Sierra Nevada "Hop Bullet" Double IPA

I give many breweries a hard time about incoherent or difficult to read labels, but I'm going to take a step back on this one and say that Sierra Nevada produced a fine looking label for this beer. I don't know if it's the old-tyme fonts and style or the western feel that it has, but I like the label a lot, and I know they won't really care that I said that.

The golden beer has a copper tone to it (not Coppertone like the sunscreen) and is surmounted by a nice, thick head of foam that is manageable enough to not be annoying, but it is thick. Eventually, it boils down to a thin dusting across the top of the beer, but lacing is nice and Jackson-Pollock-esque. The aroma is very demure wet bread dough with a spray of citrus barely wetting it.

First sip is an odd duck. It is very harsh (unlike what most of the DIPAs have been so far) up front, it evens out, and then it is harsh again on the back end. Metal and yest linger far too long for the brief glimpse of doughy goodness that was in the trough. That whole sip is just... not good. But, it's only a sip.

Tip-in is bread, grains, pine, and honey, but the carbonation burn is turning things up to unpleasantness. The middle is where I found love in the sip, and the swig reveals the same smooth, rich, sweet bread malt with pine and citrus intermingling. The finish is less harsh than in the sip, but it does bring bitterness with more pine before the trail-off descends with metal and a bitter funk.

Bottom Line: Better in theory than in practice.

2.0/5