With Tom Bombadil Brady’s 7th ring all but guaranteed, it’s time to start drinking. When quickly picking up groceries before the game at Safeway, I found myself struggling to find a simple and pleasing game-time beer. Typically I shoot for a Trumer Pils or something similar, but with a limited selection, I go for Sierra Nevada fairly often. Being sick of the Celebration Ale, I chose a beer I haven’t visited in awhile – The Extra IPA.
Without going the DIPA route, they max out the amount of hops to their more traditional IPA, and boy is it apparent. It does essentially what it’s made to do: highlights the piney, citrusy whole-conned American hops (think Cascade and Magnum). I probably know better than to describe a drink as “sticky”, but I still feel my lips stuck together a bit! If you really want to learn about hops and their flavor profiles, this would be a perfect “instructor” beer.
Maybe because it’s loaded with an aggressive amount of Magnum hops, this looks and tastes a bit more like a brown ale. Not a bad thing if you’re a fan of those, and it helps to make a smooth taste for a 7.2% beer. However, I don’t think this kind of beer would age well, and looking at the package date, its disappointing to see it was from 3 months ago. Better to try on draft, and if you’ve never been to Sierra Nevada’s Oktoberfest, then it’s even better to try there! Not that I remember doing so, but I do still have the ticket stub đ