Hoptimum Triple IPA by Sierra Nevada Brewing
I usually focus this blog almost exclusively on Australian craft beers with a couple of occasional Kiwi brews thrown in for good measure. But given the recent 4th of July holiday in the States and my connections back there, I thought it might be an appropriate time of year to bring out one of my all-time favourite American beers: Sierra Nevada’s Hoptimum Triple IPA.
Just as a preface for those less familiar with American craft breweries, Sierra Nevada isn’t small hole-in-the-wall brewery. It’s massive and close to ubiquitous at decent bars and bottle shops in the States. Some of their core beers are actually getting not too difficult to locate over here in Oz.
Hoptimum, however, is not one of their standard core-range beers. This one is special. This is one of the best and hoppiest beers I’ve ever had. It is seriously intense. As I may have mentioned once or twice, I love a hoppy beer. But there are different shades of hoppy. And when you crank the hoppiness up to 11 (coincidentally also the ABV for this massive brew), any slight difference from your particular favourite type of hoppiness gets hugely magnified. Lucky for me, the hop profile of Hoptimum is exactly what Iove. Slightly dry, bitter, and not over-the-top resiny. I’m positive there are much better adjectives to describe varieties of hops, but those are the one’s I’ve got in my vocabulary at the moment. The closest comparison to similar hop profiles I can think of is Pirate Life’s IIPA (another brilliant beer).
As I mentioned above, Sierra Nevada beers are getting easier to find in Australia these days (Dan Murphy’s even carry a few varieties). Hoptimum, may be a bit tougher to get your hands on. But you can still find it in good craft beer bottle shops. The only caveat is that given the hoppiness and the fact it gets shipped over from the States, try to get as fresh a bottle as you can.
As far as American craft beers go, there are definitely trendier, smaller, more artisan breweries out there. There are tons of them. And as a general rule, they make amazing beer. But just because this one comes from one of the biggest corporate-y craft brewers in the States, does not in any way mean that this is a middle of the road meh beer. I guarantee there are small American breweries out there making beers just as hoppy and just as good. But I’m not here to declare Hoptimum as better or worse than any of those. I’m here to write about beers I love. And I love this beer.