Hop Bullet - Magnum Edition
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Pours a golden/orange color with a foamy head that stays. Aroma is citrus and light sweet malt. Taste is similar to aroma with some hop bitterness. Smooth mouthfeel & tasty. DOB 12-14-2023

Delicious, true-to-style, west-coast "Imperial" style IPA! This is dank-hoppy-resinous goodness in a can my friends! Solid SN!! Untappd check-in 26 Jan 24.

Pours a chill hazed light amber, producing 3 fingers of beige, frothy, somewhat lasting head that leaves behind a substantial coating of lace. Aroma is citrus and pine, caramel malt, earthy floral/herbal with tropical hints. Taste is caramel malt, orange, grapefruit, pine and alcohol prominent. Alcohol manifest itself as bitterness, spice and chalkiness. Robust. Aftertaste is an astringent bitter, orange and resinous pine. Mouthfeel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation; peppery, and slick it draws heavily on the tongue. Very nice.

RB transfer

A: crystal clear; copper colored; 2 finger finely pored off white head that receded to a very thin cap; nice lacing;

S: pine and grapefruit;

T: follows the nose up front; some pineapple comes in toward the end; moderate to high bitterness on the finish;

M: medium bodied; moderate carbonation; moderately dry finish;

O: this makes me happy;

 

 

 

Part of a Costco 24 variety pack $32.99
97 days old
Smell of pine
Clear amber color
Medium mouthfeel
Medium carbonation
Taste of citrus, oranges, pine, some bitterness, hides alcohol really well
Overall a good beer. Not overly bitter, easy drinking for a high ABV so dangerous.

 

 

 

Bitter, beautiful, strong. This is the beer to drink to pretentious indie films. I love stuff like this. This is what ipa should strive to achieve. An excellent drink like poetry.

12oz can purchased from the fridge as a single as part of a mix-a-six pack for $13.99. "53 PKGD 120623" so this beer is almost 10 months old.

Look: It has a beautiful copper orange color. Pretty clear with just a faint haze. There was two fingers of a rocky off-white head that dissipated to a thin ring. Streams of tiny bubbles rising up the glass.

Smell: It sounds a bit cliched, but it smells like orange hop candy. Super piney and a bit dank. Tons of orange zest. Boozy.

Taste: Ah, that's a really well-made Imperial IPA. The taste follows the nose with tons or orange peel and lots of resinous pine. A bit of caramel malt up front for a split second before the hops smash you over the head. The finish lingers long and is boozy, pithy, and bitter. I'm not sure what else to say about this. The more I drink, the less bothered I am by the booze. The beer/hops are making my palate and tongue a bit numb. I'm not sure if I've ever had Magnum hops before, so I'm not sure what distinguishes this version (also not sure if I've had the regular Hop Bullet before). Overall, it's very earthy, piney, orangey.

Feel: Slick, oily mouthfeel. Medium plus body. Given that it's a 9.5% ABV beer, the mouthfeel is a bit thin.

Overall: It's very solid. At the same time, it is lacking in complexity and it is very boozy. It would be a beer that's nice to have every once in a while. I feel like with the current haze craze, it's hard to find beers like this nowadays. Lagunitas Super Cluster is a beer that this beer kind of reminds me of. Also, Foley Brothers Prospect. Lawson's Sip of Sunshine is another one that could fall into this category. Even if they're not the most exciting beers on the shelf, we need more beers like this so that we maintain beer diversity and a variety of options for consumers.

From the website:
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME
9.5%

BITTERNESS UNITS
48

MALTS
Crystal, Oats, Two-row Pale, Wheat, White Wheat

HOPS
Eureka, Helios, Idaho 7, Magnum

YEAST
Ale

 

 

Note: I am in the process of moving all of my ratings from other beer sites to here, so that all of my ratings are consolidated in one place. The review below is an exact copy of my original RateBeer review from 02/14/2024.


12 oz. can, 9.5% ABV, Packaged on: 12/27/23

AROMA: Sweet with moderate scents of orange, grapefruit, and pine. Oddly enough, every now and then I get a hint of nutmeg.

APPEARANCE: Pours a clear light-gold with a tall, white, tight-froth head that dissipates VERY slowly and has excellent lacing. This beer looks amazing in a clear Pilsner glass.

TASTE: Sweet with the predominant flavors being grapefruit and pine, which is then followed by the secondary flavors of orange peel and malt. The finish is slightly bitter with a bit more orange peel flavor. Even though there is a touch of bitterness throughout, I still find the flavor to be too sweet for this type of beer.

MOUTHFEEL: The body is right on the borderline between medium and full, with it leaning a bit more towards full. The texture is smooth and silky and has above-average carbonation. This is a very luxurious feeling beer!

OVERALL: A local store was having a BOGO sale on Sierra Nevada beers. I've had several of their other beers and have liked most of them. So I figured this was a good opportunity to try a few new ones without risking a lot of cash. While, overall, this beer has a multitude of good qualities, I'm still not sure that I would buy it again. Mainly because of the candy-like sweetness factor. If the grapefruit and/or pine flavors were increased just a smidgen, then I think it would cut through some of that sweetness and make for a more evenly balanced flavor profile. Having said that, whenever I get the hankering for a sweet beer (which I usually quench with a nice German/Belgian dark beer), I will keep this one in mind.

 

 

Bright brass with a snow drift of head; tangerine, grass + candied pineapple on the nose; mandarin, thread of pine, basil, golden pear, grapefruit, twig + grass to end; clean, medium, ringing bitter linger.

4 4.25 4 4 4

Eureka, Helios, Idaho 7, Magnum

I thought Magnum was a US super-alpha but it’s actually German bittering from Noble + Galena parentage.
That could be interesting, except SN bump the mint oil + pine with Eureka, and the resin with Helios.
You’re left guessing what Magnum actually is, especially since the finish hits with the intensity of neither the ABV nor garden variety Hop Bullet.
A clean, potent, refined but under aroma’d hop nuke.

Nice beer, but strange play for the first single hopped HB.