Thanks to a demand that is approximately 400% higher than Sierra Nevada projected, there is a bit of a short supply of their Torpedo Extra IPA at the retail level right now.
Brewery Communications Coordinator Bill Manley took to the BeerAdvocate message boards on multiple occasions in the past few months to share the above information. He has also noted that the Citra hops that are used in production of the beer are in very limited supply right now, with under seven acres in total worldwide production in 2008. He continued that until the new hop harvest hits in October they have asked both distributors and retailers to order only what is necessary as they will only be able to accommodate about half of the Torpedo orders through then, meaning there may be times when the beer is simply out of stock at your local store.
While I can say that I haven't seen the Torpedo on the shelves as much around here as the other Sierr
a Nevada year round offerings, I have still seen it in pretty good supply. It seems that if one store does not have it then the one five minutes down the road likely will. To me that five minutes is well worth it if you're craving the Torpedo, because it really is a well crafted, tasty beer that has a juicy hop bite to it that is never over the top and makes for a nice middle ground between a standard and a double IPA.In other Sierra news, look for their other new year round offering, the Kellerweis Hefeweizen, to hit the shelves starting early this summer. The brewery describes it as being brewed via open fermentation, a technique that adds "uncommon depth and flavor complexity" such as banana and clove. I've obviously not had the chance to sample this one yet, but my gut says that Sierra Nevada will knock it out of the park, as is the case with just about everything they brew.
