20th Street Magnum
Sierra Nevada Brewing Co.

Copper light orange pour, magnificent clarity, soft soapy white head. Earthy hop aroma. Floral and that smell of dirt vitamins.

Pretty bitter, I wouldn't say the magnum hop is a good single hop beer. Nice to see what it contributes to the Torpedo beer, but a beer is often more than just the sum of its parts, the interplay need factor in, or here, the deconstruction would lead you to believe that the magnum hop is almost worthless in Torpedo. Surely that cannot be the case. Certainly not complex. I bet its a bittering hop, because aroma and flavor it didn't really impart.

I guess this is the second time I will have proclaimed something to be my 2200th review, with the beer mergers and beeradvocate deletions that recently came.

On tap at the Sierra Nevada brewery/restaurant. This is a single hop version of their Torpedo. Looks just like Torpedo, copper pour, good clarity, solid 1" white head on the top. No doubt, a solid looking beer. Aroma was lacking, magnums are far from aroma hops, but nonetheless, its helpful for understanding which part of the Torpedo blend of hops do which when you isolate everything out of a single hop recipe for it, and the conclusion is magnums are pretty much only useful for bittering, not taste or aroma.

Described as giving a floral, earthy and cinnamon spice, this one just came across as earthy. Lacking complexity, it was just bitter, but not in the usual cascade floral aspect tha the whole cone Sierra Nevada stuff usually comes across as. This was brassy bitter, lacking a distinct flavor component that other hoppy ales from Sierra Nevada does.

I had the Crystal hop too that day. I prefer this the least, between the regular Torpedo blend, and the single hopped Crystal.