Day 353: Hoptimum

Name: Hoptimum

Brewer: Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. (Chico, CA)

Classification: Imperial IPA

Alcohol: 10.4%

Thoughts: This is a break away from Sierra Nevada's usual foray into beer. For example, the usual Sierra Nevada landscape is absent from the bottle and is replaced by a label that is specific to the beer. The other thing that this beer does is to use whole cone hops instead of the traditional dried hops. This makes the hops smell and taste more earthy than citrusy. And that is exactly what this beer is, an extremely hoppy, piney, earth-moving Imperial IPA. Instead of just giving you the description like I normally do you can look at the picture above to see how it looks, buy one to see how it smells and drink one to see how it tastes. I know, kind of a dickish thing to say on my part. But I really just want to make an analogy or two to tell how freaking pungent Hoptimum is. If IPAs were Imperial powerhouses  a regular IPA would be as powerful as Portugal and Hoptimum would be as powerful as Britain. They are both immensely grand, but Hoptimum has the Opium Trade on lock-down. 

Rating: 90/100