I have a lot of time for India Pale Ales, and pale ales in general. Indeed, the best beer I’ve ever had was an IPA. Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, from an excellent pale ale producer, just does not quite live up to the high standard of their less booze-mongous beer.
What I want from an IPA is plenty of booze-value, but not have that showing too overtly because of the hoppy complexity on the nose and extreme bitterness on the palate. Those hops should also provide real complexity on the palate. When they do this, they are brilliant, but this isn’t quite there.
Sierra Nevada Torpedo IPA, 7.2% abv
There is a lot of confected, tutti-fruiti fruit on the nose, which isn’t entirely pleasant, but also a strong pine character from the hops, which is better. The booze-level smells quite strong and sweet. On the palate there is a lot of the sweet, confected hops character and, whilst there is plenty of bitterness, it just seems a touch out of balance and lacking complexity. It’s quite nice, but not a super stunning IPA. Could do better.
We had this with Scotch duck eggs. Orbs work a treat with duck eggs which are very rich and have a lot of flavour. Dani kept them lively and hot as something unrepeatable by dosing up the sausagemeat with fresh garlic and red hot tomato chutney. Orbs of fire!