Sierra Nevada: Electric Torpedo West Coast IPA(USA: IPA: 7.5% ABV)
Visual: Pale, just slightly hazy yellow lemon juice coloured body. Large white frothy bubbled head.
Nose: Pink grapefruit. Resinous. Tart grapes. Fluffy hops. Moderate bitterness. Tiny sulfur touch. Cake sponge. Brown bread.
Body: Resinous. Oily. Bitter. Toffee. Chewy body but still drying. Touch of smoke. Gunpowder tea. Mandarin orange. Brown bread.
Finish: Resinous. Bitter hop hit. Pink grapefruit. Orange skin. Gunpowder tea. Tart grapes. Tangerine. Brown bread.
Conclusion: Ok, so the first thoughts that quickly hit me with this. One, well the first has to be the hop assault that hits you. Can’t miss it. Second is that there is a bigger toffee body than I expected for a west cost IPA. Third is that despite that it is still really dry in the style’s way. Fourth. Bloody hell this is resinous oily hoppiness. Fifth. Ohh pink grapefruit, nice. Sixth, oh welcome back oily hops. Finally, ohh fresh orange notes.
So, that is the TL/DR take on the beer.
It really does sum it up though, the hit after hit take, as this just is big hits of flavour, often and well done. It never skimps on the oily, resinous notes, building and building them until it reaches an almost harsh, only just sulphur, smoke and gunpowder tea touched notes, but always backing off before they become unpleasant.
Initially more traditional west coast grapefruit notes dominate the fruity side, but in a bit brighter, pink grapefruit way – not a unique take but appreciably different to most takes, making this interesting as well as tasty to drink. Then later on it adds tart, bright orange notes that really make this sparkle against the joyous hop fucking assault.
Finally, yeah this is chewier than I expected, with more malt toffee flavours, but despite that super dry and drying, so does not sacrifice the west coast style to the extra malt flavor – its just the malt is not as out of the way as normal. The hops are so big though that even that additional malt flavor gets easily pushed to the back.
I love it, west coast but with just enough of a twist, and absolutely delicious. I would have to try this and Atomic Torpedo IPA to say which was my favorite variant, but either way this is fantastic.
Background: I did notes on Torpedo IPA a while back, loved it, and have tried so many variant since, which have been from good to great. Saw this one drop in Independent Spirit, and thought “west coast! Oh yes!” Not the first west coast variant I have seen, think Torpedo Pacific IPA was also west cost style. Don’t know the exact difference between the two takes but they describe this as “striking balance of orange, stone fruit, and herbal hop flavors.“ Any which way I love west coast IPAs, I love Torpedo IPAs, gotta try this. Music wise wanted something with a real beat to go along to it, so went with Orbital: Green Album.
