Sierra Nevada Hoptimum

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

June 2015: 355 ml bottle, vintage 2013, BB date 31.05.2014, from Vinmonopolet, Nettbutikken. ABV is 10.4%. Orange colour, slightly hazy. Large head, slightly off-white. Strong hoppy aroma, notes of orange marmalade and pine needles. Very sweet and very bitter flavour, fruity and piney hops galore, but the sweetness and bitterness are nearly too much for me.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 7 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

Pours a brilliantly clear copper color with a massive head (just what one would expect from a Sierra Nevada hoppy beer); clumps of foam stick to the side of the glass. The aroma is tropical fruit salad, with tangerine, pineapple and a hint of mango; the crystal malt also leaves a sugar subtext underneath. The taste, as the beer warms, the malt makes a stronger impression, with the caramel sweetness laying down a backbone from which the hop flavors are suspended; and what a load of hops there are, with the citrusy, pineapple flavors detected in the aroma marching all over the taste buds, and creating a menthol-vanilla that lingers into the finish. The mouthfeel: Medium to full body; just a bit sticky; moderate carbonation.

Aroma: 7 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

100 BITTERNESS UNITS and you can taste every one of them. PINE and citrus hop bomb. Love it. A bit of sweetness is thrown in there for some reason. Mouthfeel is thick, chewy and smooth. Very drinkable for 10+ abv. Only minor negative is the lack of head retention and lacing.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

Pours a clear copper color with a rocky, light tan head that leaves some nice lacing on the glass. Resiny hops, some citrus, mainly grapefruit, and some sweet malts on the nose. The journey begins sweet with malts and then the hops explode in my mouth. This certainly is an example of an intense dry-hopped beer. It's all good. The journey ends with a drying, bitter finish, more hops at work. Full mouthfeel. I'm sure that some would find this beer a bit over the top, but it is a style of beer that I consume frequently and would gladly drink this one again.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 8

12 oz bottle poured into a pint - hazed orange with a thin sticky head that laces nicely. Aroma is mainly pine, very inviting and refined. The taste is an epic blend of grapefruit, lemons, and pine backed with a pleasant caramal malt biscuit that doesn't take away the hops but allows for a little reprise for the palate. It's insanely drinakable for 10 percent, with a creamy mouthfeel and a good bit of carbonation. Par for the course for Sierra - it's fantastic.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 9 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Holy Hops! Near orange golden pour with a very tight and near-perfect white head, sustained, leaving copious amounts of lacing throughout. HUGE hops aroma - like hop nectar - grapefruit and citrus and pine and goodness and then honey and sweet malts. Bitter! But hell yes, grapefruit, pine, citrus, even some peaches in that hops bitter. Great linger. Awesome beer - not for the timid or newbies.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 7

Wow! a punch to the mouth, Deep golden/ orangish body, with some sediment, thin head that leaves some decent lace. Aromas a bit thin some citrus, with lots of sweet malts. Mouthfeel is smooth, sticky, and chewy. Flvor is a big hop wallop(stole that line from Victory) piney punch, like drinking pinesol (i guess), after the bitterness fades a bit the very sweet caramel and bready malts come through. Overall a very nice beer, would like to try this one again by itself, as opposed to the third hop bomb of the night.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

So glad to get my hands on Hoptimum this year. Huge pine and citrus notes in both aroma and flavor although noticeably fading over the last 6 weeks. A truly excellent beer at such a great price--this is why Sierra Nevada continues to impress year after year.

Aroma: 10 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 8

A copper colored beer with a big frothy textured white head rising robustly above. It has great hang time, settling eventually into a thick low lying film and thick ringlet. Wet washcloth hops in the nose. Bold citric-pine hops in the taste with some fruitness. It is full bodied and creamy.

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 9 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 9 | Overall: 9

Big time IPA here. A nice copper colored pour with a medium sized white head. Piney citrus aroma; full flavor of hop bitterness with the citrus hop flavor. Very intense but also very good. A great beer to sip on but very dangerous with a 10% ABV.