Sierra Nevada Launches Torpedo Extra IPA Featuring the Hop Torpedo

In 2009, Sierra Nevada Brewing Company launched Torpedo Extra IPA, the first beer designed to showcase its Hop Torpedo dry-hopping device. The custom stainless-steel apparatus holds whole-cone hops while beer circulates from a fermenter through the packed column and back into the tank. By adjusting circulation time, temperature, and flow rate, brewers can control the extraction of hop aroma and flavor. The Hop Torpedo grew out of Sierra Nevada's search for a more effective way to dry-hop with whole-cone hops. According to the brewery, the idea began as a sketch in a pub, while later accounts describe several years of testing before Torpedo Extra IPA entered the market. The device became closely associated with Sierra Nevada's hop-focused brewing and represented a distinctive technical approach to intensifying dry-hop character in modern American IPA.