Torpedo - Barrel-Aged
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Taster at Bittercreek. Dark, clear golden, small creamy head, solid lacing. Sweet rummy aroma, malty, brown sugar. Taste also recalls rum barrel. Big , sweet notes, malty, minor hop finish. Tasty and smooth

750ml cork & cage bottle poured into a snifter

A- pours a clear deep amber color with a one-finger foamy white head that reduces to a ring around the edge

S- citrusy and floral hop nose with a hint of pine. Malty notes of caramel, honey & bread. A hint of oak if I try to find it, but very subtle

T- floral and piney hops follow the nose, with some resinous pine. Mid-palate brings out some malty sweetness, adding bread, honey and caramel. The finish gives just a hint of peppery oak, lingers of floral and citrusy hops

M- medium body with medium carbonation leads to a foamy mouthfeel that turns creamy into the finish, high drinkability

O- the barrel was much more subtle that expected, but the base beer was solid, as expected

10th anniversary bottle.

Orange hued caramel gold.

Sticky hops, floral, grassy, grapefruit. Nice barrel flavors, but a bit light. Some oak and vanilla. Malty, English like. Lots of great flavors. Love a good barrel aged ipa.

Bottle shared at a recent tasting by MrBarleywine, thanks for the opportunity! Lightly hazy dark gold color with a decent sized bubbly off white head. Spicy earthy barrel notes compliment the bready caramel malt and light earthy spicy hops. Wasn't going in thinking this was going to be all that good but was pleasantly surprised.

Bottle pour- a bit darker than regular Torpedo but similar. Nose is citrusy and piney with a hint of barrel wood. Taste follows with more barrel wood/oaky notes. Kind of reminds me of Founders Doom but quite a bit more mellow.Tasty AF.

L: the usual brighter orange tint is darkened, definitely features familiar bourbon ranges; nice tan head that returns if swirled a bit

S: definitely a nice fusion of bourbon notes of vanilla while the hop bitterness nose kicks through any malty sense that was initially present

T: a really nice instantaneous, balanced blast of oaky smoothness, bitter hops, and a perfectly subdued sweetness with no sense of cloying… despite the barrel aging, i am getting some ‘herbal’ notes

M: nice, chewy mouthfeel but still very viscous… smooth platform that was neither too thick nor too thin

Highly Recommended! i ordered my bottle (along with 3 other Trip/Woods bottling!) last week from Chico all the way to here, Philly ‘burbs/Media!

imagine taking a sip of a barrel proof Elijah Craig… savor it… then sip a cold Torpedo… this bottling reminded of that experience years ago… cheers!

 

 

750mL corked bottle purchased at the SN Mills River taproom last month poured into a tulip pint glass at 55° Fahrenheit 8.6% ABV. The beer pours bright light amber in color with khaki head. The head recedes to a thin, uneven cap and plenty of lacing. The aroma is mild with vanilla, oak and faded citrus & pine. The taste is semisweet caramel with with a vanilla, oak and bourbon accent. There are traces of the trademark pine & citrus, but they are faded. Heavy bitterness throughout. The mouthfeel is medium bodied with average carbonation and a mostly dry finish. Overall, different and good. Maybe not something I'd buy repeatedly, but worth a try. The bottle is stamped 111219, so I suspect this would have been a far different experience two years ago.

Pours a slightly cloudy amber, worth a pale reddish tan head leaves behind some spotty lacing.
Nose getssome pine, citrus and a hint of bourbon, taste follows the aroma, getting some burnt sugars. Medium bodied, well carbonated. It's pretty tasty but I prefer the plain old Torpedo.

Look - light brow thick with a nice white head
Smell - pine citrus like a torpedo but with some woody caramel barrel. Almost barleywine smell
Taste - easy going barelywine. Hoppy malty caramel.
Feel - medium body and carb
Overall - interesting and tasty

 

 

 

High on the success of Sierra Nevada's Torpedo Ale, its ten-year mark warrants a makeover. The brewery ages their formidable IPA in bourbon barrels to give it a stronger, more rounded and classically American twist.

Barrel Aged Torpedo pours with a foggy golden copper appearance before topping off with a creamy off-white froth. The sharper hop aromas give way to a spicier and boozier nose of oak, pine, citrus peel, whisky spice and pepper while wrapped in a soft and caramelized cocoon. Its firm maltiness carries over those caramelized aromas into taste with a toastier and more savory play on caramel, honey, nuttiness and toast for a suggestion of granola early on the palate.

But as the hops march about the middle palate, the flavors slowly start to favor the sharper and more resinous flavor of orange peel, pink grapefruit and pineapple rinds. Bittersweet in its balance, the beer continues to shift more toward hop bitterness with a woodsy, grassy and peppery hop bite that mingle well with the influence of charred oak and bourbon spice that frame the beer's later taste. As nuanced vanilla, cream and coconut round out the taste, its character is more of an American Strong Ale.

Medium full in body, its strength and powerful flavor suggests a fuller texture, but its stronger and drying alcohol work with drying resins for a spicier, drier and surprisingly refreshing taste. Finishing on the bitter side of bitter-sweet, Barrel Aged Torpedo trails into a long and resinous finish that reminds us that its still an IPA at heart.

 

My pour generated a nice froth, one that stared at me for a while with a rusty white eyeball. On the edges a matched color surrounded the surface, giving a teary-eyed impression. Extending the metaphor, the tear drops formed a trail down the glass.

The nose was actually quite impressive - there were the remnants of the citrus hops bouncing off the barrel wood spiced its previous inhabitant. It seemed one of those sublime experiences that I don't think words can explain well, but the barrel and beer components worked so well together int he aroma.

On the taste, the barrel and the bourbon it held onto before being drawn out and into this beer break this experience. The notes were nice, even interesting on their own, but given room to breathe in a less alcohol-concentrated environment, they had a watered down aspect. Thiat watered down whiskey aspect takes the foreground, but the beer did come out eventually. There was some coconut and reedy grass that act as a prelude to the main actor's part in this play. It might've been a bit of a stumble getting there, but the ship righted itself against the "watery" opening. The spice of the alcohol numbed things a little, dulling the hoppiness of the beer. The malt backbone carried through, though, and hop bitterness came to me in minty more than piney notes initially. There was a hint of spice and then finally, the pine lingered.

Pours a very nice reddish amber color with a nice head and lacing
Aroma has Bourbon, hop and piney hints
The taste follows the nose with a well balanced Bourbon, hop and piney flavors
A medium bodied well carbonated beer
The balance of the hops and the bitterness was very nice, the Bourbon Barrel aging took it up a level