitterness in this, but I'm getting it more in the middle and back. And wow, this beer dries up your back palate. It's not a woody dryness either like you often get. I'm just getting intense, hop dryness. It's actually a really nice finish if you're into that uber bitter/dry back end. As I continue to sip, the front palate gets a bit smaller, and I'm getting a lot of spices mid-palate. I'm pulling out earthy hop spice, peppery spice, and some salty zest. This is super sweet, and fairly malty (as you might expect at 10.4%).

The alcohol in this is subdued and well-hidden. Granted, that may just be my alcoholism speaking. If anything, the spicy hops hide any alcohol bite, and the super dry/hoppy finish masks any booze in the finish. This is creamy, and smooth...but quite dense and thick. It does have a bit of a resin/oil thing going on. I'd say medium-full to full, with soft carbonation, and a smooth drinker. The finish is super dry, with giant hop dryness. Up front you get a dash of sweet malt; the middle rolls into hops and hop spice; the back end is lingering hops, with a drying hop finish. I'm pulling out some earthy/spicy hop flavors, and a bit of citrus in the dry finish. Palate depth is huge, complexity is moderate for the style. You do feel the 100 IBUs, for sure...making this a bold beer to sip, or pair with some aggressive food.

Hard to rate this beer, it is. Right now...this is not hitting the spot for me. But I'm attracted to this! What I am interpreting here is a HUGE hop bomb that needed a huge grain bill to balance the hops and push up the ABV. As a result, this reminds me of a liqueur almost. It's super hoppy, and super bitter, and all super dry, so it does fill its big shoes. It's just not a typical West Coast IPA.

Rating: Average 

 

I'm feeling a strong Average on this. This is by no means a bad beer, it's just not blowing me away at the moment. I'll leave this one open, though. I have 3 more of these left, and plan to revisit this soon. Like tomorrow (haha). Overall though, it's a really nice change in pace from your stereotypical West Coast IPAs. And that finish. Hot damn!