Hop Bullet Double IPA

Review Date 4/13/2018   Last Updated 3/26/2020   By John Staradumsky

Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet Double IPA is here! This is a newspring seasonal from this Chico, California and Mills River, North Carolina brewer. It’s also the fifth double/imperial IPA I’ve tasted from Sierra Nevada, the others being Hoptimum Whole Cone Imperial IPA, Best of Beer Camp #29 Double IPA, Beer Camp Across America West Coast Double IPA, and a bottle of Audition Double IPA I picked up at the Mills River location a few years ago.

So, what’s different about the Hop Bullet then? Tell us, Sierra Nevada.

Hops are the name of the game with a Double IPA, but we knew we had to take it one step further. With Hop Bullet, we’re using a new technique, hitting the beer with a double-barreled blast of Magnum hops and lupulin dust—pure, concentrated hop flavor—directly into the tank to emphasize the intense pine and citrus flavors of classic West Coast hops.

Ingredients, from the website:

Yeast: Ale yeast

Bittering Hops: Magnum

Finishing Hops: Centennial, Cascade, Chinook, Magnum, Crystal

Malts: Two-row Pale, Wheat, Dextrine, Chocolate, Acidulated

Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet Double IPA has an alcohol content of 8% by volume with 60 IBUs. It’s a very good deal at $8.49 a six-pack at Total Wine. My bottle says PKGD on 12/05/17 and I drank it on March 29th, 2018. That’s about 4 months of age on it, but I don’t want to hear one word out of you IPA-can’t-be-aged freaks. This is a spring seasonal, and spring only started 9 days before I drank the bloody beer.

Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet Double IPA pours to a brilliant golden color with a thick creamy head and a vibrant citrusy grapefruit nose. Taking a sip, the beer has a moderate maltiness supporting citrusy grapefruit and lemony notes. Resiny pine hits too, and it all leads into a long, lingering bitter herbal finish.

Very nice indeed, but I would like more malt, folks. Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet straddles the line between a classic American/West Coast DIPA (with the hops) and a modern one with the lighter malt. Very nice showcase for these classic hops all the same.

Update 5/3/2018: Sierra Nevada Hop Bullet on tap at Taco Mac! The lemony grapefruit citrus is even more robust here. I’d like a little more malt, but this is damned tasty. $5.50.

Update 3/26/2020: Picked up a 19.2 ounce can of Hop Bullet at a gas station today for $3.49. I'm really loving these gas station single cans of craft beer that I see more and more these days. Hp Bullet is as wonderful as it ever was. Canned on 9/24/19 so apparently no longer a spring seasonal.

And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.

*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.

(B)=Bottled

(D)=Draft

 

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