I have a habit of shitting on IPAs around here, because that dominates this market and finding other options generally means going to a specialty store.
Anyway, I picked this up at Safeway last night and yeah, lack of other options, I went with the possibly most-tolerable overhopped beer, because I still trust Sierra.
This is surprisingly delicious. It starts with a sharp, strong, piney-hop burst (that christmas tree/weed taste of yumminess), then vanishes after a few seconds. You then get a solid lager taste. No hoppy aftertaste that lingers for the rest of the night.
It's quite impressive.
I swear, Sierra just can do no wrong. Even though all of their beers have a very hoppy character, they remain as traditional to each style as they can, within their own goal of hoppy character. the porters and stouts are always very malty and heavy, for example. Of all the expanded macro (previous popular microbrews), Sierra seems to be the only one that retains it's quality to this day.
More recent victims have been RedHook (making pisswater for nearly 10 years now. so sad), and I feel New Belgium is going that way. You can see it in their "net-styled 2.0" pacakging, and the fact that they are rolling out IPAs in all types of styles--something they never used to do.