Sierra Nevada's Beer Camp 2014: Torpedo Pilsner Hoppy Pilsner (brewed with Firestone Walker Brewery Company in Paso Robles, California)

Brewed By: Sierra Nevada Brewing Company in Chico, California 
Purchased: Single 12oz bottle from the 2014 Beer Camp bought at Jewel-Osco in Chicago, IL; 2014 (PKG 05/29/14)
Style/ABV: Belgian Pale Ale, 5.2%

Reported IBUs: 45

What is Beer Camp? It is Sierra Nevada's celebration of craft beer and the numerous breweries across America that make that craft beer. For 2014, Sierra Nevada collaborated with 12 different breweries to make 12 different beers. They also have a Beer Camp Across America Beer Festival, which will stop at seven different cities and feature many different breweries and beers.

About Sierra Nevada:

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. For more info, check out their website.

The hoppy Torpedo Pilsner Hoppy Pilsner is a collaboration with the fine folks at Firestone Walker Brewing. My bottle reads: "Torpedo Pilsner is a hop-forward take on the crisp, classic lager. We and the folks at Firestone Walker share a passion for New Zealand hop varietals, so we loaded our legendary Hop Torpedo with the southern hemisphere's finest hops for a fruity, floral twist on the Pilsner style."

This one pours a pale yellow color, and has good depth of color throughout. This is transparent if not slightly hazy, with fat carb popping away. I kicked up 3-plus fingers of dense, sustaining, white head. There is some lacing as well.

Torpedo Pilsner Hoppy Pilsner

The aroma here is clean and sweet. I'm getting sweet Pilsner malts up the butt. It smells like an adjunct lager. There are grassy and floral hops in the mix as well. DAE lawn mow? Constrained biscuit and cracker show up, like when you are constipated and prairie-dog it deep in your colon but nothing comes out. There are also some faint, non-descript fruity notes. 

Wow. The taste is a real contrast from the aroma, with candy-like hops firing off melon and sweet lemon candied notes. This is fruity with candy berries, dusty citrus, sweet tarts, and layers of dust and dry candy hop notes on light biscuit and cracker malts. This is super sweet. The hops here are floral as well, with dusty flowers and candy in the house. Fantastic.

Now this is a fun twist on the Pilsner style. This is light-bodied and super drinkable, but the balance is shifted towards dusty, candy-like hops. Palate depth is good, and this is complex for the style. Up front: sweet malts give way to sweet tarts and candy hops; the mids roll into grassy and dusty candy hops with some biscuit/cracker; the back end lingers with lemon bitterness. Good.

Rating: Above-Average (4.0/5.0 Untappd)

I'm feeling a Decent Above-Average on this...this is a very original take on the style, and what this variety pack should be about. Food pairings here are one and only one: pizza. That's it.

Random Thought: Transcribing notes after the fact suuuucks. So does not having Internet for a week.