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Here’s another beer I’m enjoying from the Sierra Nevada 4-Way IPA sampler. This 12-pack features Sierra Nevada Torpedo Extra IPA, Nooner Session IPA, Blindfold Black IPA and the beer I’m drinking tonight, Snow Wit White IPA. The sampler was released earlier this year, but is hitting store shelves again in July, so if you missed it the first time, be sure to pick one up now.
I am on the fence regarding white IPAs. Some breweries have done them very nicely (Saranac White IPA is the best I’ve had so far), but most of the time you end up with a slightly hoppy witbier. In the case of Sierra Nevada Snow Wit, I got to my taste neither a white IPA nor a hoppy witbier, but something else entirely.
You don’t need a magic mirror to see the lure of this beer. It’s brewed with seven varieties of experimental dwarf hops. These hops are so called because of their uncommon growing method—shorter hedgerows rather than tall trellis systems—that yields a denser heap of cones with unique flavors that diverge from their full-grown botanical counterparts.
Ingredients from the website:
YEAST: Belgian yeast
BITTERING HOPS: Summit
FINISHING HOPS: Summit, Experimental Dwarf Hops
MALTS: Two-row Pale, Wheat, Unmalted Wheat, Acidulated
OTHER: Lemon peel, Coriander
Sierra Nevada Snow Wit White IPA has an alcohol content of 5.7% by volume and 40 IBUs. Mine was bottled on February 19th of 2014. I paid $15.99 for the 12-pack sampler.
Sierra Nevada Snow Wit White IPA pours to a cloudy orange yellowish color with a thick pillowy head of white fluffy foam and a bright juicy nose of citrus orange. The beer becomes even cloudier as I rouse and pour the chunky yeast into my bottle. Taking a sip, I get some crackery tart wheat up front followed by more of the big fruity orange the nose promised. I'm getting juicy orange fruit but also and perhaps some light grapefruit, and orange and bitter orange peels as well. That notion of orange rind is reinforced by a gently bitter herbal hop finish.
What I’m not really getting is the coriander here, odd for a wit, but it seems to be drowned out by the citrusy hops. Then too, this is a pretty tame beer in the hop department by Sierra Nevada standards. Still, I like it, it's packed with citrus flavor and very, very refreshing. Just not really what I would call a White IPA, folks.
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
(G)=Growler