Name that earthy flavor origin

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I purchased a six pack of Sierra Nevada's torpedo some months ago and I have to say I did not like it. Well I decided to give it another whirl since I am a fan of their regular iPa as well as Hoptimum. But again it didn't appeal to me but this time I can say that it was because of the overwhelming earthy grassy flavor. Both times. So I decided to do a hop hunt to figure out which one could impart such a strong earthy/grass flavor and I can't pin point it. In fact out of the many reviews I read through of torpedo I saw only a few mentions of the word earthy. So my questions is, is it actually grassy/earth or is it just me? And what could be giving it that flavor? Is it the magnum hops?
 
Grassy/earthy flavors are usually from hops, although Magnum is not one of the culprits.

I think SN also uses crystal hops in Torpedo, which are often described as woody. Maybe that is what you are tasting?
 
You know, last time I had Torpedo I noticed the same. It was as if all the aggressive hopping was gone, no resiny Chinook, no floral, almost NO aroma at all and all I could taste was a little earthy bitterness like they switched to EK Golding or Fuggle. The bottle was not old at all but just "bland".

I have not been impressed with SN recently. Maybe a bad hop harvest?
 
I've found adding a lot of hops at the 20 minute mark in a boil can produce that mossy, damp, dank hop flavor
 
Usually if there's a grassy flavor in a beer it's due to poorly stored hops, but I can't say I noticed such flavors in my last bottle of torpedo.
 
Usually if there's a grassy flavor in a beer it's due to poorly stored hops, but I can't say I noticed such flavors in my last bottle of torpedo.

What flavors did you notice. Was there any flavor to speak of?

Maybe there was a subpar batch going around. I bought mine from HEB in San Marcos, TX.
 
What flavors did you notice. Was there any flavor to speak of?

Maybe there was a subpar batch going around. I bought mine from HEB in San Marcos, TX.

Admittedly, it was a couple of months ago, but I just noticed the usual citrusy and piney flavors and aromas. I'm up in the Seattle area, so I'm assuming we got ours directly from California.
 
You know, last time I had Torpedo I noticed the same. It was as if all the aggressive hopping was gone, no resiny Chinook, no floral, almost NO aroma at all and all I could taste was a little earthy bitterness like they switched to EK Golding or Fuggle. The bottle was not old at all but just "bland".

I have not been impressed with SN recently. Maybe a bad hop harvest?

Yes, exactly. There wasn't much citrus and floral like I've seen in so many reviews. I figured it was a bad batch but it seems consistently earthly. Maybe woody but very grassy earth (if that makes sense). Maybe it just comes down to not my cup of tea but I'd like to know why. maybe it was the crystal hops.
 
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