"Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA" news and stories

Sierra Nevada garnered a ton of press after announcing the forthcoming release of the first year-round addition to their brewing line-up in over a decade. I myself got caught up in the hype, but have been playing it cool waiting to give the beer a try. Part of launching a major new addition to your product line is availability, so half the fun was waiting to see when and where I would first find Torpedo Extra IPA available.

Well, last Friday, I was pleasantly surprised when my local corner store had a couple six-packs stashed in their back cooler. With an official launch date of "late January 2009", it took less than a month for Sierra Nevada's latest offering to make its way onto my block. Not too shabby -- I don't particularly live in a craft beer haven -- and definitely a testament to Sierra Nevada's distribution. For taste, Sierra Nevada is all craft, but on the availability side, Sierra Nevada has become almost as ubiquitous as the big boys.

Over the past 28 years, Sierra Nevada has stood as a formidable national alternative to the massive American macro-brewers. When they started in 1980, there was a dignified simplicity to providing just four basic year-round offerings -- Pale Ale, Porter, Wheat and Stout -- styles which have stood as pillars of the craft industry. But recently, simple has shifted towards quaint, and though Sierra Nevada has always offered a cadre of seasonal and limited selections, someone has seemingly decided it's time to up the ante and add a new addition to their previously untouched year-round core. Welcome Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA.

Torpedo Extra IPA instantly separates itself by name alone, sounding a bit flashier than its other yearlong brethren, as if an ad exec in a mesmerizing tie somehow managed to slip one by the old guard. But I'm not sure that's a bad thing. Frankly, I've always been on the fence about Sierra Nevada. Much props for making the microbrew market what it is today and all due respect to their Pale Ale which is trumped only by Sam Adams Boston Lager in the annals of craft beer history, but, for my tastes, Sierra Nevada brews have always seemed a bit standard -- a feeling that has only become accentuated as the craft market has deepened.

Source