Sierra Nevada Ruthless Rye IPA
Was excited to actually see this on the shelves, so I picked up a sixer right away. Pours a dark rust/ruby color with one finger head, which laces thinly and consistently. Aroma is all about the hops. It's well balanced and strangely familiar. I thought it smelled very similar to their Torpedo IPA, in terms of hops aroma: fresh cut grass, pungent, a bit of lemon. There's malt in there too; browned biscuit dominates the aroma. Malt & hops battle it out for aroma dominance. Who wins? (hops) Bitter caramel starts out the flavor department, turning to burnt chocolate/caramel and a woody flavor. Bitter malt turns to bitter hop oil flavor, noting that the hops are well balanced. There's a lingering familiar tart rye flavor in there as well. Feels a bit acidic but mainly balanced. The aroma was great, but the flavor was ultimately too tart and feel too acidic. I can't see myself drinking more than one a night. There's just too much rye in there. It almost tastes like copper towards the end, and I'm not a huge fan of metallic tastes in my beer. This one coulda been a contender.