It’s Easter Sunday and almost the end of spring break for the kiddos. My dad stayed with us most of the week to watch the kids while we were gone at work during the day, so it allowed us have a few date nights this week. Now that we’re finished with family stuff, I thought I’d chill out for a little bit and edit home movies and have a couple beers. I picked up a 12 pack of this beer a few weeks ago. My wife has become an IPA fan (lucky me, except her new favorite is Hop Slam, and she keeps draining my supply), so I thought she might like this one. I’ve felt like Sierra Nevada delivers pretty solid beers, and wanted to give this one a try. The bottle says, “Hops are the name of the game with a Double IPA, but we knew we had to take it one step further. With Hop Bullet, we’re using a new technique, hitting the beer with a double-barreled blast of Magnum hops and lupulin dust—pure, concentrated hop flavor—directly into the tank to emphasize the intense pine and citrus flavors of classic West Coast hops.”
Location: Poured into a Sam Adams perfect pint glass at my home in Bloomington, IL.
Numbers: 8% ABV, 60 IBUs, 17.6° plato OG, 2.4° plato FG ~200 Calories
Ingredients: Malts: Two-row pale, wheat, dextrine, chocolate, acidulated; Hops: bittering – Magnum, finishing – Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Magnum, Crystal; Yeast: Ale
Appearance & Aroma: It’s bright golden in color with a slight haze, and the head is bright white and pillowy, but fairly thin. The foam did leave some nice lacing though. The hop aroma is piney and earthy with a bit of citrus and spiciness behind it.
Taste & Feel: The body is medium and the mouthfeel is smooth with a little bit of creaminess and oiliness. Up front, the piney-earthy bitterness is prominent, with some hints of golden maltiness underneath. The sweet golden maltiness rises up quite a bit in the middle to nearly match the bitterness. The maltiness stays strong in the finish, but the piney-earthy hop flavors and bitterness surpassing it, with the bitterness taking center stage. The piney-earthy hop bitterness lasts for a couple minutes in the aftertaste.
Food Pairing: With the piney-earthy hop flavors in this beer, I’d love to pair it with something like a mushroom pizza that would complement both the cheesiness of the pizza, breadiness of the crust, sweetness of the tomatoes, and earthiness of the mushrooms.
Overall Impression: I enjoyed the hoppy flavors and bitterness from this beer, as it was a solid piney-earthiness with hints of spiciness and citrus. The piney-earthiness definitely took center stage, but the other hop flavors gave it a bit of depth. While the hops were definitely on display, the malty sweetness was present, and provided a decent backbone for the solid hopiness. Overall, it was a pretty good IPA, and another solid presentation of the style by Sierra Nevada.
My Rating: 
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